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Thread: mbr and partition table recovery

  1. #1
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    mbr and partition table recovery

    I have deleted an ntfs partition, and reformated it with a reiser file system.
    Any chance recovering the mbr, partition table, the ntfs and data on it?

  2. #2
    Senior Member WolfeTone's Avatar
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    I would suggest not.

    If you have a boot disk, try running fixmbr.

    Next run fdisk to see what partitions are there.

    Depending on the level of format you performed, I'd say the data is gone.

  3. #3
    Just Another Geek
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    No, formating, partitioning etc. doesn't actually touch the data. It only wipes the allocation tables and the directory entries. Nothing more, nothing less.

    There are a whole bunch of programs that can recover the partition.

    http://www.google.com/search?source=...=Google+Search
    Oliver's Law:
    Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by SirDice
    No, formating, partitioning etc. doesn't actually touch the data. It only wipes the allocation tables and the directory entries. Nothing more, nothing less.

    There are a whole bunch of programs that can recover the partition.

    http://www.google.com/search?source=...=Google+Search
    Thanks for the links, and just what I needed to hear

  5. #5
    Senior Member WolfeTone's Avatar
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    Depending on the level of formatting - if you chose to write zero's to the hard drive, then nope!!

  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Try this site for "Unstoppable Copier":

    http://www.roadkil.net/downloads.html

    And have a look at it with Unerase:

    http://www.free-av.com/antivirclassi...a_unerase.html

    And FreeUndelete:

    http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

    Please read the instructions carefully. You will need as much free space as you already have. DON'T attempt to recover into the same partition

    The first utility should recover what of your files have survived, so I would run that first.

    Then try to restore the MBR before using the other two (they are Windows apps)
    Last edited by nihil; July 3rd, 2007 at 04:42 PM.

  7. #7
    AO Curmudgeon rcgreen's Avatar
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    You have about the chance of a snowball in Hell. If you had a backup of
    the MBR/Partition table, or you happen to remember the exact size/starting/
    ending points of the partition (this is easy if it was just a single partition over
    the whole disk), then you would only be part way there. You would know where
    the partition is, but it would be damaged. At the very least, its bookkeeping information is
    trashed, and maybe the data too. I don't know about reiserFS, but the old FAT system would
    overwrite the whole partition with an F6h byte or some such when formatted.
    I would imagine that all file systems do something similar. It's not like deleting
    a file. Formatting fills the data area, overwriting everything.
    I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.

  8. #8
    Just Another Geek
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    Quote Originally Posted by rcgreen
    Formatting fills the data area, overwriting everything.
    No, it doesn't and it never did. The reason it takes so long is because it READS the disk (checking for errors).
    It doesn't write anything apart from the allocation tables and directory entries. Ask any forensic investigator.
    Last edited by SirDice; June 28th, 2007 at 04:21 PM.
    Oliver's Law:
    Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

  9. #9
    Just Another Geek
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    Quote Originally Posted by WolfeTone
    Depending on the level of formatting - if you chose to write zero's to the hard drive, then nope!!
    That's called wiping, not formatting.
    Oliver's Law:
    Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

  10. #10
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    Thanks SirDice. I too thought that it writes over the previous data with 'zeroes'.
    "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

    - Albert Einstein

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