Disk error-unable to recover

[CharlieDaves]

What's with the [/size] ? I take it that it is NOT part of the command line cmd?

[Qqmike]

The link I gave you in Post 9 was to this: "Fix UEFI+GPT with Testdisk & gdisk -- Deleted partitions & damaged GPT structure" (my how-to)

[CharlieDaves]

Yeah my photorec experience was a complete failure.
Testdisk is also proving elusive

take 2 on testdisk. I attempted the create a .img file, but if failed, then I read I should have used "mapfile" as it would have allowed me to get the remaining 4%. I have currently tried these, in an attempt to see what files testdisk recovers. so far, nada.

16 % completed and still nothing written to my external sde1 disk.
So as the file name suggests, what am I doing. wrong

Oh! Thanks to Qqmike for his book on ddrescure. I've read through 25% and it just confuses the heck out of me. 90% of what I've read your using if=zero or in other words WIPING the disk. haven't found a single section of actual "data recovery", which is what ddresuce was originally created for. But still thanks.

[GreyGeek]

Good job! Yeah, I've also had pretty good luck with TestDisk and Photorec, even though it may require a little elbow grease to sort out the finds -- and they tell ya so, too, that you need to sort through the files recovered. We need some AI help!!!

Well, my intelligence is about as "artificial" as one can get, and the bit rot is increasing exponentially. AI would be nice but what AI would actually do to help Photorec I can't imagine. It certainly can't rename the photos because it would have no memory of where the photos were taken or for what purpose.

I forgot to mention, and I'm trusting my bit-rotted memory here, that it took Photorec about 14 or 15 hours to do the extraction. It got the extensions correct but the names were alpha-numeric strings which the girl had to look at individually and rename. I don't know how long that took her but I suspect that she started with the photos in her thesis first because, as I said, she handed in her thesis in time.

I haven't had to use Photorec since then.

[Qqmike]

A friend working on her MS degree lost the HD in her laptop a week before her thesis was due. Her HD wouldn't boot and couldn't be accessed via a LiveUSB.
I used DD to copy of the entire HD as a file on another, larger HD. Then I used photorec to extract files from the copy. I manged to recover 1,495 files out of 1,500, including her thesis and the photos used in it.

Good job! Yeah, I've also had pretty good luck with TestDisk and Photorec, even though it may require a little elbow grease to sort out the finds -- and they tell ya so, too, that you need to sort through the files recovered. We need some AI help!!!

[GreyGeek]

A friend working on her MS degree lost the HD in her laptop a week before her thesis was due. Her HD wouldn't boot and couldn't be accessed via a LiveUSB.
I used DD to copy of the entire HD as a file on another, larger HD. Then I used photorec to extract files from the copy. I manged to recover 1,495 files out of 1,500, including her thesis and the photos used in it.

[Qqmike]

Where is create post button ?

Click on Forum (at the top left). Keep clicking on sub-forums you are interested in.
You will eventually come to a button saying "New Topic."
Click New Topic, and start your post (write your post, then click Save).

For example, you might click on the following as you "drill down" to your goal:

Forum
Currently Supported Releases
Kubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish (LTS)
Pre-Installation

... then you will see New Topic button.

[asamihassan]

Where is create post button ?

[Qqmike]

I haven't messed with this for quite awhile, but here's what I wrote up last time I did it:

Fix UEFI+GPT with Testdisk & gdisk -- Deleted partitions & damaged GPT structure
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...ge8#post536190

[Qqmike]

TestDisk for me always ran well on ext4.

[CharlieDaves]

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Test..._file_for_ext2

Q for the community..... Does Testdisk work on ext4 or only ext1 and 2

Maybe that's why it's been running for 12+Hrs and.... well.... still waiting.....

[CharlieDaves]

Well that was a bust on clonezilla. Device to device. all it copied was the two-boot (Still called S-Drive - EXT4) and the 2nd Pine64 partition. Nothing else.

Had to unmount /dev/sdd in order for clonzilla to find it.
NOW I cannot mount it. The system things it's Pine64 tow-boot. No more label as S-Drive
Bummer
---
EDIT
---
Now reading through this
https://www.minitool.com/lib/gpt.html
There is a backup GPT table at the end of the HDD. How do I tell or get linux to get and use it as the primary GPT and override whatever is there? PLEASE. AnyOne

[CharlieDaves]

Ignore the "loop stuff", they're non-real devices set up and managed by the snap daemon.

You've quoted oshunluvr saying "I would never mess with partitioning without a recent backup", and you imply you've written partitions over your data, which definitely counts as "messing". So, making an image copy (say, clonezilla) of the storage would be the recommended first step in a recovery process. Any normal access, such as reading from the storage, may be doing further damage. I presume where you say "8gb internal to 2gb external" that's really TB.

Yes. Terabytes. My mistake...

It's clear from your screenshot that you are still using MBR partitioning. Had you been using GPT partitioning, you would have a backup partition table. That's one of the advantages of GPT partitioning.

This is the question I was asking about, with the image of testdisk. Oshunluv is referring that GPT partition would have a backup.... So does it? Where is it? And on the testdisk current location it's asking to "load backup"
I'm about to do a clonezilla if the system will allow me. I've managed to free up a 6Tb, but I know the 8Tb wasn't anywhere near full. I am sure the last time I looked it was 2.5 or more free space so hopefully it will fit.
THEN do I do this "Load Backup GPT table" that testdisk has found? It's in analyse mode..

Ignore the "loop stuff", they're non-real devices set up and managed by the snap daemon.

Many thanks for fast reply jlittle

Running Clonzilla (after stopping testdisk) I get this error.
Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sdd appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use a
ll of the space (an extra 11720973454 blocks) or continue with the current setting?

What The Heck?

[jlittle]

Q-Whats with the loop stuff?

Ignore the "loop stuff", they're non-real devices set up and managed by the snap daemon.

You've quoted oshunluvr saying "I would never mess with partitioning without a recent backup", and you imply you've written partitions over your data, which definitely counts as "messing". So, making an image copy (say, clonezilla) of the storage would be the recommended first step in a recovery process. Any normal access, such as reading from the storage, may be doing further damage. I presume where you say "8gb internal to 2gb external" that's really TB.

[CharlieDaves]

Okay. Something weird. I've used this command some weeks ago (pinePhone64 stuff) and never noticed the "loop". Thought I would throw this Question in here as well
lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 7:0 0 237.2M 1 loop /snap/firefox/3026
loop1 7:1 0 73.9M 1 loop /snap/core22/817
loop2 7:2 0 63.4M 1 loop /snap/core20/1974
loop3 7:3 0 73.9M 1 loop /snap/core22/858
loop4 7:4 0 349.7M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/143
loop5 7:5 0 237.2M 1 loop /snap/firefox/2987
loop7 7:7 0 4K 1 loop /snap/bare/5
loop8 7:8 0 349.7M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/140
loop9 7:9 0 485.5M 1 loop /snap/gnome-42-2204/126
loop10 7:10 0 485.5M 1 loop /snap/gnome-42-2204/120
loop11 7:11 0 53.3M 1 loop /snap/snapd/19361
loop12 7:12 0 91.7M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1535
loop13 7:13 0 53.3M 1 loop /snap/snapd/19457
loop14 7:14 0 63.5M 1 loop /snap/core20/2015
sda 8:0 0 111.8G 0 disk
└─sda1 8:1 0 111.8G 0 part /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspell
/
sdb 8:16 0 931.5G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 0 931.5G 0 part /home
sdc 8:32 0 7.3T 0 disk
└─sdc1 8:33 0 7.3T 0 part
└─luks-1fdf3738-0272-4f9d-a425-82ae257eeb97
253:0 0 7.3T 0 crypt /media/mm3/Nu-Alpha-08
sdd 8:48 1 5.5T 0 disk
└─sdd1 8:49 1 5.5T 0 part /media/mm3/S-Drive
sde 8:64 0 1.8T 0 disk
└─sde1 8:65 0 1.8T 0 part /media/mm3/Delta-Two-Niner
sdf 8:80 0 447.1G 0 disk
└─sdf1 8:81 0 447.1G 0 part /media/mm3/Sphere1903
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom

Q-Whats with the loop stuff? Have I really stuffed my PC up, and should urgently purchase a new 12TB HDD, and backup everything, wipe and restart?
OR
Is there some simple fix.