Help with HDD. Is it a Partitioning Problem?

[technomancer]

What about the commands in the starman link:


Did you try those?

Yes, those are the ones listed in the Dell link you posted.

It's interesting, because it also says I have all 465 GB on the disk free.

[Qqmike]

What about the commands in the starman link:

NOTE: The Windows 7 (or 8) Logical Disk Manager does not distinguish between disks partitioned as MBR or GPT; both disk types are simply listed as "Basic"! One quick way to determine if a disk is GPT partitioned is to use the List Disk command of the "DISKPART" tool under a Command Prompt (may require Administrator rights). Simply enter the commands shown in GREEN below. If any attached disk has been GPT partitioned, an asterisk (*) will appear under the "Gpt" column; as shown in YELLOW for Disk 0 below:

Did you try those?

[technomancer]

Is this a Dell?

One thing you can try is a google. I messed around a little, and issues do come up with "WINRETOOLS and PBR image."
http://en.community.dell.com/support...677/t/19503174
https://www.google.com/search?client...utf-8&oe=utf-8

I haven't studied this material.

I followed the directions in the first link. Windows DiskPart says my hardrive is:

"Online, is 465 GB in size, has 465 GB free, and is neither Dynamic nor GPT"

[Qqmike]

Change it to this: Use the EFI GPT map showing that list of partitions to recover you posted above.
All primary partitions.

This can only be a guess, a crap-shoot.

[Qqmike]

see my edits to Post 87 ...

[Qqmike]

Ignore this post.

[technomancer]

Yes, it is a Dell. I'll look into those. Also, here's what I meant to post in Post 80 (before I finished and put the code in.

Shall I continue with the recovery options? Shall I recover the partitions with TestDisk?
Did you SEE missing partitions on the TestDisk output, that you know of? If so, then, yes, recover those. I'll look at the output again, but you would be the one to know what is missing. Or, as TestDisk step-by-step says, a duplicate partition is also a clue; or overlapping partitions.

Testdisk says I have either ONE partition (Intel map):

Current partition structure:     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors


 1 P EFI GPT                  0   0  2 60801  80 63  976773167


Bad relative sector.
No partition is bootable

...but there are more that it can recover:

Disk /dev/sda - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 7600 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>  HPFS - NTFS             10 168 31    18 119 37     125440 [WINRETOOLS]
   HPFS - NTFS             18 119 38  3911 136  1   62542080 [OS]
   HPFS - NTFS           3911 136  2  3918 179 37     115200
   Linux Swap            3918 179 38  4058 193 39    2249984
   Linux                 4058 193 40  4525 156 47    7500032
   Linux                 4525 156 48  7394  59 25   46084352
   HPFS - NTFS           7394  59 26  7399 206 39      89600
   HPFS - NTFS           7399 206 40  7600  41 57    3218688 [PBR Image

Or NO partitions (EFI GPT map):

Disk /dev/sda - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 7600 255 63Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors


Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.
Trying alternate GPT
Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.

With several to recover:

Disk /dev/sda - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 7600 255 63     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>P MS Data                   171264     296703     125440 [WINRETOOLS]
 P MS Data                   296704   62838783   62542080 [OS]
 P MS Data                 62838784   62953983     115200
 P Linux Swap              62953984   65203965    2249982
 P MS Data                 65203968   72703999    7500032
 P MS Data                 72704000  118788351   46084352
 P MS Data                118788352  118877951      89600
 P MS Data                118877952  122096389    3218438 [PBR Image]

While Gdisk says there are no partitions:

Command (? for help): ?       
b       back up GPT data to a file
c       change a partition's name
d       delete a partition
[COLOR=#FF0000]i       show detailed information on a partition[/COLOR]
l       list known partition types
n       add a new partition
o       create a new empty GUID partition table (GPT)
[COLOR=#FF0000]p       print the partition table[/COLOR]
q       quit without saving changes
r       recovery and transformation options (experts only)
s       sort partitions
t       change a partition's type code
v       verify disk
w       write table to disk and exit
x       extra functionality (experts only)
?       print this menu


Command (? for help): [COLOR=#FF0000]p[/COLOR]
Disk /dev/sda: 122096646 sectors, 465.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): CE95A19B-F0FF-44B8-85B7-1C8472A1AC87
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 122096640
Partitions will be aligned on 256-sector boundaries
Total free space is 122096635 sectors (465.8 GiB)


Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name


Command (? for help):[COLOR=#FF0000] i       [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#FF0000]No partitions[/COLOR]

So, is it a good idea to:
recover the partitions in TestDisk,
use option Gdisk recovery option b to backup GPT header (rebuilding main, and
then use gdisk recovery option c to load backup partition table from disk (rebuilding main)?

So, shall I recover the partitions using the Intel map, or the EFI GPT map?

And, should they all be primary partitions?

[Qqmike]

ok so disregard Post #80, I see. If you know you have missing partitions, then yes, TesdDisk seems to do very well at recovery, IME.

[Qqmike]

So, are you giving me the green light to
recover the partitions in TestDisk, use backup GPT header (rebuilding main, and then load backup partition table from disk (rebuilding main)
and then rewrite

Well, that's what this deal points at. The google (above) on how Dell/Windows set this up MAY be revealing, but I've only skimmed a couple links (and people do seem to have issues with this, to word it gently ...)

[Qqmike]

...but there are more that it can recover:

??

[Qqmike]

Your Post #80 didn't show the code - output ...

[Qqmike]

Is this a Dell?

One thing you can try is a google. I messed around a little, and issues do come up with "WINRETOOLS and PBR image."
http://en.community.dell.com/support...677/t/19503174
https://www.google.com/search?client...utf-8&oe=utf-8

I haven't studied this material.

[technomancer]

disregard this post

[Qqmike]

gdisk sees an empty disk, basically -- NO partitions, all space available ?

[Qqmike]

Partition table holds up to 128 entries

Again, that kind of message indicates a GPT, a standard GPT. Now, after "v," it sees an unoccupied table?

t change a partition's type code

? ? ? what if it were messed up? causing gdisk to miss it as a GPT?

I don't know, exactly, what Windows has done here (Windows did this, you didn't create this partitioning). If you are not shy about it, you could ask Rod Smith if he recognizes this seeming paradox, doing so in a brief-est, summary way.

Or, continue to explore with gdisk, or try to "fix" it (fix what? )with gdisk -- c & b.