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(RESOLVED) I converted my second internal drive to a Dynamic disk and now the partition is gone...

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thenightsky_0102

thenightsky_0102

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Oh gosh, what did I do... I don't know how I could've been so stupid. How do I restore the partition / get all of the data back? It's a 4 TB drive.
 
I don't think you're gonna get it all back. First question is why did you change the disk type?
 
Toothless said:
I don't think you're gonna get it all back. First question is why did you change the disk type?
Click to expand...


Well the drive was initially in my previous computer and I had split the drive so it was 2x2 TB partitions. One had Windows 8 installed whereas my other hard drive had Windows 10 on it. I tried to merge the other 2 TB partition so it'd equal 4 TB on my new workstation and it asked me if I wanted to convert the disk to Dynamic and that any OS's on it would be unbootable (which I didn't care) so I clicked Yes. Then I saw the partition got outright deleted and it now says "Unallocated"
 
The only thing I can think of is making a new partition and using Recuva to attempt to get files back. I'm pretty sure another member here has a better idea than mine.
 
Use a recovery program like uneraser.
 
Looks like the partition get erased by system
 
As long as the TOC hasn't been overwritten or a format hasn't been done on the drive, the data might be there. Something like GetDataBack works well but sometimes because the TOC has been overwritten or blanked, you won't be able to get back the data. It'll be there but it will not be able to be read.

I've had a few dumb blonde moments and deleted things and then recovered data, the data was there but because of the TOC not having a clue where the file started/stopped the data is just floating so that I can't actually use it again. Pictures, videos, word documents etc, all gone. I'm not sure if there's a program that would actually be able to rebuild that data or not but I'm guessing changing the the way Windows changes the way it looks at the drive it might be already too late to recover anything.

Most important question is, do you have much data on the drive to loose and even more importantly, do you have another drive you could copy any and all data to it so you can eventually format and re-setup the 4Tb that's currently a little messed up?
 
I haven't formatted it. I'm not sure of the TOC. I'm hoping the table can be restored, and I'm assuming the data's still there. Is there any program which can rebuild the TOC? I have a fair bit of data on the drive and not all of it isn't backed up (I have a lot of it on MEGA - I am definitely missing some data, though for convenience sake I want the data back with the original locations / directories intact)
 
I'm at work at the moment so I'm not sure if I have anything to test it with and if memory serves, I'm not 100% sure when you have converted it to a Dynamic disk you can convert it back without deleting the data or the drives partitions..

After a bit of Googling, that's what your going to have to do - Dynamic to Basic disk

Before trying that, see if you can use one of the programs anyone has mentioned in the thread, see if you can physically see any data as if not then my guesses are it's gone or it can't be read. Hind sight is always a great thing but always always have a backup of your data when you play around with things. It's never worth the heartache when you loose everything. I've had it happen a few times sadly and I know exactly how frustrating it can be/is.
 
One of the programs I tried listed some of the data (I cancelled the scan prematurely) so I can assume it's all there still, but gosh it'll be one huge PITA to get it all re-arranged. I can remember the directory names so it won't be a huge deal if that's what I have to do, but i'll dread it :)
 
Try the program again and let it run. Some drive scans I've had to do take a day and because of the size of the drive or if the drive isn't in good health, it might well take that, so maybe throw it in another PC if you can/want to do something else with it.

If you can see data that way, then you can recover it but just make sure that you have a spare, fresh formatted drive you can recover the data too otherwise you'll have to re-run it all over again if you need to plug a SATA drive in (USB drive would be fine as long as it'll fit all the data you want to get off the drive)

Hope that helps :)

EDIT - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/fileio/basic-and-dynamic-disks - Here's a list of differences between the basic, dymanic and GPT type disks, just for future reference :)
 
Use a partition recovery tool (Partition Wizard Pro works well for example) to try and recover the whole disk. Try not to use file recovery unless there is no other choice.
 
GetDataBack for NTFS saved me in a few occasions. Very good program.

It works by scanning the drive sector by sector and then using another drive to recover what it found.
You need an empty drive as big as the damaged one.
 
I caved in and bought Minitool Partition Wizard pro and that fixed it and I now have access to all of my files again :) Thanks all
 
FordGT90Concept said:
Use a recovery program like uneraser.
Click to expand...
Do you know any that would restore a deleted and not written after 3Tb Gpt partition,, i tried two so far without luck , and the scan time's close to a day so I wouldn't mind something that works.

Ps sorry Op but i am in the same boat.
 
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