In this tutorial I am going to show you how to recover / restore a deleted partition with all its files and data using TestDIsk, a free open source software. I am going to focus on recovering / restoring windows partitions - NTFS and FAT32.
It has happened to me twice now that I delete a partition accidentally with all its files and only a second later I realize what a mistake I have done. If this is the case with you then TestDisk will help you recover / restore your deleted partition(s) with all its files in just seconds.
TestDisk is available on many live CD linux distribution but on some of them it is not the latest version. Therefore I recommend you to use PartedMagic Live-CD because we make sure it always has the latest versions of all its included software. Plus it is a really fast and small distribution with great software included. You can get PartedMagic here.
- After you download PartedMagic and boot from the Live-CD, find and open TestDisk.
- Leave the default option Create and press Enter.
- In this step select the device where you had the partition you want to recover now and press Enter. (/dev/hda is your first hard drive, /dev/hdb is your second hard drive, etc.)
- You are now asked to select the partition table type. If you are recovering a windows partition NTFS or FAT32 then you would choose Intel/PC partition, which is the default choice, and press Enter.
- Now leave Analyse selected and press Enter.
- Choose Quick Search and press Enter.
- TestDisk disk is now asking you if the partition you want to recover was created under Windows Vista. Type y for yes or n for no.
- You should now see a list of partitions that can be recovered. Select the partition that you want to recover and press Enter. (If unsure you may press p to see a list of files contained on the selected partition. When you are done looking at the list of files press q to go back to the list of partitions.)
- In this step select Write and press Enter. ( This will restore the original partition table of the partition you want to recover. Actually this will restore the partition tables of all the partitions listed under the "Partition" column.)
- You are now asked to confirm that you want to continue so press y.
That was it. Your partition(s) is now restored / recovered.
If you have any questions write them in the comments. You may also post a request for new tutorials on any topic related to computers. I will be happy to write the tutorial you requested. For more tutorials by me visit my website.
Please write a comment wheather this tutorial helped you solve your problem.
