Need help to recover files

Hello gurus,

I have an external hard drive, attached via USB, that I have stupidly removed the Super block (Deleted the partition). Basically, I tried to install Ubuntu and I deleted the partition. Very stupid and rookie mistake, and I wasn't on drugs.

Now I'm trying to recover the data, the drive has not been formatted. I have extracted the image to another hard drive an I retrieved some of the files out of it, but I still can't get all the data. Also, some of the files that I managed to restore have the I-node name instead of the file name and some are corrupted or missing.

Here is some more info:

From the "fdisk -l" output, notice it is not showing the partition's name:

# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdc: 40.0 GB, 40020663808 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 38166 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01bfa9fd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdc /mnt
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdc' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

# file image
image: x86 boot sector, Microsoft Windows XP MBR, Serial 0x1bfa9fd, code offset 0xc0

# fsck /media/48068A2565305123/image
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /media/48068A2565305123/image

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>


# lshw -C disk
*-disk
description: SCSI Disk
product: L040J2
vendor: MAXTOR 6
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdc
version: A93.
size: 37GiB (40GB)
configuration: signature=01bfa9fd

I used ddrescue and created the image and got some of the files but not all. I have used "gpart /dev/sdc" but got no where.

Computer sees the external drive when I attach it (USB), so the external drive is good.

Any idea or software that I can use to retrieve all my data?

Thanks in advance.

 

Greetings Sam and welcome to the MG support forums. I can't tell you how many dumb mistakes I have made in linux. It's how we learn.
Give RIP Linux a try:

Rip Linux Distro Watch

Good Luck and all the best,

Ian

 

Thank you very much ichase. I used the Testdisk off of RIPLinux and recovered all of my files. It worked beautifully. Originally when I used the Testdisk off of Ubuntu it didn't work. But the testdisk from RIPLinux13.5 worked flawlessly.

Thanks again.

 

Sam,
Glad to hear you were able to recover all of your files :hyper
Don't be a stranger here at MG forums.

All the best,

Ian