I used the search function and found that some people went through the same issues as I did but how they lost their partition is different. I think it is best that I provide some context.
I was going to re-install Windows 7 on my 2 TB hard drive in which had two partitions from within. The first partition was 1.5 for media and the rest was for the OS. At first, installing Windows 7 was throwing errors due to the BIOS not setting SATA to AHCI so I fixed that. After that, it would refuse to install Windows 7 because it was still "mounted" for whatever reason (I was running off of my Windows 7 DVD). Forcing it to dismount didn't work. So I used diskpart to clean out the partition so I can format it and then install the OS. I pointed to the OS partition and used 'clean'. Then suddenly, I noticed my other partition (media) on that drive was gone too. Basically it is now one hard drive with no partitions on it with no file system. I don't understand how or why that happened.
Of course, I did not back up my data. It contains a large amount of important documents, cases, photos, and everything else that may be lost forever if I don't get this to revive. I did some research and used testdisk to see if I can recover anything. I made a bootable USB stick using GParted. I was able to run testdisk from there and after analyzing and 'deeper searching' (literally many hours), it found two partitions. Great! Then I press 'p' to take a look at the files that it has found -- it quits the program. Tutorials everywhere mentioned pressing 'p', even testdisk itself said to press 'p', so that I can view the files before I could 'write' to recreate the MBR and partition. I run it again (hours again) and then I pressed 'p', it quits again. Seems like a bug of some sort -- the 'p just quits it. There was someone else on another forum in the same exact predicament as I am but no one answered him. Tough for us.
I am deducing that it's just a faulty Live CD OS so I am currently downloading a new Live CD of another kind.
But right now, I am pretty much losing my patience and I thought it was time to ask for a little guidance here. In theory, it really shouldn't be all that hard to revive a partition. I do NOT have another hard drive unfortunately and so I am trying to just restore everything right there on my computer. In short of re-doing testdisk, can someone recommend something?
It is not everyday that I ask for help but I hope someone can chime in.
I was going to re-install Windows 7 on my 2 TB hard drive in which had two partitions from within. The first partition was 1.5 for media and the rest was for the OS. At first, installing Windows 7 was throwing errors due to the BIOS not setting SATA to AHCI so I fixed that. After that, it would refuse to install Windows 7 because it was still "mounted" for whatever reason (I was running off of my Windows 7 DVD). Forcing it to dismount didn't work. So I used diskpart to clean out the partition so I can format it and then install the OS. I pointed to the OS partition and used 'clean'. Then suddenly, I noticed my other partition (media) on that drive was gone too. Basically it is now one hard drive with no partitions on it with no file system. I don't understand how or why that happened.
Of course, I did not back up my data. It contains a large amount of important documents, cases, photos, and everything else that may be lost forever if I don't get this to revive. I did some research and used testdisk to see if I can recover anything. I made a bootable USB stick using GParted. I was able to run testdisk from there and after analyzing and 'deeper searching' (literally many hours), it found two partitions. Great! Then I press 'p' to take a look at the files that it has found -- it quits the program. Tutorials everywhere mentioned pressing 'p', even testdisk itself said to press 'p', so that I can view the files before I could 'write' to recreate the MBR and partition. I run it again (hours again) and then I pressed 'p', it quits again. Seems like a bug of some sort -- the 'p just quits it. There was someone else on another forum in the same exact predicament as I am but no one answered him. Tough for us.
I am deducing that it's just a faulty Live CD OS so I am currently downloading a new Live CD of another kind.
But right now, I am pretty much losing my patience and I thought it was time to ask for a little guidance here. In theory, it really shouldn't be all that hard to revive a partition. I do NOT have another hard drive unfortunately and so I am trying to just restore everything right there on my computer. In short of re-doing testdisk, can someone recommend something?
It is not everyday that I ask for help but I hope someone can chime in.