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Line One

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hard drive recovery with testdisk of Toshiba Satellite pro

My Toshiba Satellite Pro running Win 8.1 Pro can't boot - or rather it keeps booting and going into diagnostics and just stays 'diagnosing system/hard disk' forever. I ran testdisk on the drive and the first option that shows up in Analyze is EFI GPT.  If I choose that option I get a list of partitions - no duplicates, no overlaps as far as start/end - all marked P.  The partitions are:

1 P unknown
2 P EFI
3 P MS Reserved
4 P MS Data
5 P Unknown

If I do a deeper search from there I see all 5 partitions but now they are marked as follows:

1 P MS DATA   [System]
2 P MS Data [No Name]
3 P MS Data  (nothing in the far right column)
4 P MS Data [T1....] (looks like Toshiba HDD ID)
5 P Unknown [Recovery]

I did yet a deeper search at this point and got all kinds of errors about:cylinder mismatches, sectors per track mismatches with one or another of  bracketed [FAT], [EFISECTOR],[HD], [BOOT] after each line indicating the mismatch.

In any case when I chose to see the files on the various partitions with the P command, I once again could see all my files on partition 4.

I then ran testdisk again and chose the Intel option.

The first screen showed one partition - P EFI GPT

And a message:  
Bad ending head -  CHS and LBA don't match.
No partition is bootable.


I did a deeper search and I again got 5 partitions but this time they were all marked D in the far left column. No overlaps

The partitions were as follows:

D HPFS NTFS .... [SYSTEM}

D FAT 32 [NO NAME]

D  HPFS NTFS (nothing in the far right column)

D HPFS NTFS [T1....] (looks like Toshiba HDD ID)

D HPFS NTFS [RECOVERY]


Once again partition 4 was the one that listed all my files when I browsed with the P command.
A few more points I should mention.

1) The computer started acting flaky after a dirty shutdown

2) After that dirty shutdown I created two restore points. When I first started to troubleshoot this problem I was able to get into the Toshiba recovery screen but when I asked to restore from the restore points it indicated I had none.

3) This system did not come with media - it has some kind of recovery partition built in for these kinds of problems. In any case I can not get into the system as it just keeps 'diagnosing' - so the zero key or F12 or F8 don't work.

4) I did not add a partition since I purchased this laptop so as far as I know it only had a C drive - I can't recall if there was an additional drive letter that showed up in Explorer or Disk Manager but I can't exclude the possibility that there was indeed one there.

So given the above what is my next step. Partition 4 looks like the correct one and I will back it up and ghost before doing anything. But as far as trying to get this bootable again what should I be doing? I am not sure what partition to mark what. How non-destructive is testdisk for this partition/boot sector tweaking - what are my go back options other than the backing up/Ghosting right in testdisk itself.

Also when the program asks to create a log where is that log going to be created?

Thanks in advance for any assistance with this.
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nobus
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what is your goal? Data recovery, or do you want the disk to be usable again?
for data recovery, i recommend GDB : http://www.runtime.org/
it is free to run - and it will show what it can recover, you only pay for saving the data

you can also run the manufacturer's diag on the drive; WD diag for WD drives
personally i use the ubcd for this :

Hardware diagnostic CD    UBCD
---------------------------------------------------
go to the download page, scroll down to the mirror section, and  click on a mirror to start the download
Download the UBCD and make the cd   <<==on a WORKING PC, and boot the problem PC from it
Here 2 links, one to the general site, and a direct link to the download

since the downloaded file is an ISO file, eg ubcd527.iso - so you need to use an ISO burning tool
if you don't have that software, install cdburnerXP : http://cdburnerxp.se/

If you want also the Ram tested - run memtest86+ at least 1 full pass,  - you should have NO errors!
 
For disk Diagnostics run the disk diag for your disk brand (eg seagate diag for seagate drive)  from the HDD section -  long or advanced diag !  (runs at least for30 minutes)

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/      

**  you can make a bootable cd - or bootable usb stick
*** note *** for SSD drives  use the tool from the manufacturer, like intel 's toolbox :
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/18455/Intel-Solid-State-Drive-Toolbox

for completeness -here's how i handle disk problems : https://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Hard_Drives/A_3000-The-bad-hard-disk-problem.html

==>>****in order to be able to  boot from CD or usb - you may have to disable secure boot in the bios
Can you get into safe mode?
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Line One

ASKER

Can not get into safe mode, zero key (Toshiba trick)  or F12.  

Can not boot from CD/DVD or USB - set it in BIOS - secure mode - on, off - doesn't make a difference - won't boot from USB/CD only the actual drive and then it goes into forever 'diagnosing' land.

In any case, the question was aimed for people who knew testdisk. Testdisk is seeing all the files - just not sure how to mark which partition what letter to take a shot at bringing it back to life.  Lots of links and Youtube videos and documentation but of course nothing quite matches the situation I have - most of them seem to have some obvious problem - duplicate partitions.  I ran HDD Regenerator on the drive and it also confirmed that physically there was no problem. Ditto for several other utilities.  I really think it's the special Toshiba boot partition that needs fixing but no help from Toshiba on that front yet.

Have either of you worked with testdisk?
Never worked with test disk ,but there is more than one way to troubleshoot the system.
If you are able to get into the BIOS,have you tried resetting everything to default?
I would also try setting the system from EFI to MBR if the BIOS reset doesn't work.
disconnect the disk drive - then test if you can boot from cd
I deliberated detailed the testdisk results for the purposes of having somebody who knows testdisk respond. That's what I'm looking for -that was the in the subject of the post explicitly. I can think of all kinds of 'try this, try that' on my own -  there's a thousand videos on Youtube on recovering drives  - down to the making of my own clean room.  If you do not have the experience with testdisk as to tell me how I should proceed with the results I have I will  request assistance from the moderator.
First I'd remove the hard disk from the laptop and attach it to another 64-bit OS computer.  Boot the other computer and make sure the laptop disk is not the boot drive.

Use this computer and the manufacturer's util to test the hard disk.  I don't consider HDD Regenerator to be a hard disk tester.

If it passes that then use chkdsk to check the file systems on the laptop partitions.  You may have a screwed file system there.

The preceding tests assume that the other computer and the laptop hard disk share the same partitioning method or that the other computer can access the laptop disk.

If chkdsk finds the disk OK then I'm not sure what I'd recommend.  I've been down this way before and ended up wiping the HP system and installing Windows 10 before my sanity went.

Now how did you get testdisk working if you can't boot from a CD?

The key for your Satellite could be F1 instead of 0.

And this is the process (pinched from http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/86067-35-restore-toshiba-back-factory-settings) just in case.

Warning: All data on the hard drive will be erased. Back up any important data before proceeding. Make sure the computer is connected to a power supply and do not switch it off or restart during the process. •1) Hold down the power button for ten seconds to switch off your machine •Please note: Holding down the power button on the machine forces it to switch off. Any unsaved data will be lost.

•2) Press and hold the zero key and at the same time, tap the power button once to switch on your notebook
•3) When the machine starts beeping, release the zero key
•4) When prompted by the warning screen, select Yes to continue with the system recovery
•5) Select Recovery of Factory Default Software and click Next
•6) Select Recover to out-of-box state and Click Next again
•7) Click Next to Start the recovery
I took the laptop drive out of the system and then connected it to SATA on another computer and booted that computer with a disk that had testdisk on it.
I have never had an issue with HDD regenerator - it's worked flawlessly every time I used it and has gotten us out of quite a few pickles.  I used Toshiba and other utilities as well however - drive is reported as healthy - it's recognized in BIOS down to the Toshiba ID.


In any case I am going to ask the moderator to see if there are some folks out there that have used testdisk.
I have a Toshiba Satellite  l75d and f12 brings up the boot menu and bios setup.
Can you bring up the bios screen without the hard drive installed?
If so do a system default setup.
i never had to use testdisk; but i can highly recommend GetDataBack , as i suggested aboveworth every $
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pgm554
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pgm554:

Tried the BIOS default didn't work.  Your picture is great. Thanks. Can I assume that the only partition you knowingly created is the 4th partition and the rest either came with the system or were created when you did recovery points?
pgm554:

Tried the BIOS default didn't work.  Your picture is great. Thanks. Can I assume that the only partition you knowingly created is the 4th partition and the rest either came with the system or were created when you did recovery points?
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One of your posted messages is extremely worrisome:
"And a message:  
 Bad ending head -  CHS and LBA don't match.
 No partition is bootable
."

Back in the dark ages (early 1990's!), there were two possible LBA translation schemes; one with 240 heads (16 X 15) and one with 256 (16 X 16). Usually, this translation was determined by the BIOS; but, the end result was that the algorithm used to read the correct sector (which is how LBA works) went to the wrong location as soon as its result was not on track zero.
Also, in those same dark ages, some BIOS'es would let you manually change the LBA translation so that it matched what the partition table said and, after inspecting the partition table, it was not difficult to change the BIOS so it matched, reboot, and then be able to recover the files desired by the client.

Unfortunately; that sort of granular control went the way of the dodo after about 1998.

Since testdisk is telling you the CHS and LBA numbers don't match, you need to be exceptionally careful!  I would strongly suggest that you connect the drive back to that second PC and copy off a few files to see if they are good.  If they are not, do not use testdisk (which I have used numerous times) or any other utility to alter the partition table in any way.  It won't get better if you do.

Did the drive come out of the same Toshiba you used testdisk on?
If it di, is there any chance a BIOS "upgrade" was installed?
Thanks for all the cautions and info.  I have just received an equivalent drive and will be ghosting the original to it and do all the work on the Ghost. I will let you know how it works out.
i would not ghost it - you'll just copy over the problem you have
do a fresh install; + new drivers
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Thanks.  Actually our experience is with Ghost that it has the unadvertised feature of fixing as it Ghosts so the target does not have the problems of the source - you just have to choose the correct parameters.
Didn't get around to completing the recovery yet. Trying to figure out testdisk process - sorry I dragged it out this long.