1 Topic by jreeve41798 (edited by jreeve41798 2016-01-14 19:06:13)

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Topic: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

Got a new SSD for Christmas so planning on using GParted to shrink boot partition and copy it to the SSD.
Shrunk the partition as per the instructions on the GParted website down to a size that would fit on the SSD, all went well and the partition was shrunk.
Went to start computer and boot into windows to double check and let it cycle through restarts twice s also recommended, but as soon as i turned it on the computer is stuck in a reboot loop. It posts, but soon after, the machine restarts and postsagain. Booting back into GParted I noticed to my great surprise that the partition I though that I had shrunk is now empty and has absolutely no data in it (according to GParted).
Bunch of questions, so please bear with me:
Why could this have happened?, is there anything I did wrong or am I viewing things wrong?
Is there any way to get Windows to boot again?
Is there any way to recover the data that was on the drive?
What should I do at this point?


Information from what should be the partition containing my windows install and all my files.

ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0x4e9052eb  size: 1024   usa_ofs: 18004  usa_count: 8274: Invalid argument
Record 0 has no FILE magic (0x4e9052eb)
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': Input/output error
NTFS is inconsistent. Run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot it TWICE!
The usage of the /f parameter is very IMPORTANT! No modification was
made to NTFS by this software.

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for ntfs file system support:  ntfs-3g / ntfsprogs.

Edit: Sorry if this is poorly written, I didn't really want to deal with this problem . Feel free to ask any question that I haven't answered.
Edit 2: Just tried running a chkdsk f: /f with the drive connected to a different computer and the console gave the error "corrupt master file table. Windows will attempt to recover master file table from disk. Windows cannot recover master file table. CHKDSK aborted"
Edit 3: Booted in GParted again and ran TestDisk to try an repair MFT. Console told me "MFT and MFT Mirror are bad. Failed to repair them." NOW WHAT?
Edit 4: I also noticed that the boot flag is no longer on the partition that used to hold the Windows install but is now on a partition labeled system reserve. Could this be the root of all my problems or is this normal?

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

What version of GParted did you use?  The latest is 0.24.0.

Did you shrink the partition by dragging the right side to the left to make the partition smaller?

Are there any indications of bad sectors appearing on the hard drive?  You can check using gsmartcontrol on the GParted Live image.

If Windows is unable to repair the file system then your best bet might be to recover from backup.  If you do not have a backup of your files, you might try file recovery software such as photorec.

3 Reply by jreeve41798 (edited by jreeve41798 2016-01-06 00:45:01)

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

I am using version 0.24.0
I shrank the partition by dragging the right side to the left and to a size that worked for me
I am not at home right now and will check for bad sectors as soon as I do get home


Unfortunately I don't have a backup of my files and was planning on going to a professional recovery service if nothing I can find online works.

4 Reply by jreeve41798

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

I booted into GParted again and ran a Smartctl short test on the partition that is supposed to have my windows folder, test finished and according to the console "Completed without error" LBA of first error is blank

5 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

When you ran gsmartcontrol, were any of the tabs shown with RED text instead of the normal black text?  If so then that indicates something is likely amiss with the drive.

For an example of what this might look like, see the initial section in an article I wrote on Identifying and Replacing a Failing RAID Drive.

With that being said, the next step is likely to try to recover as much of your data as possible.  Since you mentioned data recovery I assume that you do not have a backup ;-(

6 Reply by jreeve41798

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

There are no red tabs in the attributes, capabilities or any of the other tabs in GSmartcontrol.
After seeing these, I ran attempted to repair the MFT again using testdisk, but it still told me that the "MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Failed to repair them" If the gsmartcontrols aren't throwing any flags, can I still get my data back?

7 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

Somehow the file system has become corrupt.  The next step is to try to recover your data.

The suggestion of using gsmartcontrol was to check if your disk is failing.   If it was then it would be more important to get the data off of the existing disk in a speedy manner.

8 Reply by jreeve41798

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

What programs can I use to recover data?
I have used photorec to recover many files, but as other users said, the filenames are not what they used to be and are instead the memory location. Are there any methods to recover the original names through photorec or another utility?

9 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

PhotoRec is the only free software recovery application that I am aware of.  There might be others.

Many years ago I used a commercial product from PowerQuest to recover data from a FAT32 partition that worked very well.  Since then the company was bought out by Symantec.  I don't recall the product name or know if it still exists.  You might try an Internet search to find other products for recovering data.

10 Reply by class413

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

Some years ago I tried "R-Studio" and "Easy Recovery" with moderate success. I had to recover files and folders deleted to the "trash can" and then purged from there. A problem was that I got both good and damaged files. I had to check folders and files to find the good ones. The file system was NTFS and the operating system windows 2000.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

11 Reply by jreeve41798

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

Alright, thank you so much for the help. I was able to recover many of my documents and other files. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get all of the them but the important ones are out. Thanks again

12 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

'Glad to hear you were able to recover many of your files.

Did you use PhotoRec, or did you find another product that worked for you?

13 Reply by jreeve41798

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

I was able to use photorec to recover certain file extensions such as .pdf and .docx because if I attempted a recovery with all extensions marked, it would get stuck at a specific number of recovered files and hover around some sector that it was continiously checking and the ETA would keep going up with no progress.

14 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

Thank you for the update on how photorec worked in your situation.

15 Reply by shagbark (edited by shagbark 2016-01-14 22:37:15)

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

When you did the boot partition resize, did you set 'Align' to Cylinder, Megabyte (might say MiB?), or None?

Unless this was fixed in the last year, the boot partition resize for a Windows 7, Vista, or 10 boot partition needs to be set to None, or else the partition won't boot anymore.  Aligning the partition moves its data, and this overwrites some data written just before the official partition start, as well as failing to update a Microsoft-only pointer that distinguishes the "official" partition start from the real start where the secret data is written.

This has been a known bug in GParted for 9 years.  It was known in 2007 and still known in 2014, but I can't add the link because the forum only allows 1 link.  Thanks, forum robot.

It really ought to either default to 'None' instead of 'MiB' for windows boot partitions, or the FAQ should remove the notice at the start saying GParted is safe.

16 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

shagbark wrote:

When you did the boot partition resize, did you set 'Align' to Cylinder, Megabyte (might say MiB?), or None?

Unless this was fixed in the last year, the boot partition resize for a Windows 7, Vista, or 10 boot partition needs to be set to None, or else the partition won't boot anymore.  Aligning the partition moves its data, and this overwrites some data written just before the official partition start, as well as failing to update a Microsoft-only pointer that distinguishes the "official" partition start from the real start where the secret data is written.

This has been a known bug in GParted for 9 years.  It was known in 2007 and still known in 2014, but I can't add the link because the forum only allows 1 link.  Thanks, forum robot.

It really ought to either default to 'None' instead of 'MiB' for windows boot partitions, or the FAQ should remove the notice at the start saying GParted is safe.

This issue was fixed in GParted 0.4.4 back on April 2, 2009.
See Bug 571151 - gparted moves partition to the left even if unneeded.

17 Reply by shagbark

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

When you say it was fixed, do you mean that the Windows partition will boot correctly even if I move its left end?

18 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [SOLVED] Windows 10 Boot Partition resize, all data gone

shagbark wrote:

When you say it was fixed, do you mean that the Windows partition will boot correctly even if I move its left end?

Only that unintended moves of the partition start have been fixed.  If you change the Free Space Preceding value of a boot partition with Resize/Move then the OS may not boot correctly and require boot repair.