How to repair corrupt Boot Sectors and Partitions

SOURCE: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

If you come across a USB Hard Drive or USB storage device that cannot be read on Windows, do the standard Disk Management tasks using MMC. If that doesn't resolve the issue, try using the above tool - TestDisk

TestDisk [attached] is a great open-source Partition Recovery Tool.

Execute the TestDisk.exe program, select the USB key, and then see if you can Scan to detect Partitions or Boot Records.

From the TestDisk & PhotoRecovery Website:

TestDisk is OpenSource software and is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL v2+).

TestDisk is powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software: certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk can

1. Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
2. Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
3. Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
4. Fix FAT tables
5. Rebuild NTFS boot sector
6. Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
7. Fix MFT using MFT mirror
8. Locate ext2/ext3/ext4 Backup SuperBlock
9. Undelete files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
10. Copy files from deleted FAT, exFAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

Operating systems

TestDisk can run under

1. DOS (either real or in a Windows 9x DOS-box),
2. Windows / Windows Server
3. Linux,
4. FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
5. SunOS and
6. MacOS X

 Download binary executables and source files for DOS, Win32, MacOSX and Linux.

Documentation

1. Online documentation
2. testdisk.pdf More than 60 pages about data recovery using TestDisk & PhotoRec and other tools
3. TestDisk Step by Step to recover lost partitions and repair damaged FAT/NTFS boot sector
4. TestDisk and Live rescue cd
5. TestDisk compilation. Developers are welcome to contribute code to TestDisk & PhotoRec.
6. Recover deleted files
7. Recover deleted files from NTFS partition
8. Undelete files and directories from FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and exFAT filesystem. FAT file systems are commonly found on flash memory cards, digital cameras, and many other portable devices.
9. Undelete files from ext2 filesystem
10. Recovery examples
11. Computer forensics self training using TestDisk & PhotoRec
12. Running the TestDisk Program , a menu by menu explanation
13. TestDisk FAQ
14. Support
15. TestDisk & PhotoRec In The News
16. TestDisk Team

To recover lost pictures or files from digital camera or harddisk, run the PhotoRec command.

Filesystems

TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of these file systems:

1. APFS (Apple File System)
2. BeFS ( BeOS )
3. BSD disklabel ( FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD )
4. CramFS, Compressed File System
5. DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
6. XBox FATX
7. Windows exFAT
8. HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System
9. JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
10. Linux btrfs
11. Linux ext2, ext3 and ext4
12. Linux GFS2
13. Linux LUKS encrypted partition
14. Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2
15. RAID 1: mirroring
16. RAID 4: striped array with parity device
17. RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information
18. RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information
19. Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
20. LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
21. Mac partition map
22. Novell Storage Services NSS
23. NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 )
24. ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4
25. Sun Solaris i386 disklabel
26. Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)
27. XFS, SGI's Journaled File System
28. Wii WBFS
29. Sun ZFS