Member Avatar for martin2k

yesterday my computer got affected by win32/huer viruses. I tried to heal most of the files with AVG but AVG was unable to heal some of the system files . So i have decided to go for clean installations .

after installations I can access to all of the drives in disk0 ( which has partition C: and D:)

but I cant access to disk1 (Partition Z:). Total size of disk was 300 GB

when I checked disk management options from administration panel , I can see there is one unknown type - basic - healthy partition which is 170 GB there is also unallocated space partition which is 129 GB.

I am having night-mare I have data on hard drive which worth more than anything to me. I don't want to lose those data.

I tried Googling unfortunately couldnt find any useful solutions . in some forum they suggested fixMBR will resolve this issue, but fixMBR could also destroy the partition table and datas .

I would appreciate if anyone can guide me through . how can restore my hard drive partition as it used to be before windows installations.

thank you

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by altuin

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The symptoms described — one partition marked "Unknown" while the rest shows as unallocated after a clean Windows install — most commonly point to a damaged or altered partition table or boot/volume header rather than immediate, irreversible data loss. In many cases the underlying file contents are still on disk and recoverable if no further writes occur. (cgsecurity.org)

Immediate priorities are non‑destructive. Avoid mounting or writing to the affected disk, and do not format, run chkdsk, or execute repair commands until a full sector image exists; any write operation reduces recovery chances. Creating a raw image first preserves the original media and allows safe analysis from a copy. (gnu.org)

A safe, practical workflow that has worked repeatedly for drives showing these symptoms:

  • Move the drive to a different PC as a secondary disk or attach it with a USB/SATA adapter so the OS won’t auto‑modify it.
  • Make a sector‑by‑sector image onto a separate physical disk using an imager that handles bad sectors and keeps a log/mapfile.
  • Work from that image: run a partition‑recovery tool to scan for lost partitions and preview files before writing anything back; if partitions look correct, write the repaired table only after verification.
  • If partition recovery fails, use a file‑carving tool against the image to extract files to another disk.
    This approach keeps the original media untouched and gives the best chance of restoring readable data. (cgsecurity.org)

About Recovery Console / bootrec fixes: Microsoft documents that commands like bootrec /fixmbr rewrite MBR code but are still write operations and therefore should not be run before an image is made, since even well‑intentioned repairs can complicate later recovery. As suggested, using recovery software is appropriate — but imaging first is essential; if unfamiliar with these tools or the drive is valuable, a professional recovery service is the safest option. (support.microsoft.com)

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Member Avatar for altuin

You should use a data recovery program to get the data out of the 300 gig drive and after that delete the partition (the 170 GB one) and start fresh. I have always had success with GetDataBack.

Member Avatar for martin2k

thanks for your reply , what is the best data recovery software you recommend?

You should use a data recovery program to get the data out of the 300 gig drive and after that delete the partition (the 170 GB one) and start fresh. I have always had success with GetDataBack.

Member Avatar for altuin

I already told you in the above post that the software that I have had most success with is GetDataBack. You should know that it comes in 2 different versions so you should choose yours accordingly between the FAT one and the NTFS one.

Edited by altuin because: n/a
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