dual boot - Recovering broken or deleted NTFS partitions - Ask Ubuntu

about 2 weeks ago had problem pc brother wrote question @ pc not booting after using windows 7 auto-repair.

i still haven't solved problem, pc unusable now.

now think simpler re-install both win7 & ubuntu repair them, there're data on partitions. want recover data.

these partitions not mountable reason. don't know why.

sudo fdisk -l problematic partitions:

device    boot      start         end      blocks   id  system /dev/sda1            2048     147912703    73955328   83 linux /dev/sdb2            206848   174079999    86936576    7  hpfs/ntfs/exfat 

and in gparted:

and error of mount command:

failed mount '/dev/sdb2': invalid argument device '/dev/sdb2' doesn't seem have valid ntfs. maybe wrong device used? or whole disk instead of partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? or other way around? 

and exact same message /dev/sda1

how can recover data hdds?

edit

i have tried specify type of drive:

$ sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /olddisk mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,        missing codepage or helper program, or other error        in cases useful info found in syslog - try        dmesg | tail  or $ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb2 /olddisk ntfs signature missing. failed mount '/dev/sdb2': invalid argument device '/dev/sdb2' doesn't seem have valid ntfs. maybe wrong device used? or whole disk instead of partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? or other way around? 

edit

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb2 returns:

mounting volume... ntfs signature missing. failed attempting correct errors... ntfs signature missing. failed failed startup volume: invalid argument ntfs signature missing. trying alternate boot sector unrecoverable error volume corrupt. should run chkdsk. 

disclaimer: provided answer similar questions here , here. summary of 2 answers. moreover, developer of recuperabit.

your ntfs partition broken. in order restore data, need make copy of (ideally) , use ntfs reconstruction software restore contents.

clone drive

you should clone drive in file on external disk, unless big can't find drive can contain it.

if really sure ntfs partition coincides /dev/sdb2, use ddrescue copy one:

sudo ddrescue /dev/sdb2 /media/user/external/copy.img /media/user/external/status.log 

if not sure, better clone entire /dev/sdb drive. take more space, of course:

sudo ddrescue /dev/sdb /media/user/external/copy.img /media/user/external/status.log 

the status.log file not mandatory, needed if want pause process , resume later on.

analyze , reconstruct file system

if file system broken, may have luck testdisk:

testdisk /media/external/copy.img 

follow step-by-step procedure in cli , able list contents of partition p key, assuming intact.

if damage more serious, need else. can recover (possibly severely) damaged ntfs partitions using recuperabit. recuperabit attempts reconstruct file system structures , recover files. recuperabit attempts reconstruction of directory structure regardless of:

• missing partition table
• unknown partition boundaries
• partially-overwritten metadata
• quick format

currently, not require installation, need download archive github , extract in directory of choice.

after that, create directory output , start program with:

mkdir /media/user/external/recovered_files cd [full path of recuperabit] pypy main.py /media/user/external/copy.img -o /media/user/external/recovered_files -s /media/user/external/savefile.save 

you might use python, pypy faster. scanning process take quite time. when it's done, type recoverable , find id of partition. if e.g. 2, type:

restore 2 5 restore 2 -1 

5 means root directory , -1 means lost files directory.

for additional details, explanations , caveats, see 2 links @ top of post.