GPT Disk Partition

[Kymmy]

If the MAC prepared the drive then they would have done both copies.. the second copy is there purely of the first one gets corrupted.

Originally Posted by Kymmy

If the MAC prepared the drive then they would have done both copies.. the second copy is there purely of the first one gets corrupted.

That's what I thought - just confirming my suspicions.

Pitty they were not just deleted - may have been easier to recover!!

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Graham M

Not tried R/W on NTFS from Linux in ages, it used to be very buggy and hit and miss for writing, reading was always OK though

It's pretty decent now.

---------- Post added at 00:20 ---------- Previous post was at 00:19 ----------

Originally Posted by Kymmy

It could mean that it's a non-standard GPT.. which device originally wrote the partition and data?

GPT is a standard. If it's non-standard, it aint GPT

---------- Post added at 00:20 ---------- Previous post was at 00:20 ----------

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

Paragon HFS+ is supposed to be able to read GPT. There's a 10-day trial available here:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home.../download.html

Most things can read GPT, it's just a partitioning table. It has nothing to do with your data and is very rarely used on a USB drive though, so I doubt the relevance of it at all.

---------- Post added at 00:21 ---------- Previous post was at 00:20 ----------

Originally Posted by LSainsbury

It's a USB HDD that was connected to a PC - all folder / files available. It got connected to a Mac and then it became not accesable. Put back to the Windows PC and it was seen but no drive letter assigned.

I think the Mac may have tried to initilize the disk for use and wiped the MBR / FAT in the process.

Either the drive is broke or, well, unlikely but possible the partition table was wiped.

---------- Post added at 00:22 ---------- Previous post was at 00:21 ----------

Originally Posted by Kymmy

If it has then you'll only be able to see the files via recovery software.

Indeed, though there's plenty of free and decent recovery programs out there. What's key is whether the drive shows up in Windows device and disk manager.

---------- Post added at 00:23 ---------- Previous post was at 00:22 ----------

Originally Posted by LSainsbury

Yeah - that's what I thought...

Ah well...I can see the files via some recovery software but it gives the files temp names like FILE001.jpg, FILE002.jpg etc.

I suppose there's no way to recover the original filenames / folders?

If the partition table got buggered then all the original filenames and folders will be recovered just fine.

Even if reformatted and the FAT got crapped out, filenames will be mostly fine and just the folder names would be buggered. In the case of NTFS, the latter would probably still be OK as well.

---------- Post added at 00:24 ---------- Previous post was at 00:23 ----------

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Nope as the names would have been removed with the original tables

Not neccessarily, the extent of the damage depends on the filesystem, which the OP hasn't stated.

---------- Post added at 00:26 ---------- Previous post was at 00:24 ----------

Originally Posted by LSainsbury

Pitty they were not just deleted - may have been easier to recover!!

Deletion absolutely buggers file and folder names by nature but a broken MBR or partition table leaves it all completely intact. A damaged FAT is another matter, but it wouldn't neccessarily be worse.

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

GPT is a standard. If it's non-standard, it aint GPT

The standard is fixed yes but some earlier portable devices used to write a cut down version of the GPT (i.e.. no Secondary GPT header to save space) and for some reason these cut down versions are sometimes non-readable in some systems.. I am though going back about 12 years

[edit as I typed out two responses but one seems to have gone missing]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Not neccessarily, the extent of the damage depends on the filesystem, which the OP hasn't stated.

It seems like a simple overwrite of the device by a MAC preparing it for data.. I hate it when a system thinks that just because it can not read it then it should be prepared for writing

Hopefully if the files were a sequential write then Lee will get back all of them (most likely on a solid state USB memory device)

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

It seems like a simple overwrite of the device by a MAC preparing it for data.. I hate it when a system thinks that just because it can not read it then it should be prepared for writing

I can't honestly say I've ever seen that happen on any PC, Mac or *nix. I've seen both format/erase the additional partitions to the one I told it to operate on, but never automatically or of its own accord.

...so continuing this one...I'm 54,940 files into the recovery. Is there a limitation of number of files you can have in one folder?

65,535 springs to mind for some reason!

[Dai]

65534 was the limit under the old FAT32 system. It's a LOT more with NTFS. SOmething like 4 million I think so I guess you'll be OK.

(on reflection, that might be billion)