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first time poster but I've been a long time reader! Here goes...

I've just converted a WD Green, 2TB HDD (data only) NTFS - using Minitool Partition Wizard 9.1 from MBR to GPT. Drive was about 67% full.

Using Windows 10. I have a UEFI GPT boot drive. The website specifically said this does not lose data! Using the convert mbr to gpt command only took a couple of seconds (should it have been a long process?)

It now shows up as Basic GPT - Unallocated - empty space. Also no drive letter is assigned.

Its not a system disk so no activity should have over written any data yet.

Before I try to recover the partition, does anyone have any experience - should I:

1 - first convert the drive BACK to MBR then try and recover the data?

or

2 - Is it safer to stick with the GPT and attempt recovery from its current type?

or

3 - Assign a driveletter and reboot, maybe the system will then see the GPT?

Thanks for any help! AP

APe
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2 Answers2

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Most likely you won't recover your MBR because it's been overwritten (unless using advanced and expensive techniques...).

However, as long as the disk content hasn't been changed, recovery tools could be able to identify the old partitions (by their sector 0), and since you were using NTFS, they should also be able to spot the MFT.

I'd say recovering your partitions seems compromised, recovering data should be quite possible.

Also if you had only one partition, you can recreate it easily.

If possible, make a backup of your harddisk prior to any writing.

user1532080
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Strictly speaking, the correct way to handle any kind of data loss scenario is to do a bit copy of the drive onto another drive, and attempt recovery on that.

An intermediate step would be to back up the first sector of your drive - which is where the MBR is stored.

If you are a little bit risk tolerant, you should be able to have Testdisk scan your disk, find the partitions and fix them - it probably won't make the disk bootable, but it should make the data visible. While there is always risk, Testdisk is a relatively low risk procedure.

davidgo
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