My disk was dos labelled (MBR). So I ‘fdisk’-ed my disk and entered ‘o’ to convert it to GPT and wrote it to the disk. Now all the partitions are gone. I want those back. I care about the data rather than the partitions

Edit 0:

Solution:

  • install testdisk
  • run testdisk
  • choose “Create” log
  • choose target disk. Eg: /dev/sda
  • Choose appropriate partition type. Mine was MBR and I chose “Intel” and select “analyze”
  • Now you’ll see deleted partitions. Giveem appropriate flags like “*” for boot (efi partition) and “P” any other using space or arrow keys and press enter
  • choose “write” and press y on the prompt to write those found partitions to the disk.

Thanks guys for the help

  • @[email protected]
    9•1 day ago

    Unfortunately changing from MBR to GPT also deletes existing partitions and partition table, because the two are not compatible.

    Luckily, testdisk should be able to recover the old partition table without much fuss, if you didn’t write other data to the disk.

    I don’t have a manual handy but the man page from what i remember is pretty clear, and there’s also an online documentation.

    • @[email protected]
      1•1 day ago

      MBR can be converted to GPT. gdisk can do it, in fact if you run it for an MBR structured disk it will automatically do the conversion in memory, and you can check the results before writing it out. windows also has a tool for that.

      • @[email protected]
        2•8 hours ago

        Oh yeah i figured there were some tools able to do that, i meant to say that you can’t substitute one with the other in place without doing some sort of conversion.

      • @[email protected]
        2•8 hours ago

        sorry for the late reply. I honestly do not remember what the procedure is. The best thing you can do is look on the internet for a easy to follow guide, or wait for someone else’s response

  • @[email protected]
    2•1 day ago

    fdisk cannot convert the partition structure, but gdisk can, though you better have a full backup bedore attempting to do it

  • @[email protected]
    2•1 day ago

    This is why it’s important to make backups. If, by any chance you printed your disk configuration before the gpt operation, you want to copy it into a notepad NOW. You can use that to try and recreate your original partition layout after converting the disk back to MBR. Chances are nothing is wiped, except for your disk configuration. No guarantees, though…

    Whatever you do, don’t format anything, as that WILL overwrite your data.

  • @[email protected]
    2•1 day ago

    yeah, you need some help

    🤡

    On serious note, have you by any chance somehow saved the previous start and end values? Like in history of the shell, terminal or even a piece of paper?
    I’ve found out in the past, that if you recreate the partition table as it was, the data will be read fine

    Otherwise, you might need to use RescueCd to try and get the partition borers back. But if you haven’t rebooted since that fateful keypress, first focus on trying to get to what partition borders were printed in the terminal earlier. IMO it will be the fastest and easiest
    Even if you will get those in cylinders and will have to calculate those back to MBs