[SOLVED] SSD Cloning Problem Client wiped old drive, new drive missing boot sector

[~Wendy~]

Here's a picture of what the drives look like, we are only concerned about the following:

Original Disk 0 - 500GB GPT |Sys = 300mb|Other 128MB|c: Unformatted
Added to replace: Disk 2 - 2TB NTFS | Sys 300mb |Other 128mb | D:/ Windows NTFS

Client 'cloned' his old disk to the new one. It didn't clone correctly. The OLD drive is somehow unformatted but shows full. He claims that he wiped the original disk and the new one doesn't boot.

I've changed the boot order and other works but I'm pretty sure nothing actually got cloned (only shows recycle bin and sys info) but no photos, docs etc.

So I'd like to:
Extract the original SSD data but need to format it first.
How to do without wiping the info?

That is the only solution I can come up with is to somehow make the new drive bootable and throw his info on it.

I'm overthinking. I know. Don't hate.

 

[Diggs]

FABs the new drive. Install Windows from ISO on his new and transfer his stuff back with FABs.

 

[Porthos]

Client 'cloned' his old disk to the new one. It didn't clone correctly. The OLD drive is somehow unformatted but shows full. He claims that he wiped the original disk and the new one doesn't boot.

The client screwed himself. It is time to brace the client, in the long run, you will probably have to reinstall Windows from scratch.
Can you at least see the user's data on the cloned drive with a boot disk?

 

[Diggs]

Can you at least see the user's data on the cloned drive with a boot disk?

I assumed it was there and just didn't boot. My bad for assuming.......

 

[~Wendy~]

I can't see it until I format it

 

[Porthos]

I can't see it until I format it

The original drive or the new drive?

 

[mattsnoddy]

We deal with these kinds of situations in forensics. Without using an expensive tool like EnCase and rebuilding the volume, what I'd do is the following with cheap/free software:

1. Remove the original (now "formatted") drive with the data you want to recover, and attach to another working computer with a USB adapter of whatever sort that works with the drive type. Ideally you'd also have a write-blocker or mount the drive as read-only to keep the drive pristine.
2. Make a forensic clone of the "formatted" drive (any cloning software that has a sector-by-sector cloning option can do this -- I like Macrium Reflect Free) to another drive, as your safety backup. A normal clone will not capture the "deleted" data as it's been marked as whitespace but it may actually be recoverable so you want all that.
   
   

   Macrium Reflect Free Trials

   Macrium Reflect - Incredibly powerful software that allows you to create and schedule effective backups

   www.macrium.com
3. Run a data recovery software against the drive. I like GetDataBack, which has a free trial which will show you if it's recoverable first before buying it. It's $80 and well worth it and I've used it so many times over the years.
   

   GetDataBack — Data Recovery Software For Crashed Hard Drives

   GetDataBack Data Recovery software. Recover data from inaccessible hard drives and USB sticks. Supports Windows NTFS, FAT, exFAT, Apple HFS+, APFS, and Linux EXT.

   www.runtime.org
4. If the drive was quick-formatted (most likely) then the volume will still exist on the formatted drive and may be recoverable. If it was full-formatted then you may be out of luck.

Good luck!

 

[mattsnoddy]

Shoot, something else I didn't consider: is the original drive Bitlockered by any chance? It may not be reading it simply because it's encrypted.

 

[~Wendy~]

marked as whitespace

Indeed! Just touched bases with client he doesn't care about the old ssd so I'm concentrating on the new 2TB one, reformat and mount for a WIN install. I have paid software for data extraction, not the really expensive one though. Added: Windows is yanking my chain about drivers for the install.

because it's encrypted

It never occurred to me. I'll find out though soon now that I don't have to worry about the data.

Thank you all for your assistance. Y'all are always there for me.