This case study documents the successful recovery of a 160GB hard drive after a catastrophic “GHOST” error. By manually reconstructing the partition table and repairing the file system, the AS Data Recovery team restored 100% of the client’s secondary partitions and the vast majority of their primary data.

Client & Data Information

• Client Name: Confidential (Individual Client, Luo Fushan)
• Data Type: Physical Hard Drive Partitions (NTFS/FAT32)
• Data Capacity: 160 GB Disk
• Primary Issue: Improper “GHOST” Operation / Disk Merged into One Large Partition

Incident Summary

The client attempted to use Symantec GHOST to restore a system image. Due to an incorrect setting (selecting “Disk from Image” instead of “Partition from Image”), the software treated the entire 160GB hard drive as a single destination. This resulted in the immediate deletion of the original partition table, leaving the user with one large, empty “C” drive and the total disappearance of all other logical partitions (D, E, F, etc.).

Technical Analysis

Upon forensic analysis of the 160GB drive, our partition recovery specialists identified:

• Partition Table Overwrite: The original Master Boot Record (MBR) and Partition Table were overwritten by the GHOST process.
• Data Overwrite (C Drive): The newly written system image occupied the physical beginning of the disk, partially overwriting data from the original C drive.
• Data Persistence (Secondary Drives): Deep-sector scanning confirmed that while the “map” to the secondary partitions was gone, the actual data for the other drives remained untouched in the later sectors of the disk.

Recovery Solution

The recovery strategy utilized Manual Partition Table Reconstruction. Instead of using automated software—which can often cause further corruption—our engineers manually calculated the original partition boundaries by locating the “boot sectors” and “MTF” (Master File Table) mirrors scattered throughout the disk. This allowed us to re-map the lost drives without writing any new data to the disk.

Recovery Process

• Forensic Disk Cloning: Created a bit-by-bit image of the 160GB drive to ensure all recovery operations were non-destructive.
• Boot Sector Scanning: Scanned the raw sectors of the disk to find the original D, E, and F drive backup boot sectors.
• Partition Boundary Calculation: Manually calculated the start and end cylinders of the original partitions to rebuild the Partition Table.
• File System Repair: Repaired the links between the reconstructed partition table and the original file metadata.
• Data Validation: Verified that the secondary partitions were 100% intact and recovered the non-overwritten fragments of the original C drive.

Recovery Results

• Secondary Partition Recovery: 100% (D, E, F drives fully restored)
• Primary Partition Recovery: Partial (Original C drive data recovered where not overwritten by the new GHOST image)
• System Status: Disk structure restored; all critical files accessible.
• Customer Satisfaction: Highly Satisfied.

Expert Reminder from AS Data Recovery: If you realize you have mistakenly GHOSTed your drive, shut down the computer immediately. The more you use the system, the more the new “C” drive will overwrite your lost data. Contact AS Data Recovery professionals immediately for expert partition and database recovery. We specialize in reversing logical disasters on any storage media.