Is is possible to restore the MFT of a NTFS partition after a format?

Solution 1:

chkdsk can possibly restore the MFT from the mirror, back up your data before doing anything, buy a usb drive if needed, or risk losing it all.

No way for anyone to know how far the quick format went before detachment.

Never used this software but looks interesting

http://dmitrybrant.com/ntfswalker

According to Jaclaz in this forum it is not possible

http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6425

For the record, unlike what a lot of people apparently thinks, the $MFTMirr is pretty much useless, as it consists of ONLY the first 4 (four) records of the $MFT. Obviously once you re-format, it represents the mirror of the first 4 records of the NEW $MFT, unless you changed CONSIDERABLY the partition size (thus causing the new $MFT and $MFTmirror to be "somewhere else") or you used a NT system that uses a different "default" for the placement of these structures - like Windows 2000, in which case the OLD filesystem structure may be not overwritten.

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Solution 2:

As a start ...

"Painless Partition Recovery

Partition Find & Mount implements a new concept of deleted or lost partition recovery. It works in the most convenient way possible — by locating and mounting partitions into the system, thus making those lost partitions available to you like any generic disk volume. Partition Find & Mount will also work in case any Boot Record (including the Master Boot Record) is missing, damaged or overwritten."

http://findandmount.com/

Otherwise I'd think you could find some utilities to restore the MBR - intact.

Solution 3:

I've done more or less what you've described before. Twice actually. The 2nd time on a 4TB RAID-5 (just for fun ;) The first time around, I ended up buying Restorer Ultimate. It worked both times, not to mention on numerous other occasions of varying difficulty levels, though not always 100%. The software runs in demo mode, which will tell you which files it can restore. In your case I would assume that's everything.