backing up partition tables

1. 2021-08-17 at 3:15 PM UTC

   #1
   Kev Space Nigga
   Whats a good program that can backup and restore key metadata like partition tables, the MFT and so on? i just lost half the partitions on my backup drive and i was able to bring back some of them because i coincidentally knew the offset of one but the rest are fucked, luckily it was just the backup drive with nothing that important on it, but it disturbs me that losing such a tiny piece of data like the header can fuck shit up like this so i am wondering about a program that backs only this up. its fast, economic and smart, yeah?
   
   if not, im writing down the offsets of every partition and backing up the first GB of the drive. what do you think?
2. 2021-08-31 at 6:51 AM UTC

   #2
   

   Sophie Pedophile Tech Support
   Like you mentioned, backing up your headers is the most straightforward step towards data assurance. Having a backup of that data can't hurt either.
   
   Depending on which OS you can try a few things, if you live boot into your box with a *Nix based distro, there are a number of tools for performing analysis and making tweaks. Test Disk comes to mind. Maybe even GParted might help with data recovery.
3. 2021-09-01 at 2:06 PM UTC

   #3
   

   aldra JIDF Controlled Opposition
   builtin dd can do it
4. 2021-09-01 at 2:08 PM UTC

   #4
   

   aldra JIDF Controlled Opposition

   Originally posted by aldra builtin dd can do it

   
   http://www.techpository.com/linux-copy-gpt-partition-table-with-dd/
   
   calculate header length, use dd to raw copy it to a file
   
   I was sure there was a parameter to automatically grab the header but a quick search didn't turn it up
5. 2021-09-11 at 4:56 PM UTC

   #5
   Kev Space Nigga
   so according to this, the first 512 bytes on the disk contains all the partition tables? i didnt even know that. this will be easier than i thought.
6. 2021-09-11 at 4:58 PM UTC

   #6
   

   Sophie Pedophile Tech Support
   The first 512 bytes are your master boot record. Don't fuck it up.
7. 2021-09-11 at 5:19 PM UTC

   #7
   Kev Space Nigga
   i already fucked that up multiple times, was no fun.
8. 2021-09-11 at 5:22 PM UTC

   #8
   

   Sophie Pedophile Tech Support
   Fortunately you can restore an MBR.
9. 2021-09-11 at 5:33 PM UTC

   #9
   Kev Space Nigga
   i can now.
10. 2021-09-11 at 5:35 PM UTC

    #10
    

    Sophie Pedophile Tech Support
    Experience is a cruel head mistress. But an effective one.