Is my data lost? Installed Linux, no longer can I access my hard drives.

Ironkey · 07-10-2009, 11:57 PM

Here's the story -

I installed Linux on my Y drive, and all went well until I tried to boot into XP again. I can't access or install an operating system to my other three hard drives, C, X, and Z.

I think that during the install my hard drives were changed to something other then NTFS, but Linux won't access them either.

When I use my Windows XP or Windows 7 disc, it says the drive has 0mb free, and it can't install until I delete the partition, then reformat. I don't want to do this obviously, because I don't want to format all of my data.

When I go to Places > My Computer it lists my CD drive, Filesystem, and the Y drive. It doesn't show my other three hard drives.

Edit - Under Palimpsest Disk Utility I can see my other three drives, but I can't access the data on them yet.

Help!

jdkaye · 07-11-2009, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ironkey

Here's the story -

I installed Linux on my Y drive

Maybe if you went into a bit more detail as to exactly HOW you installed Linux and which Linux you installed, then somebody might be able to help you.
jdk

Ironkey · 07-11-2009, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdkaye

Maybe if you went into a bit more detail as to exactly HOW you installed Linux and which Linux you installed, then somebody might be able to help you.
jdk

Okay, no problem!

I had Windows XP and Windows 7 installed and working nearly perfectly, so I installed Fedora 11. I had no problems except for the fact it didn't install a boot loader (which I thought it would) so I went with Ubuntu. I tried to install Ubuntu, but it wouldn't let me. It gave me an error about no root drive being available. I simply exited the installer and restarted, which is when my problems started to occur.

jdkaye · 07-11-2009, 04:29 AM

Ironkey,
I think you've created yourself a world of pain. I have zero experience with Fedora so take everything I say with a BIG grain of salt. "It didn't install a bootloader" is a key phrase. This may be the source of your trouble. Can you explain why it didn't install a bootloader?
cheers,
jdk

pixellany · 07-11-2009, 04:47 AM

I infer that you are now running from Ubuntu Linux...

Please open a terminal and enter "sudo fdisk -l" (no quotes)--post the output here.

Note that the letter designations are strictly for Windows---you won't see this in Linux. Also, what Windows calls a "C drive" is really a partition on the hard drive.

jdkaye · 07-11-2009, 04:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

I infer that you are now running from Ubuntu Linux...

That's not clear (to me at least). The OP said,

Quote:

I tried to install Ubuntu, but it wouldn't let me.

Maybe a live CD is the answer?

cheers,
jdk

pixellany · 07-11-2009, 04:55 AM

Oops---OK----Ironkey: What system ARE you running? (Thread title says: "Installed Linux")

You can boot from any live Linux CD and run fdisk from there.

colucix · 07-11-2009, 05:00 AM

Yes, it is not clear if you have fedora installed now and if you can access it without grub being installed. You can always boot a live CD - as jdkaye suggested - and explore the filesystems from there. If you can access them, connect an external hard drive and do a backup of all your data!

Also it is not clear to me if you can boot windows...

Ironkey · 07-11-2009, 12:12 PM

I've been alternating between an Ubuntu live CD and a Fedora live CD. How am I supposed to explain how it didn't install a bootloader? I have no idea why it didn't do that. Fedora never mentioned one when installing.

I formated my two 80gb hard drives and I'm now running Windows 7 and XP from them.

Code:

To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00ca89b7

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        9730    78148608    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3de4bf44

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       60801   488384001   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x76397639

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1       60801   488384001   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x32dbca08

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1       60801   488384001   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sde: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10337 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf03b4104

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sde1               1       10338    78147584    7  HPFS/NTFS
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

pixellany · 07-12-2009, 09:33 AM

Almost all Linux installers will install a bootloader by default---the question is WHERE? If you have more than one drive and/or a mix of IDE and SATA, there are "ambiguity gremlins" which come into play.

According to your fdisk output you have FIVE hard drives. Please tell us what each one of these is, and how you are using it. Also, sde is set up strangely (cylinders of 15120 sectors instead of 16065) Any clue how that happened?