linux partition vs windows partition
 

hello guys

i attempted installing Ubuntu yesterday with no success due to SATA HDD problem (i think).

However now i have no time for experimenting with OS and thats why i have rolled back to WinXP.

However, one of the partition of my HDD is now un-readable by Windows XP. The partition was not formatted and according to system management tools in Windows XP, the drive is in a un-recognised file system.

I am just wonder how can I change the file system type back to normal windows NTFS so i can still access the data that is on it?

I have the Ubuntu 64bit Live CD, do i need to use the partition tool in Ubuntu to fix this?

There are some important data on that partition and I dont want to format it. All i did with Ubuntu was to resize the partition and slice up 10GB for Ubuntu installation. After the installation failed, i deleted the Ubuntu partition and resize the original partition back to its original size.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Just in case, my hardware config are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64bit 2800+
Asus nForce3 Motherboard
Seagate SATA 80GB 7200.8 HDD
Seagate SATA 250GB 7200.9 HDD
XFX GeForce 6800XT 256MB AGP8X
1GB Kingston DDR

Partition details:
Seagate 80GB:
C: (10GB)
P: (70GB) (P: is the label i gave it in windows)
Seagate 250GB:
S: (150GB)
G: (100GB)

Partition operations while installing Ubuntu:
resized G: to obtain a new 10GB partition
use this as the home partition for Ubuntu installation
resized P: to obtain a new 5GB partition
use this as the SWAP partition for Ubuntu installation
-Ubuntu failed to boot
from the Live CD, I:
-deleted the two newly formed partitions for Ubuntu
-and resized P and G back to their original size

Then I format C: and re-installed WinXP

I hope that someone can let me know how to retrieve the G: partition. Much thanks.

Linux partitions are different than Windows. Though neither OS cares about the type of the partition. Linux filesystems are a lot different than Windows. Windows only knows FAT and NTFS. Linux knows EXT2, EXT3, ReiserFS, XFS, JFS, UnionFS, NTFS, HTFS, and several others. Windows can only access EXT2 or EXT3 with a help with a special program.

Linux can work with SATA controllers, but Seagate SATA drives have problems. For the most reliability in Linux, consider using PATA or IDE hard drives. Try using Western Digital or Hitachi hard drives.

I do not know what you did or what you selected to resize the partition, so I am unable to make suggestions. Splitting and resizing partitions with data already on them is very, very risky even with commercial programs. It is best to backup valuable data before attempting to screw around with the partitions. I recommend buying another drive that is equal or greater than the drive and use dd to image the contents of the drive to keep copies when the following steps did not work. Then use cfdisk to change the partition table and use ntfsfix. Hopefully it will work. Yes, you will have to use Linux or you could spend a lot of money for data recovery tools. The partition table can be edited several times with out effecting the data. Recovery data is a tedious task and if you backup and plan the setup, you will not be in this situation.

The maximum size for each swap partition can not be more than 2 GB, but you can have infinite swaps. Though with 1 GB of RAM you can get away of using less than a gigabyte of swap.

Do a search for mkdosfs for Windows. It is utility for Windows to format FAT32 pass the 32 GB barrier for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. When switching from Windows to Linux, provide a partition that is formated as FAT32 to ease the switching and frustration.

To install Linux successfully, it is best to do the following in the BIOS.
1) Set Fail-Safe settings.
2) Double check settings like CPU speed and FSB. Do not revert back to aggressive memory settings.
3) Set IRQ assign to the BIOS instead the OS.
4) Use LBA geometry for hard hard, but do not change this option while data is on the hard drive.
6) Set legacy USB to enable.
7) Make sure IRQ is assign to the graphics card.
8) Depending on the motherboard brand and chipset, try legacy, extend, normal for on-board SATA controllers.

Some systems may need a few parameters to pass to the kernel.
noapic
noapci
apci=off
mem=512M

noapic turns off APIC commands that maybe glitchy. Also it helps detecting USB mouse and USB keyboard on some systems.

noapci or apci=off turns off APCI that may cause kernel to lockup from glitchy APCI calls from the motherboard.

mem=512M tells the kernel to only use 512 MB of RAM instead of a gigabyte. This may help through the install process although the installer may not detect 1 GB of RAM and may not use the pre-compile kernel that has BIGMEM support.

For notebooks nopcmcia can help make the kernel boot up with out going through detecting buggy PCMCIA hardware.

thanks for the reply, i will give it a try tomorrow (its now nearly 3am here)

thanks for the installation guide. i gave up installing Ubuntu since i dont have time at the moment, but these instructions will definitely help when i have time and attemp to install Ubuntu(or other Linux dist.) lateron. Thanks a lot.

and just a side note, is there a way of just VIEWING the context(eg file and folder names would be good enough) of the G: ?

I just want to check exactly what data am i about to lose if i am to format the entire partition.