I was trying to get OpenELEC installed on a Compact Flash Card to try out Linux' XBMC on our Media PC.
I downloaded a version of OpenELEC specific to the architecture on the Media PC, and followed the directions.
Step 1 was to install the program to a USB drive. Done.
Step 2 was to boot to the USB drive, starting a small version of Linux that would allow me to format the Compact Flash Card to be a bootable OpenELEC OS with XBMC installed.
Unfortunately, our Media PC will not boot from a USB drive, so I took it to my desktop.
I put the USB drive in and the Compact Flash Card into my development PC, and booted up.
The Linux thing went to work, but appears to have tried to install something onto my primary Hard Drive instead of giving me the option to select the Compact Flash Card.
Note: The Linux thing never did format my primary Hard Drive like it was supposed to. I'm guessing because something was wrong with the architecture on my development PC.
Right now, I have the Hard Drive from my development PC pulled out and Windows 7 has loaded the drivers successfully, I just can't get it to open.
This is a 500 GB drive, no longer shows up in Windows Explorer, and I know NOTHING about Linux.
Is there some way to say, "Take the Linux note off and put me an NTFS note back in there?"
The Linux program never formatted the drive. It did all of its damage in about 15 seconds.
How can I salvage my data on this drive?
Screenshot of Device Manager in Windows 7:
http://i.stack.imgur.com/nzmeR.png