linux boot disk unpartitioned 2 HDDs and i didnt even install it

I accidently posted this in Newbie before reading the first thread sorry guys.

I know it looks long but please help me!

I have a computer with a 250GB SATA 2 HDD and another 320GB IDE HDD. i was running windows xp pro on the sata HDD partitioned into approx a 110GB and a 140GB space. the other drive had backed up stuff on it which i really need took me ages to set up.

Anyway i created another partition on the Sata drive about 10GB in size with Linux ext 3 file system using partition magic v12. I then booted using Linux red hat 7.2 complete CD. went through a few setup options thinking this was only dabbeling in my RAM. I couldnt get the setup to install Linux on the 10G partition, I exited and rebooted (took the CD out)attempting to go back to windows when I got a boot error. After a heap of hair pulling and nail biting i attempted to Repair windows using the XP CD.

No luck there so i acted like i wanted to reinstall windows so i could see the HDD partitions. turns out what ever i did in the Linux setup unpartitioned both the HDDs. it just came up with two unpartitioned disks 320gb and 250gb. WTF?

Also to add insult to injury i have an assignment due on monday and its on the windows partition.

Please help!!!

It's probably no good to you now but you shouldn't have used those antiquated RedHat 7.2cds. Anyway, it should be perfectly possible to get your windows partition back providing that you can find a Linux liveCd somewhere (knoppix, ubuntu, mepis, pcLinuxOS,...). Since apparently still have internet access, you can visit distrowatch.com and dowload one of those, then burn it to cd.

Next: boot from the livecd, open up a terminal and type
testdisk
That will scan your drives for lost partitions; it has a recovery option but you can also just write down the start and end for each partition and then use fdisk to recreate them.

Double posting is juvenile and unhelpful. A mod will come along and move your post if it is abviously in the wrong forum.

yeah i know. My bad. I feel stupid enough. thanks for the help though, I will try the live CD thing. so this will be able to detect and old partitions that have recently been unpartitioned? i have access to the internet 'cause im at work (aussie).

Sorry for posting twice.

Testdisk will find the old partitions - maybe even some you'd forgotten you'd deleted, so check closely.

Redhat took a while to support SATA - certainly not back then. Hopefully it's just a partition table screw-up, they're relatively easy to fix.
If you get a liveCD booted, let's see the output of "sudo fdisk -l" before you start doing anything.

Im downloading ubuntu

do you want me to type in "sudo fdisk -l" in some command prompt? BTW i have never used any linux os before.

From a terminal window (~ MSDOS command prompt).
If it's normal Ubuntu, try the Applications menu (at the top) > Accessories > Terminal

sudo allows you to run a command as super-user (root) - you'll need to enter your password.

thanks mate i got terminal running but now when i type "testdisk" it says universe is not enabled. I type enable universe and it comes back with "universe not a shell builtin"

i then typed in "sudo apt-get universe"
I then got
e: invalid operation universe

syg00 i tried that "sudo fdisk -1" command (screenshot link below)

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5...eenshotbr3.jpg

Please help. My assignments due date is getting closer

That's a lower case ell (for list) not a one.
As for testdisk, that requires some updates to the sources.lst - I'm not a Debian (what Ubuntu is based on) person. And I've never seen the liveCD - lemme think about it.

Universe is a software repository; it can be enabled by checking a box under System > Software Sources (or Software Properties ...?).

If it can't be found at all, it can also downloaded here: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk (linux.tar.bz2) but I recommand trying the Ubuntu package first.

OMFG Linux is the best. seriously i downloaded testdisk to my ram with the rest of the OS and ran it. man i got it working and un-unpartitioned one of my drives! thanks for the help guys!