LinuxQuestions.org - recovering a fat 32 hard drive

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- - recovering a fat 32 hard drive (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/recovering-a-fat-32-hard-drive-26510/)

well, the most effective method i guess is calling NSA & telling them that u hv got hold of laden's hdd.....
they will do rest of the work for u.....just kidding :).....
if you have formatted the disk for linux then you have already written zeros all over it.....i dont think there
is any software methods to recover it......though you should always search for
forensics + formatted + hard disk
on google......willing to spend more money,hand it out to some forensic team ,they will have the required
hardware to magnetically restore the data.....

come on kingswood76 ......he was just pointing to one of the
rules....anyway did u found any solution to your problem.....

7.2... Red Hat right? Well, i must say that this distro doesn't know how to handle partitions rught, and after 6 years of using Linux, i'm afraid of installing it on a hdd with existing os :(

zeky

well , i have never used any linux other than RH ....is it really
that bad zeky.....you seem to have used different flavours...
which one is more comfortable??.....

O.K., kingswood76, as for your immediate problem, the answer really depends on exactly what RH may have done to your Windoze partition.

If RH formatted the partition with a Linux filesystem, then in all likelihood everything on that drive is lost -- at least as far as ordinary mortals can handle it. There may be (expensive) commercial solutions that could read and reconstruct old data files.

The other possibility is that the MBR was simply over-written with a bootloader.

At this point, I would recommend having a DOS/Win98 boot disk available and a Linux emergency boot disk available (RH did ask you make one? If not, then your install CD may function as a rescue disk). Boot your system using the DOS/Win98 boot disk (set your floppy as the first boot device) and at the A: prompt enter:

fdisk /mbr

Then reboot and see if your Win98 space reappears. If it does, then no harm, you can use the RH rescue process to go back into Linux and make sure that the Linux bootloader (either Lilo or Grub) correctly references the Win98 partition and then re-load your Linux bootloader. If it doesn't reappear, then you have lost your Win98 space.

Quote:

Originally posted by kingswood76
I wouldn't call it double posting, considering the topic doens't really fit into either category particularly well.
Besides, as any logical person would realize, it is the kind of question which needs to be answered sooner rather than later.

If you knew my post history, you would know it constitutes exactly two posts, i can't quite be considered guilty of spamming.

Besides let's look at your reply:

"If you haven't written changes to partition table you are safe, but if you did - oops windows is gone. Is it bad? :-)"

Exactly what does this say? I don't recall asking how to get windows back - i asked how to get the information back. Depending on the individual situation, this is quite serious and indeed is no laughing matter. I find it a testament to your character that you consider it amusing.

If you are posting as a reader of the forums, then this behaviour is quite common, given what i see on other forums.
If you are a mod - i say it's a shame that when people come for help then this is how you reply.

First of all its a rule here not to double post a question twice, you agreed when you signed up.

If your not sure where the question should go, then it goes in this forum.

The reason behind this is we dont' want to confuse members. We don't want the same discussion taking up mulitiple forums when its not necessarily. We don't care what other forums do or let them do, that's their forum and their rules.

neo77777 isn't a moderator but he's a damn good member who helps many other members out. As he pointed out, he answered your question in the other forum then finds it again here. There is no reason to double post.

Also, just because you post doesn't mean it will be answered as these are free forums, for others to help if they feel the need and desire to or have an answer for you. No post has any other priority over any others.

If you feel you need this answered in a rather quickly matter, maybe you should pay for support, but as I see it, we have so many members here most get answers here more quickly than waiting for Redhat or whatever distro they have to respond. One reason why doubleposting is unecessary, your post will be viewed most likely and answered.

Thanks.

-trickykid

I've only now come across this thread, and my advice to anyone installing RH (or Mandy, for that matter) is to use the 'backup partition table to floppy' option should it be available. It sounds as if what may have happened is that the RH install CD blanked your partition table and replaced it with one that says 'there's only 1 partition on here, and it's Linux'. However, if nothing has been formatted on the given drive, then hopefully putting the original partition table back in place should get things sorted. This is, by no means, a definite, only a maybe.

And, Kingswood, your problem may have been absolutely critical, but becoming snide doesn't help anyone, least of all yourself. It simply puts people's backs-up and induces a situation where people are more likely to think 'Sod him!'. May I suggest that if you're going to continue in this forum, you do so as a rule-abiding member that does not post material that is likely to offend or annoy people. If you feel that you cannot do this, then I must say that I don't think you'll be missed.

I'm glad to hear that your problem was sorted out, and I (for one) appreciate the fact that you have posted your method. I hope, for your sake, that any further adventures you may have with Linux are more fortuitous.

It appears kingswood76 has a bad case of disjointed nose :rolleyes: -- in both threads.

Closed, for obvious reasons.