EDIT : Solved?

(Sorry if this is the location for this thread or if someone else already made a thread about this but I tried Googling this ever since it happened with no relevant results IMO so yea...

Also sorry if this post sounds trollish / ect. but the fact that I lost the original version of this post due to the website logging me out kinda changed my attitude ATM... Besides, this one is shorter :/)

---

About a week ago (2/28/10) I went to install Windows 7 (CURSE YOU MICROSOFT!!!) and my damn comp froze during the formating process. So I then went ahead and shut down my comp like an idiot and tried rebooting with the install disk for it to only show the Windows 7 startup animation screen... When booting without the disk all I get is some sort of Grub installation with no bootlist...

Afterwards I went ahead and booted my Fedora 12 LXDE Live-CD and ran Gparted, which tells me that there are 156 hard drives (or Partitions?) on my comp, labeled /dev/sda, /dev/sda100, /dev/sda101 - /dev/sda255 most with just unpartitioned space and every third hard drive / partition containing an EXT4 partition consisting of around 148.32GB of space...

All the file browsers I've tried using (LXDE's pcmanfm, GNOME's Nautilus, and Windows XP's Explorer (yea, makes no sense why if 99.999% of the partitions were Linux partitions...)) do not even seem to acknowledge it's existence, let alone allow access to whatever partitions might have survived the event...

So my Question[s] is this : Can my files be restored?
If so then How?
If not then how am I supposed to format my Hard drive and get the damn thing working correctly? (since Gparted thinks my single hard drive = 156 hard drives >_>)

Anyhow, theres no rush as I've been running off of Live-CD for the past week or so but in any case it would be nice if I could get my files back or at least have a working hard drive to use if all is lost..... Trying to get uncertainty out of the equation - Should I pull teh plug?

It doesn't sound like you have any files left. If they aren't critical, I would wipe it clean and start over. If you are wanting to do a dual boot set up, create a partition for Windows first with gparted and install Windows into that partition. Then do your Linux install and let it install a boot loader. You'll have a lot less headaches installing Windows first and Linux second than the other way around.

Well I knew that Windows was gonna be a pain in the ass by killing my bootloader or some random BS but it doesnt really matter if i can reinstall my linux, install all my programs, and set up my home directory within like 20 min (using Live CD install :/.... not really fond of DVD install).... and yea there are other ways than THAT to get it working again but theres over 9000 ways to do anything in Linux so, why not?...

and as for formating my drive (which i rather wait for atm just incase there is some way of getting it back....) how exactly am i supposed to do that with the drive in it's current state? I mean it might be as straight foward as formating the "sda" drive or setting up a new partition table or something but again i rather not atm, just wondering though...

Well, if you are wanting to recover files, don't format your drive. But it sounds like you already screwed up not only the formatting, but the partition table as well. There may be some low level tools that can recover files in a situation like that. I don't know. But if you're not in a hurry and just want to see if it can be done, knock yourself out.

Sounds like you have a gpt formatted disk - almost. I'd imagine [g]parted should tell you that though.
Looks seriously unhealthy ...

I think the PartedMagiclive CD comes with TestDisk in it.

Don't know though if Testdisk will fix your problem. Can't hurt to try I guess.

1 members found this post helpful.

If you remember how your drive was partitioned before you let W7 on it, you could simple write that partition table again to your hard disk. Despite of the warnings, partition table rewrite does not erase or remove your data, it only makes it less accessible.

So if you are able to put on that original partition table (using cfdisk from your live CD or any other partitioner) you partitions might still be there and accessible. Unless of course W7 really started formatting the new partitions and overwrote the files systems. If it didn't the file systems are still there happily waiting for you.

jlinkels

1 members found this post helpful.

Looks like the kind of information im looking for o_o..... I dont remember the exact file sizes of the partitions atm but in anycase im gonna try that tomorrow after figuring out what the exact size of everything was.... all I really want is my home partition so yea :/...

Don't really know why Windows 7 would format any other partition if it were to do such other than the one assigned for it to do but ya know... Microsoft FTW? lulz

1º Micro$oft for some strange reason in Windows 98, XP ( and others ) damage the Partition table, and not only in installation, I have XP for years, and one day it hangs and damage the partition table ... ( why? I dont knock ... Maybe malicious code in some part? But I REALLY don't knock )

2º Like say rokytnji you are looking for "TestDisk"
http : / / www . cgsecurity . org / wiki / TestDisk
And if W7 make your disk crazy and TestDisk don't work you can use "PhotoRec" from the same company, it will scan your WHOLE DISK trying to find files ( using posible file headers founds or other methods ) and generate possible files ( 99% of the find files are nothing, 1% its ok )
http : / / www . cgsecurity . org / wiki / PhotoRec

3º I never install Win7, but I'am little sure it will kill GRUB.
4º AND FOR FUTURE: ITS GOOD BACKUP FIRST. [ I say for experience :'( ]

1 members found this post helpful.

1) Gotta love Microsoft / Windows

2) yea, perhaps I should do that first... Don't really know if I remember enough of my partition layout from before to do that other method... kinda messed with my partitions a bit since i last documented the layout...

3) Yea, but it isn't that hard to get things back to normal though one way or another....

4) Well I assumed that Windows wouldn't be retarded (I know, big assumption but it IS teh all mighty MICROSOFT so..... wait what?.... :/...) and not mess with my Home partition... If I reformatted my damn WIN partition in Gparted I wouldn't have been in this situation....

Sounds like your partition table is screwed. Your data is probably still intact so don't go formatting anything.

The following may help

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...on-Rescue.html
http://www.brzitwa.de/mb/gpart/index.html

IIRC I had to do this some years ago. It's too long ago to remember details, but I know it worked.

I believe my problem is solved? I tried the TestDisk thing and it seemed to fix my partition table or whatever exactly happened to be broken... Grub still seems to be broken, made me somewhat hesitant when I rebooted, but it seems that my Home Partition has been restored -- which is all that matters o_o...

Unfortently I dont seem to have enough DVDs for what I wanted to do >_>.... nor hard drive space on my external HD... As much as im glad this thing is now working, I kinda feel like im walking on thin ice and that something on the drive is gonna fail somehow... who knows :/...

Anyhow, Thank you all for your assistance, hopefully I become an active member here.

Testdisk is a great recovery tool.
Before any operation on the partition table or the master boot sector, it is safer to keep a backup of the master boot sector, i.e. the first 512 bytes of the hard drive.
In general, it seems that it is easier (and with less problems) to install Linux *after* any ms system.