Accidently deleted the linux partition(root partition) how to recover it?
 

Once while installing windows 7 my two XP partitions were deleted but i recovered that using the software active partition recovery but during that time i lost my Linux partition which was my root partition.I have a grub disk i tried to recover my Linux boot loader with that but it failed,So will you tell me in detail how to recover my Linux partition from my hard disk


Thanks.....

Since you installed Win 7 after Linux, windows wrote its own bootloader to the MBR of the hard drive. Windows may not tell you that there is LInux installed, nor will it write an entry in the windows boot menu to offer you the opportunity to boot Linux. It may be that Linux is still there.

1) boot a liveCD. in a terminal, run fdisk -l. Do you see a Linux partition listed?

2) if fdisk shows a LInux partition, boot your Linux installation cd. You should see a list of options: install LInux, boot from cd, boot from hard drive, and possibly one or two others. Chosoe 'boot from hard drive'. If Linux boots, then re-install Grub to the MBR (search these boards; that topic has been discussed many times).

3) after re-installing grub to the MBR, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to add an entry for windows (that topic has also been covered in these boards many times).

Actually my partition is deleted at the recovery time not by the installing of windows 7.
I didn't find any Linux partition in the terminal when i execute the command fdisk -l,
actually now my partition table don't show any Linux partition(i checked it with windows )in the Linux partition space it shows as free space
Now will you help me to recover my Linux partition,and when tried to install a new copy of Linux then Linux does not shows my hard disk partition at the time of installation but just shows my entire hard disk as free space,so that i can't use Linux now so will you please help with out losing my data in my hard disk

[QUOTE]Actually my partition is deleted at the recovery time not by the installing of windows 7.[QUOTE]

Did you use a windows 7 recovery disk to rescue your xp partitions? Are you now able to boot windows 7 and xp?

Which distribution of Linux do you have?
If you 'lost' your Linux partition, where are you running fdisk -l? Do you have an installation or Live CD?

That's correct. windows shows space used by other operating systems as unallocated or free space so you won't learn anything from windows.

How did you try to install a new copy of Linux? How did you try to get partition information using the Linux CD? Also, it would be helpful if you gave the Linux distribution you are trying to use.

If you installed Windows over Linux, it could have overwritten your harddrive and wiped Linux out of your harddrive. Use a Linux rescue cd and at the command prompt run fdisk and see if there are any Linux partitions left.

Windows does not look for Linux partitions usually. It overwrites them. You could be in a situation where you need to reinstall your Linux distribution.

What is your partition output from the command:
Note that if you have more than one harddrive, that you would need to enter in the correct harddrive parameter for fdisk.

I used active partition recovery for recovering my lost windows partition
and now i can boot windows 7 and xp

i am using ubuntu 9.04 and i entered the command using live cd

i tried to install linux using the live cd

sanues,
You should post the output of 'fdisk -l' here so we can see if there is any linux partition left.

Is it that you know it is gone (say you had installed linux on /dev/sda3, now it is erased/formatted/overwritten) and are asking for kind of data recovery software? I mean in windows if you delete something, you have software to get them back. Are you asking for such 'undelete' software? Not that I know the answer but only to clarify to others who may help you.

When you did that, win 7 overwrote your master boot record. You need to decide how you want to boot, from windows? from Linux? Using Ubuntu Grub is quite a bit easier but for someone to give you specific instructions you should post the output of: sudo fdisk -l, as requested above.

If you're more of a windows user, you might find it easier to download and use EasyBCD software, just google it.