Please help me!!

My EXT3 hard disk had been accidently formatted to NTFS by winXP but NO data are write on this harddisk after I formatted it to NTFS so I believe that the data in this HD can be rescue, please teach me how to restore the MBR of the Harddisk and return it to EXT3 and extract data from it.

Please teach me how to do! Thanks

Hey there,

It will be next to impossible if you actually did a format, since it's already written 1's and 0's across the entire partition.

If that's not the case, google for "dos boot disk" or "dos boot cd" and use the fdisk that comes on there - once on the correct drive letter:

fdisk /mbr

will wipe the mbr and then you should be able to use a Linux rescue CD to get back.

Alternately, grab a copy of Linux Defender (It's Knoppix CD-Linux - runs right off of your CD/DVD drive if you can boot from that - with NTFS support). That way you can boot off of cd and mount your hard drive and begin data retrieval efforts there.

Whatever you do, don't boot into windows. Probably best to remove the hard drive completely until you're ready to attempt recovery.

Check out this site and The Coroner's Toolkit (spelling may be wrong on coroner). TCT comes with a program to scour a Unix or Linux disk and attempt file retrieval:

http://www.porcupine.org/wietse/ (Main site - lots of good tools - he wrote tcp wrappers)
http://www.porcupine.org/forensics/ (The TCT page)

Best of luck to you,

Mike

Actually, formatting does not permanently delete anything. To get rid of something entirely, you must use a program called "shred".

But, since you are trying to recover data, look at the programs "testdisk" and "photorec", usually included in the same install.

Just meant that it will make it harder since NTFS format is like mkfs on Linux/Unix - Greatly reduces chances of getting anything back. Still recoverable per my suggestions above.

Yours are also equally valid - just trying to be more clear about my response

Best wishes,

Mike

mkfs? Umm. Not to be mean or anything, but mkfs is the program that MaKes the File System, not the filesystem itself. For example, to make a ext2 filesystem, you use

Linux filesystems are like: ext2, ext3, reiserfs, unionfs, etc.

The fact that the hard drive uses NTFS will not hinder anything.

Hi,

'Test-disk' is probably the way to go with this. But you could use a disk editor if all else fails.

You can find the 'Test-disk' on 'SystemRescueCd', 'UBCD Ultimate Boot CD' and '(R)ecovery (I)s (P)ossible' to name a few LiveCD recovery tools.

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Thanks all of you, I will try tomorrow!

so next time pay more attention to the MS windows( Borg) installer .There is a check box you must uncheck to stop the win.install cd from assimilating the linux drive.

No offense taken,

I have always been under the assumption that an NTFS format would overwrite the already formatted hard drive and cause damage. Although, I may be wrong. I understand the mkfs command, but am not very well versed in NT. Thanks for the correction

, Mike