All files erased after installing Ubuntu [duplicate]
Yeah, I know I should have backed up my files before proceeding, I completely forgot. Well, the thing is that I had a dual-boot system with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.10. Yesterday, I installed Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 3 (through live USB). I chose that 11.04 would install over 10.10 on the installation wizard, where I have no important files. However, it overwrote Windows too, and its data, meaning that I can't find Windows as a grub entry and I can't find the corresponding NTFS partition. Is there some way to recover it? Thanks!
Here is the sudo fdisk -l
output.
> > Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696
> > bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track,
> > 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of
> > 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector
> > size (logical/physical): 512 bytes /
> > 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal):
> > 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier:
> > 0x0004f536
> >
> > Device Boot Start End
> > Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 *
> > 1 19327 155241472 83 Linux
> > /dev/sda2 19327 19458
> > 1046529 5 Extended /dev/sda5
> > 19327 19458 1046528 82
> > Linux swap / Solaris
> >
> > Disk /dev/sdd: 3965 MB, 3965190144
> > bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 482
> > cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 *
> > 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size
> > (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512
> > bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512
> > bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier:
> > 0x00007732
> >
> > Device Boot Start End
> > Blocks Id System /dev/sdd1 *
> > 1 482 3871633+ c W95
> > FAT32 (LBA)
And the cat /proc/partitions
output too
major minor #blocks name
7 0 676440 loop0
8 0 156290904 sda
8 1 155241472 sda1
8 2 1 sda2
8 5 1046528 sda5
8 48 3872256 sdd
8 49 3871633 sdd1
After a partition table has been accidentally overwritten you will need Data Recovery Tools to restore the remainders of your data. Mind that the likelihood for successful recovery decreases with every write access to your harddisk. Therefore best advice is to run these tools after booting from a live disk.
By installing
testdisk
you may be able to recover whole partitions. Included in the TestDisk suite you will also find the tool PhotoRec that helps to recover individual files even in the case a partition can not be restored or the drive itself has a hardware defect.
- Reading the TestDisk Wiki or PhotoRec Wiki is highly recommended
Sounds like the installer decided to butcher your entire drive. (i.e. it was set up to use the entire drive).
If that is what the installer did, then your windows data is, at this point, gone. Having said that, its unlikely you'll be able to recover it.