I installed Ubuntu on my PC and by accident it formatted my whole hard drive. I can pick the hard drive up with Windows and everything but its basically formatted. Is there a way I can restore it using Ubuntu?
4910
About two weeks ago I had a problem with my PC that my brother wrote a question about at .  I still haven't solved the problem, so my PC is unusable now.  Now I think that it would be simpler to re-install both Win7 &amp; Ubuntu than repair them, but there're some data on their partitions. I want to recover this data.  These partitions are not mountable for some reason. I don't know why.  sudo fdisk -l about the problematic partitions:     Device    Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sda1            2048     147912703    73955328   83 Linux /dev/sdb2            206848   174079999    86936576    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT   And in GParted:      And the error of the mount command:  Failed to mount '/dev/sdb2': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sdb2' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?   And the exact same message for /dev/sda1  How can I recover my data from those HDDs?  EDIT     I have tried to specify the type of the drive:  $ sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /olddisk mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,        missing codepage or helper program, or other error        In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try        dmesg | tail  or so $ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb2 /olddisk NTFS signature is missing. Failed to mount '/dev/sdb2': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sdb2' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?   EDIT     sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb2 returns:  Mounting volume... NTFS signature is missing. FAILED Attempting to correct errors... NTFS signature is missing. FAILED Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument NTFS signature is missing. Trying the alternate boot sector Unrecoverable error Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
86929
I have two systems installed previously Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I was trying to reinstall Ubuntu and format the Ubuntu OS partition using a tool in Windows 7.   When I have Ubuntu ready on a USB stick and restart my laptop, it prompts me with the GRUB rescue screen. If I boot from USB to install Ubuntu, it just hangs.   Anyway, I messed up everything. So my question is how can I boot Windows 7 now?
31963
Using Ubuntu 11.10, how do I format an external or USB drive? I don't find an option to 'format' when I right click. In the new version, the drives don't come up on the desktop, but instead come on the Launcher.
94616
Since some system updates, my machine can no longer boot properly. I am no Ubuntu guru. I do not have a week to spare diagnosing the issue. I just want to retrieve important data from this machine's hard drive and get a working computer again ASAP.  What should I do?
32465
I want to reinstall Ubuntu keeping my data intact. I have 160 GB hardrive (sata or pata I don't know but it's slim and made in China) with a 40 GB ext3 partition, a 4GB swap memory and 3 other partition with a FAT32 file system. I have around 4GB space on my drive where Linux is installed.  I'd like to keep the data intact, especially the Downloads folder, desktop, and /var/www; And I no longer have access to any other machines or external storage devices.
36138
I need to format a drive containing an old install of Ubuntu 10.04, to install Vista (not my idea!) Vista setup apparently refuses to format non-FAT32 or NTFS partitions. However, I can't seem to format it from my live CD (Ubuntu 11.04) at all; I keep getting "device is busy" errors. What is the simplest way to format this drive?
5918
I was reformatting one of my extra hard drives with Windows DiskPart and accidentally selected the wrong hard drive.   I used the clean command, but it wasn't long before I realized I cleaned the wrong one. I only cleaned the drive, I did not format it or tool with it in anyway.   The drive I wiped had two partitions on it, one was unencrypted and the other was encrypted with TrueCrypt. Is it possible to recover my encrypted partition? I do not have a backup of the header, but I've heard it's possible.   If anyone can shed some light on the situation, or point me in the right direction, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
111347
Actually, I have done something terribly wrong. I did not want Ubuntu 13.04 on my PC anymore. I was sick of dual-booting every time the PC starts, and I wanted to return to Windows as well. (My version is Windows XP MCE SP2). The mistake I did is that I simply used EASUS Partition Manager to delete the Ubuntu partitions. But what went wrong here is that, even when I did it, the GRUB keeps trying to load. It says that GRUB could not be found and finally ends up running GRUB Rescue.  I cannot "Repair" my PC using the Recovery Discs (containing Windows XP MCE), it only gives me an option to press "F", which will format the HDD to re-install the OS.  Although, the best part is that I can still log in to Windows. Because, when I boot from the CD's, it does not give me a "Repair" option, but only "Format" and "Quit". By using "Quit", it takes me straight to Windows.  But I do not want to keep doing this same thing every time I start my PC. Neither do I want to Format my Hard Disk. I have tried a few applications, like EasyBCD which do nothing. So I want a good solution for it.  Is their any way to install MBR through Windows or maybe Ubuntu terminal? Even if i can't access Ubuntu again? And what after installing Ubuntu again. Any safe method to uninstall it?
68093
I'm new to how Ubuntu works and installed it yesterday alongside Windows 7, but in doing so I have created a few problems. I have partitions for Windows, Ubuntu, System Recovery, and storage for all my files with the intention to access them on either OS, but I don't even see all of my drives listed on Home Folder. Not to mention that  during the Ubuntu instillation I managed to screw up any chance of booting to the Windows side of things at all. I'll fix Windows once I get my hands on a copy in a couple days, but in the mean time any suggestions for accessing my files?  If you need me to find any data about my computer to help you figure out what's wrong with it, please don't hesitate to tell me what I need to show you. Thanks
38182
I've experienced some freaky data loss in Windows 7 &amp; tried to recover the files. (.) The work data is safe but I also decided to copy everything missing back into Windows directory &amp; rebooted thinking that the recovery mode would be a better option for rolling back to a restore point. Shockingly, the only options System Restore gave me were from November 2010 (2.5 years old) despite many updates &amp; installs since. I thought that only the dates were corrupted but when I scanned for software to be affected by the roll-back, the list included everything installed since then. On top of that, something got screwed up in the OS and I can't boot even into Safe Mode - the system BSODs supposedly on compbatt.sys (which I've already tried to copy from the original distro).  Since I have many settings not saved, I don't want to perform a clean install of the OS. The problem is that the install disc keeps on telling me that upgrade can be performed only from the fully-booted system and not from the recovery mode. This is very annoying because all previous versions of Windows could be upgraded from DOS or PE.  Thus, the question is: how can I fix my OS without formatting the drive if it's not bootable &amp; System Restore is broken?
67568
Can I install Ubuntu on a partition formatted as NTFS, instead of EXT4?  After installing Ubuntu 11.10 using ext4, I keep on getting disk errors at boot up.  But on this same harddrive, I have Windows 7, and I don't get these errors.  So I wanted to try NTFS, instead of EXT4, and see if it makes any difference.  The harddrive is about 5 years old.  So if it is failing, I would think it would be giving trouble in Windows just as well.
104115
I just bought a new laptop with Windows 7 installed and I'm planning on installing Ubuntu 11.10 for a dual-boot.  Here's my rather basic problem :  I have a 750go hard drive, pretty much partitioned like this :   Recovery : 25go C: (Windows 7) : 295go D: (Data) : 380go   That is the factory configuration, the hard drive is still fairly empty (I removed all the bloatware and didn't install anything yet).  This is what I'd like to obtain :   Keep my recovery partition A partition for Windows 7 A partition for Ubuntu A "big" common partition for Windows and Ubuntu data, all the files I'm going to create.   How can I do that? Do I have to resize/create the partitions in Windows 7 before installing Ubuntu? Do I have to do it while installing Ubuntu using Gparted?  I'm quite confused and I'd like to make it right so I guess I need your help.  Thanks a lot everyone.
18875
Okay, so here's the story.  I am trying to install Ubuntu 13.04.  I currently have a 2TB drive in my computer where Windows 7 boots from, and a secondary 500GB drive that also has a bootable installation of Windows 7, because the version on the 2TB is a clone of what was on the 500.. I do not need any information on the 500 as I already have it moved over to the 2TB.  What I want is to completely reformat the 500 so that it has about 300GB for NTFS and the rest for Ubuntu.  However, I can't seem to find a straightfoward way to do that in the Ubuntu installer.  If I click on "Install Ubuntu alongside them," it does not give me the option to select my 500GB drive, only my 2TB.  I do NOT want any linux partitions on my 2TB drive.  I do not want to click, "Erase disc and install Ubuntu" for obvious reasons.  Finally, clicking "something else" brings up a menu that is quite confusing.  I can kind of figure out how to use it, but it's not as straightfoward as I'd like..  Further, I know that Ubuntu requires a SWAP partition, but I do not know how much, or even how, to allocate that with the stupid dropdown menus it gives me.  So, to get to the point..  What is the easiest, safest way to do what I want to do?  That is, allocate approximately 200G for Ubuntu on my 500G drive, and be able to choose between Windows 7 on my 2TB drive and Ubuntu at startup - all, of coarse, without touching the 2TB drive at all.  Thanks!
36847
I lent my hard drive to a friend and he has formatted it as he couldn't get his PC to recognise it. I have no Time Machine backUp. Is there any way of recovering this data?
85798
Well, I have accidentally deleted my Ubuntu drive. I just want to recover all the contents of /home.   Is there a way to do it? I referred to , where I need to specify the extensions of files. And in my case, I don't know actual extensions. So, is there any utility which can let me recover my /home folder alone?  I have not even formatted that drive or touched it at all. So no write has been done on that drive.  If you have suggestions on how to recover, please tell me.
90306
I have a situation.  I got married 6 months ago and stored some very important pictures on my laptop which was running Linux. Later I formatted the whole hard drive, installed Windows and a hacked version of Mac (just to play around) and I have been using the laptop for last 8 months or so after that.  Is there any software that can recover the files for me? I am happy to pay money!
51380
I found a 6 GB IDE HDD in my basement. I want to plug it in and see what might be on it. The drive seems to be recognized in BIOS.   I can't find it in Ubuntu to view files, and Ubuntu is the only OS on that particular computer. I was wondering if Ubuntu has an equivalent to the Windows feature "My Computer", which lists all available drives/storage devices. Typically, My Computer shows C:, which can be opened to view all of your directories and files. At this point, it is very similar to Ubuntu's Home Folder.  How to view/select all available partitions of that drive or all available HDD's without formatting or tampering with the contents in any way?