can i recover my windows xp files after ubuntu install?

Question

i installed ubuntu 10.04 on windows xp sp3, it used all the space in the of 320 gb in the hard drive. I had 200 gb data on hard disk on this hard disk under windows xp. is it all lost? can i get it back?

my system- 2 gb ram, 320 gb hard disk, intel core 2 duo processor can give more details if there is any hope of recovery

best Giri

There is a good chance to recover your data but stop using the drive: See http://askubuntu.com/questions/245987/data-recovery-after-replacing-windows-with-ubuntu or http://askubuntu.com/questions/94421/is-there-a-way-to-recover-files-from-a-storage-device-partially-overwritten-with — Takkat, Feb 12 '13 at 10:26
possible duplicate of How do I recover my accidentally lost Windows partitions after installing Ubuntu? — bain, Jun 01 '14 at 22:53

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 12 '13 at 07:09

1

You can't recover the filesystem, but you can try to recover some files with:

PhotoRec: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
ScalPel: http://www.digitalforensicssolutions.com/Scalpel

PS: Don't recover the files on the same disk!!!

answered Feb 12 '13 at 07:09

xkill

208

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 12 '13 at 08:01

No.

The install of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS replaced (overwrote) the drive partition table, formatted the entire drive, and installed a new bootloader.

There is no simple method of recovering your data, and many possible methods may irretrievably damage any forensic attempt to recover any of your data.

This is when you realise you forgot:

Always backup ALL user data, before attempting any major update or install.

Only a forensic recovery tool, and skilled technician (as employed by police agencies), would be able to recover some portion of your data.

This would have a major cost associated.

can i recover my windows xp files after ubuntu install?

2 Answers2