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I had Windows 7 installed on a 500GB hard drive. I wanted to install Ubuntu on a16GB pendrive and use it as a hard drive. I made an Ubuntu bootable pendrive on a 4GB pendrive.

Then I booted my system from the Ubuntu 4GB pendrive. I inserted a 16GB pendrive to install Ubuntu on it. I choose the "Something else" option while installing Ubuntu. During the partition allocation and that process I deleted my 500GB hard drive (i.e. /sda) instead of selecting my 16GB pendrive. I came to know about this mistake when I tried to restart my system. It showed this message: Insert bootable disk.

Once again I booted my laptop with the 4GB Ubuntu bootable pendrive. In Disk Utility I saw that my 500GB hard drive has free space.

I have very important data on it. Please help me. It's very urgent.

bain
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gaurav vyas
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3 Answers3

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Since your HDD has 500gb and a UBUNTU install just needs a few gigabytes you have good chances that your Data just isn't adressed anymore but may still be existant. The Comment suggesting you to use TESTDISK is very promising though.

Here you got some more usefull information and tools : http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15761/recover-data-like-a-forensics-expert-using-an-ubuntu-live-cd/

Don't Panic (-:

tuxaddict
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  • @tuxaddict- first of all thanx a lot. I had read all possible ways.I found Testdisk is the best one. Now the issue is how to install testdisk on by Bootable UBUNTU pendrive without internet connectivity.I am working after it from last many hours.It would be great if you can help me . – gaurav vyas Feb 22 '14 at 03:37
  • You are welcome. As karel suggests in his comment you can download the .deb package and install it offline. Please also keep in mind this comment which points out that you have to do several configurations in TESTDISK BEFORE you run it ! Good Luck (-: – tuxaddict Feb 22 '14 at 09:42
  • Thank you.I am working on it.I have taken help of Win XP live CD and used few partition recovery software .so far It has detected 3/4 partitions. When i right click on found partition it shows "mount as.." .Now what should i do – gaurav vyas Feb 22 '14 at 12:44
  • Hey guys .. great news.. I have recovred my partition.finally a relief. thanx a lot. METHOD - I had a win XP live CD which had many application for partition n recovery n all .I found testdisk software in that and my partition was recovred within a minute. So in short i has to install testdisk any how . once he is done with that he can recover partition.Now there is a little problem that my system isnt booting through Win7 .error is that my boot messenger is missing / lost. i will repair it with my win7 CD.Thank you soo much . – gaurav vyas Feb 22 '14 at 14:40
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Here are some things to try:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

It only takes once to learn the hard way...always back up everything before messing around with new OS's and partitions

user250071
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    There's a lot of good information in your link, but what they don't tell you there is if you don't configure the settings for Testdisk properly before you run it, it will recover all of your data except for the file names, which is really frustrating if you have a large number of files to recover. – karel Feb 21 '14 at 17:24
  • Thanx a lot. I have read this.I was like mad when i lost my data.so surfed whole night:D .I found testdisk is the best option to recover my data & lost partition .I am stuck at installing test disk wihtout internet on my UBUNTU bootable pendrive.Kindly help me – gaurav vyas Feb 22 '14 at 03:43
  • @user208771 Here are the links to download testdisk for Ubuntu 12.04: http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/testdisk. It's a .deb file, so you double-click on the file to open it for installation in the Ubuntu Software Center. The default username is ubuntu, and the password is blank on an Ubuntu Live DVD/USB. – karel Feb 22 '14 at 07:01
  • problem with Ubuntu is that i am not able to install testdisk prpoerly.in that it showed "unable to locate packet testdisk". i have troubleshooted that as well. It is getting complex because it asks for ncurse library as well. when i try to install ncurse ,then also it shows "unable to locate......" i am confused. So currently I have used Win XP live CD and tried to recover my partition. So far it has detected 3/4 partitions and the process is still going on. Now when i have found the partitions i have an option "mount as.." what should i do ? – gaurav vyas Feb 22 '14 at 12:52
  • Hey guys .. great news.. I have recovred my partition.finally a relief. thanx a lot. METHOD - I had a win XP live CD which had many application for partition n recovery n all .I found testdisk software in that and my partition was recovred within a minute. So in short i has to install testdisk any how . once he is done with that he can recover partition.Now there is a little problem that my system isnt booting through Win7 .error is that my boot messenger is missing / lost. i will repair it with my win7 CD.Thanks a lot buddy – gaurav vyas Feb 22 '14 at 14:36
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great news.. I have recovred my partition.**finally a relief. thanx a lot. METHOD - I had a win XP live CD which had many application for partition n recovery n all .I found testdisk software in that and my partition was recovred within a minute. So inshort one has to **install testdisk any how . once he is done with that he can recover partition.Now there is a little problem that my system isnt booting through Win7 .error is that my boot messenger is missing / lost. i will repair it with my win7 CD.Thank you soo much . I can provide the image of WinXP CD with all tools .Just email me on gauravvyas45@gmail.com or gauravvyas45@hotmail.com

gaurav vyas
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  • Bootmgr is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. is the error shown when the part of the Windows bootloader that's installed to the master boot record is unable to find the part of the Windows bootloader that's installed to a partition on the hard drive. If these instructions don't help you, then you might need to get help from a community well-suited to supporting Windows, such as SuperUser Q&A. Also it's a bad idea to give out your email address, so you should remove it from your answer. – karel Feb 22 '14 at 15:20
  • thanx a lot. My system is back to normal without any formatting o any thing else – gaurav vyas Feb 24 '14 at 14:21