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I installed Ubuntu on a machine with Windows 8.1. And I think I screwed up big time while trying to figure out how to make the system a dual-booting one (the Ubuntu installer didn't detect that a Windows operating system was present on the computer. I assume it had to do with the way my USB-bootable drive was originally configured, but I'm not sure though). So, I believe I have installed Ubuntu over the Windows and the Windows, I think, has pretty much been wiped out. There were two partitions there: C, with the Windows itself and another one, D, with all my data.

Here are my questions:

  1. Do you think I have permanently lost all my data that was stored on disk D?
  2. If not, is there any possibility that the data could be recovered?
misha
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  • Please [edit] your question to include the output of sudo lsblk -f. This should show all NTFS-formatted partitions in your system. – David Foerster Jan 22 '16 at 17:24

2 Answers2

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If you let the Ubuntu installer use the entire disk, then at least your bootloader is messed up with the Linux GRUB best case scenario, however your files may be gone. The easiest way to know for sure would be to use your Ubuntu USB drive and run in live mode, do not attempt to install, then search your HDD for leftover windows directories. If they are there, you can backup important files to the USB, an external drive, or upload them to cloud storage.

There should be a volume option on the under the basic directories in the file navigator (assuming you are using desktop ubuntu, if not, Id recommend to get desktop ubuntu for easier searching of your drive) that will give you root to any leftover data that may be intact.

Cygnus-XI
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  • I am using the desktop version of Ubuntu. But how do I exactly search my hard drive for possible leftovers? What I see is my entire hard drive (496 GB, under "Devices") with Ubuntu files on it--files and directories like "bin", "boot", "var" etc. – misha Jan 21 '16 at 10:15
  • Sadly, I couldn't find any traces of previous partitions. – misha Jan 21 '16 at 10:18
  • @misha You can use Test Disk in live mode and see if you find something using deeper search. – Mudit Kapil Jan 21 '16 at 18:23
  • @Mudit Kapil, what do you mean by a deeper search? How exactly do I do that? – misha Jan 21 '16 at 21:40
  • @misha There are two options for Test Disk if you messed up with file system one is quick search and other one is deeper search for recoverable data – Mudit Kapil Jan 22 '16 at 14:31
  • @misha You can use a pen drive as target device to copy recoverable files found using test-disk – Mudit Kapil Jan 22 '16 at 15:27
  • I did that deeper search thing and it found something for me—a bunch of NTFS disk sections. But the problem was that the information stored on those disk sections was corrupted or something along those lines (I don't remember exactly what it said). So, I was completely unable to bring anything back. – misha Jan 26 '16 at 17:58
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Actually what happens is this, when ever you load new operating system or a file in any memory drive (Hard disk,floppy disk,etc...).

Your data will never be deleted(formated), It will be just over-written. It means that the data was replaced with the existing one.

Even if you delete your file from recycle-bin, it isn't deleted permanently. Your operating system just ignores it as a file and it(os) was ready to manage data on those particular addresses of drive to be replaced with new data.

So if you have installed Ubuntu on 'C' or 'D' drive that memory (around 3 to 4Gb) which will be used by the operating system on your hard disk(over-written)

So there was no need to worry at all. I recommend you to download a 'Do Your Data Recovery' application for windows and recover all the data.

  1. Your data isn't permanently deleted. (you can recover them.)

  2. You can recover them by the above mentioned method.

There were some great options available in Linux, but they were not user-friendly for a beginner.

If you don't have windows operating system right now, I prefer to install it (In case if you are a beginner).

Of-course there was another way that is through terminal,

Command:

    ntfsundelete

for the above command to work the drive which you were referring is supposed to be of 'ntfs-filesystem' and another condition is that should be a separate drive.

  • How do I use "Do Your Data Recovery"? I need to boot from a USB stick somehow. – misha Jan 21 '16 at 10:47
  • You need to use another Pc/laptop to make a bootable image of windows or, 2. use 'winusb' which is available for linux to make a bootable windows usb from linux, so download a windows iso image and then use it. You can check about installing 'winusb' in ubuntu here itself.
    • –  Jan 21 '16 at 10:51
  • use another pc/laptop to make a bootable windows usb or use 'winusb' which can be installed on linux(ubuntu). 'Winusb' can be used to make a bootable windows flash drive from linux-like operating systems –  Jan 21 '16 at 11:00