Are my partions wiped?

[audiomick]

Can i run testdisk from the same pc? I mean not booting from cd?

I believe it is easier in some respects to run it from a live CD or USB stick. There is info about testdisk in one of those links, if not both.

[DuckHook]

It's been a long time since I've done a fresh Ubuntu install, but doesn't the option that uses the whole disc, basically say that it's going to erase any existing files?

George, I feel your pain, but jeepers, you told the LiveCD to do exactly what it did.

"setup found win8 i choose not to keep previous os and install ubuntu from scratch"

If you'd gotten on the forum and described what you were planning to do, we could have pulled you back from the precipice.

Do you mean that you wanted to wipe both windows systems even though you knew very little about using linux? That's pretty brave of you. I think most new linux users keep their windows 'just in case'.

Your stored stuff can be recovered if you're very careful and haven't messed with the partitions too much. Don't install anything else until that's done. Use live cd/usb to recover.

Guys. While all this is true, it doesn't help the poor man.

I just lost my life in there. It was a new 1TB HDD. A windows user is used to a single partition installations of the os.

George, here is my suggestion and I strongly urge you to follow it. With all the respect in the world, it is obvious that you are way out of your depth here and need someone geeky to work this out for you. Therefore:

1. Do not do anything further.
2. Take the hard disk out of your machine.
3. Take it to reputable computer recovery center (these are different than plain old computer shops).
4. Describe to them the precise steps you have taken so far and let them try to recover as much as they can.

Sometimes it's simply better to call in the pros than continue to stumble in the fog and make things worse. Good luck. Sorry your intro to Linux had to start this way.

[Mark Phelps]

IF you're interested in getting your Windows partitions back, you need to do the following:
1) Remove the affected drive from the current PC
2) Go to a Windows PC, download the ISO of Minitool Partition Wizard from their website and burn the CD.
3) Connect the affected drive to that Windows PC
4) Boot from the Minitool CD
5) Use the Partition Repair Wizard against your affected drive to see if it restores the partitions.