Lost data

[black veils]

Hi Black veils
I can boot the live disc again but it is asking only commands. I dnt knw all commands. It is Ubuntu rescue remix 12.04. WHEN I boot with live CD it was showing only one small terminal where I am entering commands. Please help me open a file manager. Mine is Huge data around 200 GB. I dnt have any external hard disk also. How to copy files? Here Net connection is so bad..even i think online services also cannot open for this huge data.
Okay I'll copy only important files. Please tell me how to copy files from testdisk terminal.

Thank you

i dont know what to say other than create another bootable disc/usb stick which has a GUI, not just commands. it would be a lot easier, then you can open a file manager and copy the files you need out of the 200gb.

[ThulasiS]

Okay I'll also do the same today.
I'll make them L and I'll proceed further like Installing the other OS. Hope that will help me

[varunendra]

Still some doubts.
P means primary partition
L for Logic
what is the difference between two?

L = Logic Partition, that's used to store data on, and isn't used to boot from to any OS.
P = Primary Partition, that's a partition used to boot from to OS you have.

Some correction to above explanation -
Logical drives CAN be used to boot OS. It's just windows that prefers to be on a primary partition, and windows Vista onwards don't boot at all from a logical partition. I have personally booted XP from a logical partition, however, the boot files (ntldr, ntdetect.com, boot.ini) were located on the primary partition.

OS like Ubuntu have no problems booting from logical partitions.

More on Primary vs. Logical partitions : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_pa...artition_types
In essence, logical partitions are just a workaround to the partition no. limitation of traditional Master Boot Record (MBR).

To get your other partitions back you need to make them "L" since they're used to store data on em not to boot from.

Not necessarily.
XP and previous versions of Windows tend to create one primary and rest logical partitions.
Vista and later tend to create upto four partitons as primary (four is limit of primary partitions), then convert them to 'dynamic' as subsequent ones are added.

So the partitions may or may not be logical ones. Besides, out target is to recover files. So we should refrain from messing with partitions unless necessary.

I actually didn't transfer any of my data outside of the HDD, all I did was being caution at formatting the old "C" partition which was used to have windows and setup Ubuntu on it. Hope that helped.

Can be done if there is no other choice. But I have experienced issues with partition tables recovered with testdisk in the past. Although Ubuntu (9.10 it was) installed fine and was working fine, but gparted always flagged the drive as 'Unknown' type . Whether it was some bug in gparted or the partition table wasn't clean - I'm not sure. But I have experienced this more than once and so prefer to start fresh after moving all the data to a different drive.
But like I said - it Can be done if there is no other choice.

Okay I'll also do the same today.
I'll make them L and I'll proceed further like Installing the other OS. Hope that will help me

Please don't mess with partitions unless necessary. First confirm whether the files are accessible or not. You haven't attempted so yet.

Creating a fresh live cd which has GUI is a good idea, although not necessary to copy the files. Some of the ways you can choose from -

1)
Where are you posting from? If it is a different desktop PC, you can internally connect the drive in it to access the files using its running OS.

However, if that is a laptop and you don't have an option to connect it via usb, then we can use either commands or a fresh live cd/usb with gui, but you still need a spare drive to transfer files if you want to be extra sure (again, it's not necessary as Tiles mentioned).

2)
If you are planning to install Ubuntu again, I recommend 12.04 64 bit (if supported by your system) as it is an LTS, and also recommend to download it via torrent to ensure integrity of the downloaded iso : http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...tive-downloads

You may also choose from Xubuntu or Lubuntu for a lightweight alternate.

Download any of them > burn a fresh live cd > boot with it to transfer your file > use the same disk to install.

3)
If you just need a live cd for copying files and want it to be as small in size as possible, then Slitaz is a good choice. Just under 35 MB in size with a nice gui : http://www.slitaz.org/en/get/#stable

4)
And last you can even use the currently available commandline to copy the files. Let me know if you want to try that, and if you do, please also post output of -

mount

[ThulasiS]

Hi Varun
Thank you for your suggestions.

I am daily posting all these from my lab system which has net connection.
Before doing all these I recovered my data using the testdisk by running from live CD.
I recovered almost all files without big loss. I found my HDD partition by following the simple changes that analysis.
What I did is I run the testdisk from Terminal in ubuntu rescue Remix 12.04
Followed the tips from cgsecurity website the link which you were given.
After Deeper Search I found all partition in D (Deleted State). I selected all drives
(Simple math I followed to identify cylinder numbers, like 0 to something for 1st drive and for other drives the cylinder no.s which I were posted earlier)
making P (In my PC in first partition it self all drives in P state only, Varun you are Correct)
Then I hit the write tab and then rebooted.

Finally I removed live CD and Inserted my Windows 7 DVD. I went for Installation, during installation it showed all my drives like those in previous state with details of memory.
I installed windows 7 and during installation it showed & fixed some errors in drive D.
Finally I got my Data Back for which I struggled these many days.
Now its the time to install Ubuntu 12.10 along side of windows.
My Simple experiment worked well (Before proceeding I thought so many times and finally I thought its just machine)
I am so excited and I tried to explain you all what I did. I hope you Understand this Long Post.
The Bottom line of the Post is now I am a relaxed Guy and I my research on data recovery from a drive worked well for me.
Thank you for all your support
Thank you, I personally owe so much to you all.

[black veils]

remember to backup your important files

[ThulasiS]

Thank you
For Sure I'll do..
Thank you so much

[ThulasiS]

Hi All

I successfully Recovered Data.
I want to make this thread as solved but
I was Unable to do even after seeing the posts related to make thread solved.
Because those options are not coming on my PC.
So please any form member make it solved.

Thank you and Thanks a lot...

[varunendra]

Thank you for the feedback. It helps a lot the other users who may come across this thread looking for solution with a similar problem.

Please follow the (See how) link in my signature to mark the thread as [Solved] now that it is. It makes the thread more useful for others.

For installation of Ubuntu, I always recommend to use gparted (included on the live cd/dvd) to create/format partitions. Don't rely on automatic selection of the installer as it is prone to such mistakes as you have suffered.

Start a new thread if you need help with that.

Thanks again, and good luck with the fresh installation

[ThulasiS]

HI All
I Recovered Data, even what ever the files I deleted earlier also. Thank to the software team who developed such a wonderful recovery software.

[varunendra]

HI All
I Recovered Data, even what ever the files I deleted earlier also. Thank to the software team who developed such a wonderful recovery software.

I couldn't find an official link for feedback to the project, but if you can, you should consider some small donation to the project then:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Donation

Not an appeal though, only if you feel happy doing so