Ubuntu wiped my drive?

[Jason_He]

I was installing Ubuntu when I accidentally hit the replace Windows with Ubuntu box, the next step was choosing my time zone, I looked for the back button, or power off button, but there wasn't one, so I hard shut my computer down. When I rebooted (with installation USB out), my Windows wouldn't boot, even my recovery (restore) doesn't work. How could Ubuntu wipe your drive without a prompt...in a few seconds? Is this supposed to happen? How do I get my OS back?

[Mark Phelps]

I accidentally hit the replace Windows with Ubuntu box,

It only did what YOU told it to do!

It probably started out by reformatting the partition containing Windows -- which actually takes only a few seconds and was probably already finished when you panicked and shutdown the machine.

What version of Windows were you running?


How do I get my OS back?

Answer depends critically on what you have that you can use to restore the OS.

Did you make a set of recovery disks?

Did you leave the Recovery partition intact when you installed Ubuntu? Or did you erase that, first?

Do you have MS Windows full installation media?