Option to replace existing 13.10 installation led to removal of windows 8

[Djalmahal]

Hi,

I was planning to dual boot Windows 8 and 13.10 on a friends computer. After installing 13.10 I had a working 13.10 and no windows/grub2 option upon boot. I ran boot-repair and had the options at grub2 to boot Windows and 13.10. Windows worked fine, 13.10 ended up at a purple screen and stopped. So I decided to install 13.10 again (boot-repair had downloaded new kernels which I assumed messed up the graphics).

WHILE RUNNING THE INSTALLER I CLICKED ON "REPLACING EXISTING 13.10 installation", assuming it would do exactly that, leaving the other partitions intact.

I ended up with a computer that boots 13.10 fine, I ran boot-repair to update grub2, I end up with only Ubuntu as a grub2 option. I check gparted and the installer deleted all partition except for the boot and swap.

I think that's pretty bad.

HDD setup after first install of 13.10:

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 1 976,773,167 976,773,167 ee GPT


GUID Partition Table detected.

Partition Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors System
/dev/sda1 2,048 923,647 921,600 Windows Recovery Environment (Windows)
/dev/sda2 923,648 1,456,127 532,480 EFI System partition
/dev/sda3 1,456,128 1,718,271 262,144 Microsoft Reserved Partition (Windows)
/dev/sda4 1,718,272 939,442,881 937,724,610 Data partition (Windows/Linux)
/dev/sda5 955,070,464 976,773,119 21,702,656 Windows Recovery Environment (Windows)
/dev/sda6 939,444,224 945,373,183 5,928,960 Swap partition (Linux)
/dev/sda7 945,373,184 955,070,463 9,697,280 Data partition (Linux)

Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16008609792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1946 cylinders, total 31266816 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 32 31,266,815 31,266,784 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 2E3689F63689BEF9 ntfs System
/dev/sda2 A48B-0AB2 vfat
/dev/sda3 46A88C75A88C6571 ntfs
/dev/sda4 B0188EF6188EBABC ntfs TI10657600C
/dev/sda5 CA9C9DB19C9D9891 ntfs Recovery
/dev/sda6 d9d43936-e86b-4e9c-ac08-1ddb6a7fecdc swap
/dev/sda7 00f78a87-e2ff-4516-8441-4fdc42fe0132 ext4
/dev/sdb1 7C45-54B0 vfat MYLINUXLIVE

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,ioc harset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)


=========================== sda7/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================



HDD setup after second install of 13.10:


============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 * 2,048 969,232,383 969,230,336 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 969,234,430 976,771,071 7,536,642 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 969,234,432 976,771,071 7,536,640 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16008609792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1946 cylinders, total 31266816 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 32 31,266,815 31,266,784 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 0b636ca3-42e2-463c-b483-02b24ebb7d87 ext4
/dev/sda5 1ad1ed4f-480f-4b9b-bab2-eefb7f5a69e7 swap
/dev/sdb1 7C45-54B0 vfat MYLINUXLIVE

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,ioc harset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)


So, is this a bug in the installer or was I foolish to assume that "replace existing 13.10 installation" would leave the Windows 8 partition and recovery partition intact?

[Djalmahal]

Link to the HDD setup after the first install:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/6584807/

Link to the HDD after 2nd install:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/6589163/

[oldfred]

Added code tags. You can add them easily in advanced editor with # icon.

I do not know screen you get after first install? Attached is the screen I get with many installs, but I always use Something else and manually choose which partition to reinstall into.

ubiquity is the installer, which you would file bug report again.
I have seen others with the issue when choosing LVM or encrypted, but the old alternative installer always called those full drive installs.

bug reports info on how to do:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/report-problem

Did you backup Windows before installing Ubuntu?
If not you may be able to get a copy of the recovery partition from your vendor for a nominal charge. Otherwise you have to purchase a full new copy of Windows. Only the vendor's version of Windows will use the product key stored in the UEFI.

[Djalmahal]

The first screenshot was what I got with the first install, I chose something else, shrank Windows 8, made a ext4 partition as / and installed 13.10.
The second install there was a new option that offered to "replace existing 13.10 installation". I clicked that and it took over the whole HDD.

And no, I was stupid enough not to back up.

[oldfred]

Ubuntu writes to entire / partition, but only a small amount of data. But it only takes one bit to corrupt an install, so it is unlikely that you can recover a working system. If you had any data you can possibly use several tools.
But STOP using system as anything overwrites more data.

You can see if you can recover old partitions with testdisk. It finds all old versions of partition table, but since you have first boot report you know sizes and partitions you had. Testdisk uses CHS not sectors but you should be able to tell.
Only if very lucky you may be able to recover recovery partition.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
repairs including testdisk info & links
http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p21.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery#Lost_Partition


Instructions
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Menu_Analyse
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk:_undelete_file_for_NTFS

Some also suggest Windows tools work better for Windows, but they may charge.
For NTFS
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2193293
http://www.getdata.com/
For NTFS - Getdataback often recommended
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-products.htm

[Djalmahal]

I assume I should use Testdisk from a Live-USB?

[Djalmahal]

This is the output of Testdisk so far, it's still running....

[oldfred]

It may take a while with larger drives. And since you resized partitions it will find multiple versions of the same partitions. If it lets you recover partitions, you have to select the partitions that are the version that was from your first boot script. You cannot have overlapping partitions which would be some combination of old & new versions.