any linux gurus out there?

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:52 pm

Hey guys,
I had the crazy idea of checking out Ubuntu linux on my wife's computer. Well, I thought when I installed it it would go into a dual-boot type setup. But it looks like it wiped the hard drive and just installed Ubuntu (I was running winXP home before). Am I SOL? since I thought it was going to do a dual-boot thing, I didn't backup my wife's files ahead of time :/

Any suggestions?

clalor · Post by **clalor** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:16 pm

There's a disk partition tool that installs by default in Ubuntu that you can use to checkout the disk. That way you can at least see if the Windows partition is still there. I don't have access to a machine with a normal installation of Ubuntu on it (not without rebooting), so I can't give you the exact name of it.

I'll boot into my Ubuntu install and see if I can't give you some more info.

VanWaGuy · Post by **VanWaGuy** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:17 pm

Does the size of your one partition for Linux equal the size of the drive?

I loaded Ubuntu on a system that had either XP or Vista (sorry, don't remember) but it by default loaded along with Windows. Windows was not bootable after that, but at least for me, it would not wipe out the old contents unless I told it it could.

DonP · Post by **DonP** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:23 pm

I have no experience in Ubuntu (I'm a Slackware fan) but what might have happened is that when installing the boot loader you simply forgot to add the windows partition to the menu.

The way to check is to find a disk partitioning program (there's one installed in ubuntu for sure, I'm just not sure what it's called) and get it to list the partitions on the disk.

If you can't find a lovely GUI based disk partitioning program then try the following as root:
fdisk -l /dev/hda (if you've installed to a PATA disk on the primary master channel) or
fdisk -l /dev/sda (if you've installed to the first SATA disk)

if it lists a NTFS or FAT32 partition then your windows is safe and all you need to do is to tell the boot loader about it.

I'll go into detail once we know whether there is anything there to add.

clalor · Post by **clalor** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:30 pm

The disk partition tool on my Ubuntu install is under System | Administration | Disks. There's a small chance it could have been moved/renamed since I'm guessing that you're using a more recent version than I am (6.06).

Ubuntu is very good about adding a Windows boot drive to the boot menu when it's installed on a multi-boot system.

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:38 pm

Did you grab the latest version? I'm a bit surprised that it whiped the drive. Unless you tell it otherwise, Ubuntu will resize the Windows disk to fit Ubuntu, then add an entry for Windows in the boot menu, so you can dual-boot (If you resize manually, it will still do so, that's how I setup my computers).

There are two ways to check if the ntfs partition is still live, use the program gparted. It's pretty easy to understand it, open it up and see if you can locate the partition.
Other way is to open up a terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal) and type sudo fdisk -l
It will ask for the user password (The account needs to be in the sudo group, the first user created for the system is in this group by default), type it in and it will spit out the partition table for the system.

This is an example of one of my disks if I were to use the fdisk -l command:

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf52bcf0e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1          66      530113+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb2              67       12284    98141085   83  Linux
/dev/sdb3           19154       19457     2441880   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4           12285       19153    55175242+  7  HPFS/NTFS

I have my partitions set up a little different then the standard. Basically what you are looking at, is the first partition is ~500MB, this is my /boot partition.
The Second partition is ~98GB, which is the Root partition. Then we have the swap partition, which is ~2GB.
Finally, there is the NTFS partition, which would hold the windows install (I actually fibbed that partition table, windows is on a separate disk :p)

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:15 pm

thanks for all your replys, I really appreciate it. I grabbed the very latest version, which is 7.02 I think. Whole thing installed in about 20 min, everything is gravy except I am using to use a "restricted driver" to run my nVidia 7100GS... is that bad? Also, I am getting no sound output. I have a gigabyte mobo with nForce 4 chipset with I think a realtec AC97 integrated audio chip. I'm sure I can figure that out eventually.

I tried fdisk, and I got the exact same thing as you, except no NTFS at all. From what you guys said, it sounds like the old files are gone. Now my question is, is there any way possibly for me to get my documents from the previous windows install? I really need all my .doc and .jpg and .xls files, my wife is really upset at me (with good reason!), she needs some of those files for her college classes. Like me, she is a senior at Colorado State.

Once again, thanks for the help guys.

It looks like my hard drive is set up as a slave, which I just noticed. It is listed as HDB. Perhaps because it was listed as a slave, it thought it could ditch windows? idk. I just went with all the recommended settings when I installed. Stupid noobie I am I guess lol. I've been using nothing but windows for 12 years now :/

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:37 pm

djkest wrote:thanks for all your replys, I really appreciate it. I grabbed the very latest version, which is 7.02 I think. Whole thing installed in about 20 min, everything is gravy except I am using to use a "restricted driver" to run my nVidia 7100GS... is that bad? Also, I am getting no sound output. I have a gigabyte mobo with nForce 4 chipset with I think a realtec AC97 integrated audio chip. I'm sure I can figure that out eventually.

I tried fdisk, and I got the exact same thing as you, except no NTFS at all. From what you guys said, it sounds like the old files are gone. Now my question is, is there any way possibly for me to get my documents from the previous windows install? I really need all my .doc and .jpg and .xls files, my wife is really upset at me (with good reason!), she needs some of those files for her college classes. Like me, she is a senior at Colorado State.

Once again, thanks for the help guys.

It looks like my hard drive is set up as a slave, which I just noticed. It is listed as HDB. Perhaps because it was listed as a slave, it thought it could ditch windows? idk. I just went with all the recommended settings when I installed. Stupid noobie I am I guess lol. I've been using nothing but windows for 12 years now :/

Off the top of my head, only software I can think of would be Acronis Disk Director. I've used a lot of partition recovery programs, and that one worked best for me. The software creates a bootable iso that can try and recover the partitions for you.
Using restricted drivers is fine, it's just using the binary nvidia driver. I use this driver since I like to play with compiz fusion. What's the model of your motherboard? I'll do some searching for you and see what I can pull for your sound issue.

By the way, did you ever get a prompt to copy settings over from windows?

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:08 pm

I dont' remember anything about windows settings, but perhaps I elected to not use them, that may be where I messed up.

I'll try that recovery program you mentioned.

This is the motherboard I'm using: GA-K8N-SLI
http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherb ... uctID=1928

Processor is Athlon 64 3700+. It is the 64-bit version of ubuntu.

Lol.. I can't post the screenshot from my Linux machine something about PHP I can't post on that computer.. it tries to open up the php file or something.

Alright so acronis disk director only runs in windows I guess, so that is out. I have testdisk, which should work, but I have no idea how to use it, and it says something about needing the root. :/

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:17 pm

Ah, I had thought you had a windows machine somewhere. I'll poke around and see if I can find some sort of recovery software that is linux-based, I know they exist. Keep in mind though, that the more you use the system, the harder it will be to recover the data off it, because you are actively writing blocks on the same sectors as those partitions used to be on.

Grab the latest Knoppix disc, I think I remember using it to recover a partition awhile back.
As for the sound issue, is the sound ports hot plug (map outputs to other ports). Also try plugging the sound cord into another port, and another thing to try, open up the terminal (sorry, I'm a terminal junkie) and type alsamixer
That will show you the sound device and the audio controls for it. It should say the sound card information in the top left corner (Card and Chip).

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:41 pm

I do have a windows machine. Maybe I can yank the HD out of this one, plug it into my other computer, and install/run that program. I guess I'm pretty stupid not to think about that. I'll try the different ports thing, lol

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:23 pm

You don't have to run the software locally. After you install the Acronis software, there is a utility that will create an iso that you can burn to a disc. And you now have a portable version of Disk Director. It's what I've been using for awhile, don't even bother with the software, just boot off the disc.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:23 am

I burned an image to a CD-R and ran it on the computer.

It looks as though Ubuntu formatted over the old partition, thus Acronis says "cannot find any unallocated space(s) on your hard disk drive(s)."

So I guess only choice now is to send it in to a recovery service that charges like $100?

Also, plugging the speakers into a different jack in the back did not work. And I checked in the BIOS, it is AC97 audio.

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 7:28 am

djkest wrote:I burned an image to a CD-R and ran it on the computer.

It looks as though Ubuntu formatted over the old partition, thus Acronis says "cannot find any unallocated space(s) on your hard disk drive(s)."

So I guess only choice now is to send it in to a recovery service that charges like $100?

Also, plugging the speakers into a different jack in the back did not work. And I checked in the BIOS, it is AC97 audio.

Hmm, there's one other software to try. I've used their UnErase software and it worked great for me (I still use it to this day), Take a look at Format Recovery, as it sounds as though it will help.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:06 pm

After trying numerous programs I gave up. Apparently Linux formatted over the old files making a large partition, and none of the windows files showed up, probably cause I did something wrong when I installed it.

So I inserted a Win XP disk and split the HD into 2 partitions, one of which is 15gigs and the other is the balance. I plan on putting XP on the big partition and that leaves me plenty of space for Ubuntu to screw around with. Hopefully I can figure out how to dual-boot this time!

Thanks for all your help. I'm sure when I'm not trying to recover files I'll figure out how to get sound working.

Palindroman · Post by **Palindroman** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:34 am

Too bad about your wife's documents. At a certain point during installation you are asked about how you want to partition your disks. If you don't choose 'manual' it will format your whole disk automatically. That's probably where it went wrong.

There are some good Howto's here for dual boot installations: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/

It explains how you can create a shared partition that is accessible from both Ubuntu and XP. The disk format described here is FAT32, but nowadays you can also go for NTFS, as the latest release of Ubuntu (7.10, Gutsy Gibbon) has an application called ntfs-3g that gives you access to NTFS formatted disks. I recently did such an install for my mother-in-law and it went real well.