shido Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Ok i got a laptop and thats it! No pc's nothing, i only got a laptop please don't judge me lol... I hope you can understand exactly what happened because i messed around a lot with the partition tables so try to understand and please tell me what can be done from ubuntu. Ok i have one hdd and partitioned it like this: i had xp on c (20Gb) and all my music on d (30Gb) and 2gb raw. Then i wanted to install vista ultimate and ubuntu but keep D in tact. So i formated c and installed vista but i needed more space for ubuntu so i used partition magic and borrowed space from c so now it looked like this: C (17gb) 3gb raw then D 30 gb and 2gb raw But now i wanted more space so i took a gb from d so that joined to the 2Gb. I started up my computer and boot ubuntu and wanted to begin installation, but i only seen the end 3gb, so i went back to vista and checked out partition magic and figured that maybe i should join the raws to make one 6Gb raw, so i shifted the whole d next to the c so the middle 3gb could join the end but instead of doing that it joined the d. Now i discover that my D is not readable. So i try to undo everything but obviously cant, so i decide that the only option is to make everything one partition and format it so i can try to just recover all my music. So i delete all partitions and format it. Now i got one ntfs partition with nothing on. I boot from an external hdd running ubuntu coz i dont want to risk overwriting anything on the other hdd, so now i got two externals. One is the ubuntu and the other is my music one. Now i downloaded testdisk but i need a command that will allow me to recover my lost mp3s on my hdd that is now in another external enclosure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emeryth Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Testdisk has a text user interface, so you don't have to know any commands. If the partition recovery fails you can always use photorec (part of the testdisk package) to recover the mp3s, this is guaranteed to work but you will lose the filenames and it will take a some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 so i decide that the only option is to make everything one partition and format it so i can try to just recover all my music. So i delete all partitions and format it. Now i got one ntfs partition with nothing on. That is your problem right there is that you deleted the parttition tables and formatted it as one drive. THis wipes out all the files. Only way to recover anything, if anything can be found is with some recovery tools, like a live disc that can recreate the partitions, if such data is in tact. Best bet is something like UBCD4Win and then the disc tools, copy files off to another pc, external driver or network, then redo the laptop, copy them back over. Not sure what will be corrupted and what will be wiped out though since you say you only fomatted and no have nothing on there. Some of it is going to be gone, but you may be able to recover a large chunk of the files still. If you have ubuntu running from an external drive you coudl try mounting the laptops hdd and then seeing you can read any files off of it. Probably won't without some tools to search for the old partition data though. Take a look at this article: http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/digital-forensi...led-hard-drive/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Harsh, may be. Factual, completely. i used partition magic and borrowed space from c so now it looked like this: C (17gb) 3gb raw then D 30 gb and 2gb raw your not meant to do that with partitions. i shifted the whole d next to the c so the middle 3gb could join the end or that but instead of doing that it joined the d. and it wouldn't Now i discover that my D is not readable. Wonder why. So i try to undo everything but obviously cant ctrl+z isn't universal so i decide that the only option is to make everything one partition and format it so i can try to just recover all my music. Rubbing salt in the wound? So i delete all partitions and format it. Now i got one ntfs partition with nothing on. That would be the lemon juice. I boot from an external hdd running ubuntu coz i dont want to risk overwriting anything on the other hdd, so now i got two externals. One is the ubuntu and the other is my music one. At least it's not all bad news. I think it's time to pull those backups you made before attempting this out of the draw. Now i downloaded testdisk but i need a command that will allow me to recover my lost mp3s on my hdd that is now in another external enclosure I never managed to use any free Linux command line tool to recover deleted files. Today's lesson is Just because tools will let you do mad things with partitions, that partitions were never meant to do, doesn't mean you should use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shido Posted August 2, 2008 Author Share Posted August 2, 2008 Take a look at this article: http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/digital-forensi...led-hard-drive/ ok so i looked at the site and i may not have read it properly or im realy tired lol. Does this mean i can follow his steps, make an image of the current partition and then recover data from the image?? or how does it work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 ok so i looked at the site and i may not have read it properly or im realy tired lol. Does this mean i can follow his steps, make an image of the current partition and then recover data from the image?? or how does it work Never done it myself, so your kinda on your own with this, but thought it might help you to recover the files. He also mentions UBCD so again, give them a try and see if you can recover anything. Best thing to do is google the tools and any tutorials on them to help get you started. If anything, it's a learning experience and if you do get it working, you can share with us what steps you took to get the files back, as I am sure a lot of people would like to know the same thing for furture reference. **This would make for a good episode too: How to recover deleted partitions and files** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 Link to TestDisk of you want to give it a try as well: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shido Posted August 2, 2008 Author Share Posted August 2, 2008 lol thanx digip i cant get any hiren to work, so i doubt the ubcd would work, i dont have a ubcd. The iso of it was on my trashed hdd haha. So far im running the photorec from ubuntus terminal it picked up 39 mp3s but its all messed up ones so i changed some setting and am trying again. When its done ill let you know the outcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlit Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 You will not recover all of your deleted files. You may recover some, many of them may be corrupted. Today's lessons are as follows: 1) Don't mess with technical stuff on an important machine when you don't know what you're doing. 2) Always back up your files, especially when you're about to perform major surgery. 3) If you want to multiboot and you're not confident with hard disk partitioning, start with a single blank drive - no other hard drives attached, nothing on the drive to lose. 4) If in doubt, don't click the big red button. It can make you lose things and cry a lot. It's a little late this time but bear all of those things in mind. If you're going to try quirky processes like moving and merging partitions then practice them on a virtual machine or an old machine that isn't important. As for the aftermath, the best you'll get is a selection of files which will not all be complete and/or will be corrupt. However many of these files you recover, you will have to weed out the corrupt files because they will likely be useless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shido Posted August 3, 2008 Author Share Posted August 3, 2008 You will not recover all of your deleted files. You may recover some, many of them may be corrupted. Today's lessons are as follows: 1) Don't mess with technical stuff on an important machine when you don't know what you're doing. 2) Always back up your files, especially when you're about to perform major surgery. 3) If you want to multiboot and you're not confident with hard disk partitioning, start with a single blank drive - no other hard drives attached, nothing on the drive to lose. 4) If in doubt, don't click the big red button. It can make you lose things and cry a lot. Well i wont lie to you i already know these lessons lol, im not new to this and i do what im doing when repartiotioning and stuff i do it alot, i dont know why this time it got messed up. But anyways thanx for the adive i am seeing that the mp3s are only a few kb in size. i am not sure if this is because the recovery using photorec is not complete. Did anyone use this program before? You cannot enter the folder coz of restrictions, is this the reason why the mp3s are only a few kb? so do i havte wait for the whole process to complete before accesing the folder to see the real size of he mp3?or is it that its just corrupt? the things is that the process is going to take another 22hours. If anyone used this program to recover im sure you know what i mean when i say you cant access the folder. I dont know if the restrictions will be changed once the procedure is complete. The only way i managed to get into the folder was by getting the gksu admin thingy lol sorry i forgot the name of it and im kinda new to linux programs. If anyone used photorec program to recover mp3s please shed some light on the matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRGRIM Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I'll admit it, I did LOL when I read thread. I had a customer once who had picked up on some jargon we used e.g. "Windows Repair", "Reinstall" they rang with a problem, can't remember the specific's but it was something quite simple but would require a site visit. I turned up to find that the director of the company had reinstalled Windows XP to "save me time" I could not belive it when I got there, he was like "so.... what's the problem" ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emeryth Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Did anyone use this program before? You cannot enter the folder coz of restrictions, is this the reason why the mp3s are only a few kb? so do i havte wait for the whole process to complete before accesing the folder to see the real size of he mp3?or is it that its just corrupt? No you don't have to wait for the recovery to end, the folder just has root access, you can easily chmod it while it's running. And photorec does display how many files it has already recovered, and those files are fully recovered, so if you can see only very small files, this could mean that the partitioning went very bad when moving the music files and right now they are in shreds all over the place. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shido Posted August 4, 2008 Author Share Posted August 4, 2008 files, this could mean that the partitioning went very bad when moving the music files and right now they are in shreds all over the place. :( ok nevermind ill havte start my whole music collection again :( thanx. Anyways i wasted to much time on this thing, i need to reinstall my vista and ubuntu on the drive and start work. Thanx alot for everyones input Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRGRIM Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 ok nevermind ill havte start my whole music collection again :( thanx. Anyways i wasted to much time on this thing, i need to reinstall my vista and ubuntu on the drive and start work. Thanx alot for everyones input Any reason for running both? I'd trying using R-Studio for Data Recovery, if the disk is on it's knee's I'd try using HDD Regenerator I think both come as "free" trials that allow you to run them and see what they find, if you like it buy it :) or Iso it ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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