Help!! I Lost 65+ Gb!

[abhi.eternal]

i feel like crying...

i am in b'lore and my pc is in shillong. however, recently one of my friend informed me that my pc is 'blown'! this is the story:

my sister listened to some songs in one night and the next morning the pc dint start. so my kid brother somehow managed to start the Ubuntu Live CD! He said my sister tried to play some games that were in tit, but it somehow got installed... it had overwitten my XP Pro!!! I asked my brother exactly what he did, but this is all the info i got from him. they called one of my friend (who informed me about my pc's status) to help. he saw that ALL the data, across 6/7 partitions, were deleted and there was only one ext-3 formatted partition. he then installed XP Pro (along with WMP10, MPC and MSWord) so that the pc can be used.

this is the whole story . i need help ASAP. i have.. had.. over 65+ GB worth of data (songs, vids, pics, games, imp docs!!). i have instructed them to not install anything in the pc.

please help!! i will try to give more info, if possible, if needed. but note that as i am far from home i want some suggestion that i can deliver over phone!

 

[sachin_kothari]

i suppose ur data on the partition on which xp is installed is almost lost.
I use PC Inspector for recovering data. It is a Freeware.

PC Inspector

You should be able to recover all your data on all other partitions if they are not used after what happened.

 

[Hitboxx]

I strongly doubt you can recover that amount of data even with a professional software unless its rocket science. Probably they opted "Use entire disk" while accidentally installing Ubuntu in which case, it would have erased everything. Sorry man.

 

[infra_red_dude]

Use some data recovery software and try your luck.

Yep, I guess some just double clicked on the Install shortcut on ubuntu desktop and kept clicking Next... without knowing what it is.

 

[sachin_kothari]

I dont think the entire disk is wiped out.
I know you wont be able to recover the entire 65 gb but it worth giving a try.
I had recovered around 30 gb once using the above mentioned software.

 

[Anindya]

I really fell sad for u. Try ur luck and tell us what happened.

 

[gaurav_indian]

Thats why installing linux os's is risky they can eat your hdd space.

 

[Hitboxx]

Thats why installing linux os's is risky they can eat your hdd space.

It has got nothing to do with Linux, the culprit is PEBKAC.

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ Exactly. Whatever OS it is, simply clicking Next while installing will do the same.

 

[Faun]

try out recover my files or O&O format recovery(its a tad bit slower but recovers files when former one fails).

And dont save the files on same hdd.

Once i recovered 95% data from 80Gb HDD. I remember waking up late night to get things back.

 

[abhi.eternal]

wer r the (real) MVPs wen i need dem most? help guys... i know u can...

 

[lywyre]

Try Get Data Back or the one suggested above - PC Inspector to recover your disk.
You can recover what ever files that are not overwritten.
IMP: What ever you recover with which ever software, save it on a different disk.

 

[vish786]

use ontrack partition recovery software... its best among d rest... will recover atleast some data(if ur data is not overwritten by something else)

 

[NucleusKore]

Thats why installing linux os's is risky they can eat your hdd space.

I don't think so.

And if you have installed on your whole hard disk, remember that it would have been formatted into ext3. Anyway try your luck and let us know

 

[FilledVoid]

Not to burst your bubble but first of all. ubuntu doesnt get installed by accident. You would have to go through a couple of steps to set it up in order to have a an Ubuntu set up on the system. Nonetheless your best options I would guess is to look for backups if you have any. Why? Cause not only did you install Ubuntu but you installed WIndows XP over it which means you formatted the drive probably twice not to mention 2 times running fdisk? But nonetheless try out the disk recovery tools and please inform if you have had any luck. Hope you get the data back.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

thats why I hate little kids... they are very dangerous if you leave them in company of somehting important

btw, I guess after 2 formats there is nothing left to recover. try your best though. you might something from the middle, end of the disc

 

[abhi.eternal]

thats why I hate little kids... they are very dangerous if you leave them in company of somehting important

i agree that i will have to bear a lot of sufferings... but man am i surprised! Imagine a kid who is in 6th standard installing Ubuntu successfully

 

[New]

^You have got an intelligent brother.*gigasmilies.googlepages.com/103.gif

 

[praka123]

^yes.but see..the Intelligent windows users failing to complete Ubuntu installation. a kid can install Ubuntu,but some win geeks cant able to install it BTW,best of luck if any data is available for restore.and remember u cannot restore if the filesystem is formatted to any of linux FS like ext3.as linux infact completely deletes the files permanantly,no trace left in hdd.

 

[praka123]

^proffessional tools also fails when the hdd partns are formatted in UNIX file systems.ie,they completely removes the files from hdd.no traces,unlike DOS formatting!