HD Install :: HD install failed and now hda5 and hda7 have gone!

Hi, it seems as though we have the same problem.

I have only just discovered Linux and am beside myself with excitement at the possibility of taking my OS & Data around with me to use where I choose.

Then I think "What If I can save the Live CD .iso onto the hard drive and fool the computer into thinking it's seeing a CD drive...."

Well, you guys at dsl pretty much got that covered too!

I charged ahead with a frugal install and answered all questions to proceed further and decided to install to hda2. I chose that as I had already partitioned the drive with XP and the 1 GB fat32 partition I had prepared for dsl seemed, I thought, to be physically located directly behind the C:winxp partition.

I suppose what I thought is now irrelevant because ALL partitions after C: and the 1gig fat32 partition, have been wiped beautifully clean and is now seen by Partition Magic as Unallocated space!

I think I overwrote my data (NTFS) with the ext.2 file system that Linux uses, and this is where our common ground lies as I believe you may have done the same. Or something similar!

If my analysis is correct, then the solution lies in the question “Can data be recovered from a partition that has been overwritten with a different file system?"

I think our data is lost, but I'll leave judgment to the experts....Gentlemen (and Ladies), it's time too see how clever and inventive you really are!!!

Ok, here's the true test. Start Windows and open the computer management section of Administrative Tools. Then go to "Disk Management" that will show you all partitions on the HD. If you don't see what you're looking for then it's probably gone forever. Once a partition is formatted it's nearly impossible to recover the data that was on it.

But like I said, Windows now cannot install! It says this;
"Boot record signature AASS not found (0000 found). Wondows 2000 could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware."

So That won't work.
Justin

I meant there, Windows cannot "start up" (words mixed up, sorry.
Justin

justin can you post a copy of /boot/grub/menu.lst so we can see the settings for boot.

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