<Solved> Partitioned Wrong HDS

[Keyman3001]

I am completely new to Linux.  I have never installed or used it.
I have a dual boot system with windows xp and vista ultimate.
I would like to reformat the xp drive with multiple partitions and
install pclinuxos-kde desktop on it.  Is this possible from the vista drive?
and if so, where can I find detailed instructions on how to do it?
I learn fast, but I'm obviously inexperienced with Linux so any help
will be greatly appreciated.  I finally got the machine to boot from
the cd and now have it installed.  Sorry to bother you, the subject
line tells it all!

Thanks in advance.

PS  The ducumentation link on home page doesn't work.

Mark
________________________________
If it don't fit, get a bigger hammer!

[hounddog]

Dude, there's no need to apologise.  Hope everything is running fine and holler again if you need help.

[OMSkates]

Awesome   enjoy!

[uncleV]

Hi, keyman3001 and welcome!

Any problems during/after installation?

[Keyman3001]

Yes, Being new to this, I screwed up and repartitioned two hard drives that contained windows operating
systems and now I need to try to recover the data from them. Any suggestions?

[uncleV]

First of all - don't write down anything else to the disk! No repartition, no files.

Second - post a new thread (I'd suggest in "Hard drive Installation") with a proper topic and description of what you did and with what results.

I,m leaving now but there'll be many guys in help and it is possible to recover your data.

[menotu]

Yes, Being new to this, I screwed up and repartitioned two hard drives that contained windows operating
systems and now I need to try to recover the data from them. Any suggestions?

Hi Keyman3001 - welcome to the forum and the world of Linux.

What I would suggest as a first option is to boot using the PCLinuxOS LiveCD and then recover your data to a USB stick / USB Hard Drive.

If you don't have a spare USB stick etc, boot the LiveCD using the Copy to Ram  option. This will then allow you boot in to PCLinuxOS but you'll be able to remove the LiveCD when you are at the desktop.

Once the CD has been removed you'll be able to stick in another blank one and copy the Windows data over to it.

Note: Please follow uncleV's sound advice and don't write anything to the disk otherwise you be maybe overwriting your data.

Please post back if you need any further help  - and good luck

[Keyman3001]

What program can I use to recover the lost data?

[hounddog]

Hang in there keyman.  You should be able to access your ntfs windows partitions via the livecd.  I use minime so I'm not much help in this regard.  Someone should be able to tell you how.

[menotu]

What program can I use to recover the lost data?

Use the LiveCD and install PhotoRec from Synaptic

The description says this:

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files
including video, documents and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and lost
pictures (thus, its 'Photo Recovery' name) from digital camera memory.

[Old-Polack]

What program can I use to recover the lost data?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. You said you repartitioned both hard drives. Did you find your error before formatting the new partitions. If so, it should just take re-establishing the former partitions to recover the working systems. If you formatted the partitions, that's a different can of worms. Please tell us exactly what you did, and how you did it, with as much factual detail as possible. Don't tell us a story of what you think happened, give a step by step process report. The more facts, properly ordered, the more likely we can help.  

[Keyman3001]

Ok, I booted to live cd, I chose to install the os on one of four drives that were connected at the time.
I chose to create "custom disk partitioning" on a drive that was blank.  In the partitioning tool, I set
the partitions I wanted on the drive, but saw three other tabs with existing partitions.  I was tired and
unfamiliar with the software and did not realize that these were my other drives and not part of the
drive that I was trying to work with and I cleared them. after clicking done, the messages started popping
up that each drive would be formatted during the process. As soon as I realized my mistake, I stopped the
process and rebooted.  I then installed the system on the right drive and checked the other drives to find
that I could no longer access them and they show one large partition with nothing on them .  Knowing that
there could be recoverable data on the drives, I have not messed with them since.

[hounddog]

I feel for your Keyman.  I've done the same thing myself.  If you can boot into PCLOS, try installing photorec from synaptic and use it to scan those drives.

[Keyman3001]

Ok, I installed Photorec and I'm going to start the recovery process.  I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks for the replies!

[Keyman3001]

It appears that all files are still there,  Is there a way to restore the previous partition/file system?