Member Avatar for Demerit

Hi to all

My computer was running on a windows xp OS with three paritions (Drive C, D and E). In an attemt to install ubuntu on the system, it formatted the whole system. I just dont underatand how this happedned. all important files that i need are in Drive D and E. When i noticed this, i did not install any OS again.
So there is no OS in the machine.

Please i need your help in recovering these files. All my projects are in this machine.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Demerit
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gabrielcastillo
Member Avatar for Demerit

The formatting deleted all the partitions.

Member Avatar for JorgeM

if you simply formatted drive c, but left D and E intact, then all you need to do is resinstall Windows XP or later on drive C again. Once you have the OS installed and you log in, you will be able to access drive D and E.

Assuming that D & E are formatted NTFS and you had set some type of restrictive permissions....Even if you encounter an permissions issue when trying to access data on those drives, you simply access the properties of the drive, security tab, and take ownership of all files and folders.

If you are concered about making a mistake trying to reinstall the OS and overwritting your data on D & E, you can always take the hard drive out of this computer and connect it to another working PC to get access to those partitions.

Edited by JorgeM
Member Avatar for Demerit

Thanks for your quick reply, JorgeM. All the partitions were deleted. Right now, the drive is no longer partitioned. I noticed this when i used an Ubuntu CD, this time i did not intend to install it but just to try it and see whether the partitions were there but there was none. What can i do?

Member Avatar for JorgeM

There is a lot of options out there with regards to data recovery. If this is really important to you, you may consider having professionals work with your drive. It may be pricey but if all you did was delete partitions, the data should be recoverable since you haven't overwritten on it.

Member Avatar for gabrielcastillo

MiniTool Power Data Recovery This works like a charm!

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