How do i know if i still have windows ?


Recommended Posts

I think the worse had happened and i might have deleted windows installing Xubuntu, I used to run Xubuntu from a live CD without installing it but yesterday I finally decided to install it and went on with the process and I think I might have deleted windows, not really sure though and that's why i wanna check with you people : IS THERE A WAY TO FIND OUT IF I STILL HAVE WINDOWS OR NOT ??

at the moment the system boots automatically into Xubuntu, is this supposed to happen cause I thought i should be asked what OS I wanted to boot in on startup !! shouldn't the PC ask me what OS i wanted to boot in

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^Top idea

OP you could also boot into the Xubuntu you installed and check the HDD content can you see any I386 folder or any sign on windows on the HDD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^Top idea

OP you could also boot into the Xubuntu you installed and check the HDD content can you see any I386 folder or any sign on windows on the HDD

The thing is I don't have the Windows CD on me, I never thought I'd use it again (I know its a stupid thing to do) so I think the next idea is more achievable, how can i acess the HDD IN Xubuntu ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing is I don't have the Windows CD on me, I never thought I'd use it again (I know its a stupid thing to do) so I think the next idea is more achievable, how can i acess the HDD IN Xubuntu ??

then you have to add your vista partition to your xubuntu boot loader, i can't help with you that, i'm sure one of the linux guys here knows how to do that :)

edit: this might help, if xubuntu uses lilo

http://mandrivausers.org/lofiversion/index.php/t37168.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^^^ Xubuntu uses GRUB, not LILO

If you want to see your partitioning (and hope there is still at least one NTFS partition with your Windows data), can you open a terminal and post the output of the following:

sudo fdisk -l (that is a lowercase letter "L", not the number one)

That will list all of your partitions, and including start & end points (so we can see if something is damaged by overlap).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^^^ Xubuntu uses GRUB, not LILO

If you want to see your partitioning (and hope there is still at least one NTFS partition with your Windows data), can you open a terminal and post the output of the following:

sudo fdisk -l (that is a lowercase letter "L", not the number one)

That will list all of your partitions, and including start & end points (so we can see if something is damaged by overlap).

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120060444672 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14596 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x09ad09ad

   Device Boot	  Start		 End	  Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *		   1	   14219   114214086   83  Linux
/dev/sda2		   14220	   14596	 3028252+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5		   14220	   14596	 3028221   82  Linux swap / Solaris

I Think its as good as gone, I posted the same topic on Ubuntu forums and the people there told me that its gone .... But I wanna know if there is anyway I can acess the files that were on my Hard disk while using Windows on the C:\ and D:\ before I reinstall windows, I think this logically should be possible right ?? the Disks aren't reliant on the OS so I should be able to ascess their contents right ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the partitions were re-allocated as they appear to be, and new data (Linux) was written over the top of them, things look pretty grim.

There are byte-by-byte recovery apps, and photorec is one of them (and works in Linux).

If you need to hope that some files are recoverable, it might pay to turn the computer off now, and boot a LiveCD (that doesn't write any more to the drive, causing damage to old files) and use photorec to try to recover files.

It is not a great hope, but some files may be recovered undamaged. Many will likely be damaged and unusable. Many also lost completely, I am afraid. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the partitions were re-allocated as they appear to be, and new data (Linux) was written over the top of them, things look pretty grim.

There are byte-by-byte recovery apps, and photorec is one of them (and works in Linux).

If you need to hope that some files are recoverable, it might pay to turn the computer off now, and boot a LiveCD (that doesn't write any more to the drive, causing damage to old files) and use photorec to try to recover files.

It is not a great hope, but some files may be recovered undamaged. Many will likely be damaged and unusable. Many also lost completely, I am afraid. :(

So basically even if I reinstall windows all the files will be gone ?? I just want to make sure I understand this cause I'm trying to understand what exactly happened to me so basically even if I have C:\ and D:\ Its basically just one hard disk with two partitions and what happened is basically is I over written the files on my Windows with the files from Linux and now some of the file might still be accessible and some might not because they have been written over ... Is that basically what happened ??

Fof future reference and when I do get my Windows back tomorrow what do you reckon is the best way to tackle this for the future, I was reading about making backup images of my system so do you reckon its something that could be useful in these situations. lets say I do in fact backup my system into a CD (or whatever it needs) would I be able to get my Windows back using these CDs if in fact I delete windows again or if for some reason something goes wrong with my Windows installation ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, even if you reinstall Windows, the files will be gone.

In fact, the additional writes to the drive in reinstalling Windows will damage what may remain of those files even more.

If you are needing to recover those older files at all, then you need to stop booting into the hard drive (Linux or Windows) and stick to operating from a LiveCD to try to recover.

If you are OK with losing whatever files were there, then you can re-install Windows and re-try your Linux install (if so inclined). The *buntus have a nice GUI slider to make room on your partitions, or you can use "wubi" which does not partition at all, but creates a large file that serves as a drive image for Linux - and can be easily removed from within Windows.

But, yeah... Best rule thumb is to have a good current backup of your drive and/or files before making significant changes. More or less advice for the future at this point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, even if you reinstall Windows, the files will be gone.

In fact, the additional writes to the drive in reinstalling Windows will damage what may remain of those files even more.

If you are needing to recover those older files at all, then you need to stop booting into the hard drive (Linux or Windows) and stick to operating from a LiveCD to try to recover.

If you are OK with losing whatever files were there, then you can re-install Windows and re-try your Linux install (if so inclined). The *buntus have a nice GUI slider to make room on your partitions, or you can use "wubi" which does not partition at all, but creates a large file that serves as a drive image for Linux - and can be easily removed from within Windows.

But, yeah... Best rule thumb is to have a good current backup of your drive and/or files before making significant changes. More or less advice for the future at this point.

Well nothing very serious was lost, just some of my art work (I do a lot of Graphics) but these are all uploaded as well to sites like Deviant art and such so that's not a problem ... I will loose some photos and so will my brother (Its a shared PC) so he might be outraged but nothing irretrievable ... Just one last question for backing up the windows, when I do backup my windows does it also back up all of the files and all of the drivers as well (So I don't need to reinstall drivers) ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, you need to download the drivers and save them somewhere yourself.

Aha ... But does it also backup all the files including photos and programs etc or does it just backup windows ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you are this new to computers and installing multiple operating systems then you really should be working with a space PC and not the one you do all your work on... at LEAST should have backed everything up before you did this. i know you are trying to learn right now, but the most important lesson you might over look is to back up your hd before you try random things and always read instructions online before you click away with linux installations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you can use software to bakcup the entire hard driver (even temporary files and such). I use a software called acronis, with this you can even create a recover CD/DVD. All you have to do to recover is boot from CD/DVD and follow the instructions. I do a backup cd every month.

you can find acronis here

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you can use software to bakcup the entire hard driver (even temporary files and such). I use a software called acronis, with this you can even create a recover CD/DVD. All you have to do to recover is boot from CD/DVD and follow the instructions. I do a backup cd every month.

you can find acronis here

I will give this a look as soon as I get my windows back cause this seems like a good solution although I've been told that Windows provides some tools for that too and it comes bundled with the system but either way like rashidkaviani said that this has told me a valuable lesson this time and now I just learned how important it is to have backups ... I think a one backup per month average is pretty good so I'll start doing it as soon as I get my windows back

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.