UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

HI.


I just accidently wipe out my hard drive when i installed sun solaris, this is the last thing i remember, it ask me if want to delete the partition table, and i said yes" Im a retard" i thought solaris can't see xp partition table. Could anyone help me recover my data back, is it really gone. PlEASE help me!!!

Once the parition util in one OS no matter Unix or MS used and selected Yes to delete that particular Partition it will automatically set a Charater Saying that this partition will be deleted. If you are lucky you can undo what you type ( If that particular Option available ). Are you able to go back? If no then there is nothing canbe done Unless you are able to Set another partition and Reinstall XP. (This is one of my experience Input, maybe others idea could be diffrent or might save the situation ).

HI.


So my data is gone for sure, man Yeah i think it gone cuzz when i boot up with a boot disk, and you use the fdisk command all i see is the partition for solaris preparing to be installed.. well thanks for your reply.

Well, I bet much of it is physically there, but the disk can't read it properly. I doubt you want to spend the amount of money necessary to send it off to a data recovery center...

Just FYI, I almost did that myself a few years ago.

Now that you wiped your hard disk, you can go ahead and install Solaris and then come back and install XP.

The reason it wiped out your partition table is that the Active partition for Solaris must be the lowest or "0" root partition on the disk, which is where your windows OS is as well. Physics is a tough pill to swallow sometimes.

I believe that you can load XP on another partition, other than the root partition, but Solaris MUST have the root partition.

Sorry for the tough learning experience. I hope it works out for you. Didn't lose too much real data or documents I hope?

The data are not lost, but you need to keep your tongue straight in your mouth, and not load another OS onto any partition.
This is how I got my data back after the exact same operation as you did, Solaris asks a seemingly innocent question ('No, that can't be, it must mean just undoing the Solaris-specific stuff')
Boot a Linux floppy.
Run fdisk (Linux fdisk that is)
Check the ID.
Change it to whatever ID your OS has (there is a menu that lists the choices for you).

If you have not done anything (read ANYTHING) to your disk after the Solaris-thingy (throw that first disk away, use Program disk1) then you may get your data back.

I did. But I was lucky.

i think souldier done that before.
As what i experienced once the process of partition erase have been proceeded or selected then the chances of recovering the data are relally minimum or less then 15%. You can do one thing which is try as what LivinFree sugested. Get some budget to consult with data-recovery center. If you are lucky enough you can get your data back. If the partition erase once been marked and rebooted your system and it cant seems to find that particular partition it means the parition is gone.