Ubuntu

Ubuntu erased everything on my C drive

Asked by summercool

After installing Ubuntu, it seemed that everything on my Drive C: was lost.

After hours of trying, it really turned out I lost EVERYTHING on my C: drive.

So I had to reformat the whole C: drive, and reinstall Vista on it.

I lost all my bookmarks, in both IE and Firefox.

I needed to reinstall every single application.

I needed to reinstall all security update for Vista all over again.

I wasted at least 5, 6 hours.

How can "Ubuntu - Humanity towards others" erases people's whole hard drive without a single warning?

Think about it, some people may lose tens or hundreds of hours of work, or 4, 5 years of photos and memories, just because Ubuntu erases whole hard drive without warning.

The following is the install option snapshot: IT NEVER warns you the content in drive C: will be totally erased. What's more, it is set as the DEFAULT ACTION. And it says it is "GUIDED":

  http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/32522/2001738602340396146_rs.jpg

I see that intermixed at the last install info page, it is said that some partition on your hard drive will get erased. But how do I know it isn't some partition that Ubuntu will create for me? Why not just say "it means your whole hard drive's content will be erased" -- best right after people click the "partition for whole drive" option.

When it asked "How would you like to partition your hard drive", choosing "Use entire drive" seems like "Yes, I want to partition my entire C: drive and just make it dual boot with whatever OS that is already there". And turned out actually it means, "use my whole C drive and erase everything in it."

Humanity towards others -- yes, when you make the software, think about it can be you, your children in the future, or someone not as skilled as you who will be using it. People don't have time to read thousands of words of warning and note for the installation. Just spend a little time to warn time before doing something as destructive as erasing the whole hard drive.

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Benoit Malet (benoit-malet) said : 		#1

Hello !

I understand that the situation you're in is not comfortable and that you might be angry ...

But I think it is not fair to put all the responsibility of it on Ubuntu ... Tons of people (including myself) did understand exactly what the message meant ... Ubuntu is indeed a Linux for Human being and if you had tried some older Linux in the early 2000 you would know the gigantic gap between now and then.

We are trying our best to continuously improve Ubuntu, but it doesn't mean that everything is as easy as cake. It's still an OS installation we're talking about ...

So sorry for the loss of time and data, but next time just take some time to ask some questions if something seems unclear to you, we'll be happy to help.

Regards,
Benoit

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summercool (summercoolness) said : 		#2

what an unsympathetic answer. i just got confirmed it is an Ubuntu bug that it didn't detect Vista and didn't offer a slide bar.

it is those "we are not responsible..." kind of cold-blooded message.

It is more like "Ubuntu, from the cold-blood humanity."

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#3

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.