Ubuntu

Who is up for a challenge, I messed up several times

Asked by giror

Excited after seeing ubuntu, I rushed to install it. Unfortunately I did not partition my hard drive, and there goes my windows and all of my documents. Then I realized that I did not want the gibbon, I wanted the fawn, but not being familiar with ubuntu, I panicked and popped in my windows system restore cd. Boy oh boy! I formated all of the partitions with that cd and now my computer will not turn on. It only loads as far as GRUB loading and then reboots. I also noticed that when the system restore cd was installing itself, it was copying files to the Q:\ directory, it may be a complication with the way ubuntu partitioned my computer (clearly I'm not sure). Please if any has any sort of tips or insight, all is appreciated.

Thank you,
Fellow Ubuntu Fan

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Kristopher Ives (nullmind) said : 		#1

Well, there are a lot of ways you may be able to figure this out. The first thing you'll need to know is what data still exists on the hard disk, such as the partitions and there types. Your best bet is to boot into the Live CD and run the program "Partition Editor" from System->Administration. This will show you what partitions you have, but I don't recommend editing them any more until you've got a plan.

If you wish you can also use the command-line (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and issue this command:

$ sudo parted

and then type "print" (without quotes) and it will display some statistics about your disk(s). If you have net access it would help to attach this information, otherwise write down the partition types. NTFS partitions are typically Windows, while Ext3 and Swap are used by Ubuntu. If you have any NTFS partitions they will contain either your restore or your previous Windows install.

Depending on whats remaining you may be able to just modify the boot.ini file in Windows or issue some commands to re-install GRUB from the Live CD. However, if no legit partitions exist you may just wish to use the Live CD to delete all the partitions and install using the Wizard. If you plan on using Windows as a "dual boot," you might want to install Windows first leaving enough space for Ubuntu to avoid having to resize the partition, and then install Ubuntu.

Good Luck,
PS: I recommend NOT using any windows-based partition software, such as PartitionMagic, because they have wronged me in the past; while the Linux partition software has always been golden and simulates everything too!

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Callous Crab (callouscrab) said : 		#2

One more way out is to use a gparted live CD which is a live-CD but only with a graphical partition manager installed (gparted). It is available for download from http://gparted.sourceforge.net/. This will allow you to look at what partitions you have visually.

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