Accessing Linux Drive in Windows XP, which has previously windows files

If you chose the 160gb partition during you ubuntu install, you data on the 160gb drive is (probably) gone. IIRC there is an option to utilize the free space, but i've never chose this option, so I dont know if there are currently file system requirements for that partitcular install (ie if it repartitions the drive or not)

Open up a shell prompt on your ubuntu session and type df -h

if the first displayed line on the output of that command shows ~150gb - 155gb (Give or take for swap allocation) then you've wiped your 160gb drive/partition.

Late

If during installation process you chose installing Ubuntu on the whole disk everything is erased on it. You lose the data but there's a possibility to retrieve it at least partial using data recovery stuff or program:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75724

And its better till ten you don't work with Ubuntu which operates on this disk.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Yup, its totally vital to stop using that 160Gb drive at all until you've been able to do some data recovery from it. I would physically unplug that drive completely. You can install Ubuntu as a dual-boot on the same drive as your Windows using these 2 guides
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

then install gpart to the Ubuntu by going up to the top taskbar and clicking on

System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager

use either search tool to find "gpart" right click and install then click on the "Apply" button. Gpart should be able to help you reconstruct the partition table on the 160Gb drive and thus recover your data but even then it would be wise to avoid making any writes to the 160Gb drive, just read off it and copy all the data to a safer place.

Really tho, given the givens i would seriously consider either counting this data as lost or else pay a professional data-recovery service to do the job for you. It's not easy and they will charge a lot but it's about the only way to recover the data unless you have backups or can rework it from original sources. You could wrap the hard-drive in foil and keep the drive for a better time, such as after you've become mere experienced with linux or had time to practice some of the techniques.

Good luck with this, sorry to hear about the loss :(
Regards from
Tom

While installing Ubuntu, I selected the option that leave the file system as it is.

And it is showing that there are some files,can not be displayed and can not be accessed!

Can you copy those files onto your Windows side? That would be the normal way forwards. I am a bit confused about exactly what has really happened so i think a bit of background about a few things might help ...

Linux can usually read Windows stuff but Windows cannot see linux stuff at all in most cases. Hence in a dual-boot install it's a good idea to limit Ubuntu's size to about 15Gb and then keep most of your data on Windows partitions on the same drive (or on other partitions on other drives). Then both Windows and Ubuntu can read/write the same data.

Each hard-drive can have 4 primary partitions (or 3 primary and 1 "extended" partition) but must have at least 1 partition. Each partition can be used for just data or for 1 Operating System with some data too, although there are more options in linux.

Typically Windows will take a complete hard-drive's space, give it just 1 partition filling the entire drive and then install onto that partition. Windows really can't cope with thinking about anything more complex than that and tends to call a partition a "drive" which really adds to everyone's confusion, especially when talking about 2 partitions on 1 physical drive!

When installing or re-installing an Operating System onto a partition it will usually need to reformat the partition and hence any data on that partition will be destroyed, although sophisticated data-recovery techniques can sometimes recover quite a lot of it although doing so would probably destroy the newly installed OS (see much later in this post). Many people like to keep data safer by putting the data on a different partition from the main OS but Windows is very limited in dealing with this kind of setup. Often when you buy a new machine from a decent place that offers good customer service they will have 'split' the drive into 2 partitions (still just 1 physical drive) and installed Windows on the smaller partition and left the larger partition for data. Windows programs tend to be quite huge as they don't share common libraries and tend to rewrite everything rather than share anything and it's difficult to guess how many programs someone might install into Windows so it's difficult to guess how much space to give Windows but the best answer is to give it 'quite a lot', especially since Windows users tend to find it awkward to put their data on the other partition (even if they have one). So a place offering good customer support would then find it really quite easy to shift the data over to the other partition, reinstall Windows and shift the data back even if they were called out to fix a "completely broken" machine on-site.

"Data Recovery" starts at the level of rescuing something from your wastebin and increases in sophistication (and expense) gradually all the way up to stuff like the Fbi and such-like might use. Mostly when you delete a file only the first character of the file gets changed and when you wipe out the drives file-allocation-table (or equivalent) it's only the 1st character of that getting changed that makes it completely unreadable but if a new file gets saved on top of that "empty" space then the table would be much more difficult to recover.

Most versions of linux, we call them distros, have a good way to demo them. For example put the Ubuntu cd in the cd/dvd-drive and reboot the machine. This should get you to a menu with "Try Ubuntu without making changes to this machine" as the default, top, option. Choosing this should get you to a working desktop and we call this a "LiveCd session", if it works. Mostly they don't have such a fancy title but it is usually the default option. Ubuntu's LiveCd should be able to pickup your internet connection and you should be able to surf using firefox. Note that anything saved in the "Documents" on the LiveCd will be forgotten although you can use the "Places" menu to navigate to your hard-drives. If you don't get to that menu then this guide should help
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD

When you get a LiveCd session working please go to the top taskbar and click on

System - Administration - Partition Editor

and let us know the text part of what it says, the useful information will all be in the bottom of the 2 panes as we can't paste pictures into here, sadly. At the top right-hand corner is a button saying something like "/dev/sda 160Gb media" and if you click on that it should show your 80Gb drive, selecting that will change the info in the bottom pane to info about that other drive. It would be great if you could paste the info from that into here too. Don't worry about Launchpad messing up the spacings, we can usually work it out ;) GPartEd is a somewhat powerful tool so please take care to avoid doing anything with it, certainly don't click "Apply", just quit out of it.

I hope this helps!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I will narrate exactly what happened!

Itz first time for me to install Ubuntu; rather verrrrry first attempt for Linux. Heard about it, become crazy, and decided to put it in my desktop on one fine morning.

I have 2 HDDs - 80 + 160. 80 already with windows; I made an empty partition in it for Linux. But I could not direct Linux to install there. I can say I got confused in selection of the partition. Then I selected "use entire drive" option and selected 160 GB Drive - very fine, UBUNTU got installed very faster than Windows XP, I am happy that I am using Linux also with dual boot option.

When I selected Windows OS in boot menu, logged into it, a message appeared in tray that Windows recognized a hardware and installing the software for it! I looked for it, the task completed. When I opened "My Computer" I did not find my 160 GB drive! Itz gone somewhere!

Restart, booted with Ubuntu Linux - There is a message that there are some files, which could not be read. Ok, it's first time for me with Linux, let me see. But, no previous files [around 16 GB] are found in it. Then I got the point, I am wrong somewhere, I lost my backup data. Don't know, I have backup disks. Even if I have, they will work.

Thatz why I'm here, before you. This can happen for any Linux beginner. Let there be a solution or a precaution for all.

Thanks in advance. If my problem is solved - happy. If not, let there be a lesson for others like me.

Oh dear it does sound like you have lost all that data from the 160Gb drive.

A data-recovery company could probably get it back for you but that would cost quite a bit, maybe about as much as buying a Windows installer cd might cost. Trying this will be more difficult if you keep using the Ubuntu that's installed on the 160Gb drive because you will be overwriting the data that's laying underneath

It's always really sad when someone loses a lot of data, and worse when it's happened to me. Usually i lose data just before i get around to backing it all up :( It's amazing how often i don't have an accident just after backing up.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss :(
Regards from
Tom

Ok, there's already a "brainstorming" idea about this
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20480/
Please go right down to the bottom of the page and click on "Post your comment" if you wish to say anything in there.

Also there is a bug report saying the warning about using the whole disk should be larger and red
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/204053
Near the top right-hand corner click on the link "This bug doesn't affect me (change)" to change that to something better and feel free to add a comment at the bottom there too.

If the data was really valuable to you then try finding a computer company near you as soon as possible that might be able to help with this but it will probably cost you quite a bit. I'm sorry
Regards from
Tom