I'm in big trouble right now... I have accidentally installed Madriva when I was testing it from a CD because i didn't know that Live-CD icon meant install. So i just let it install (don't want to interrupt) And then i find out i cant launch or reinstall windows since windows cant find its partitions even tho i can see the partition through Linux. And then my mom remembers she has a REALLY valuable file on the windows partition...... so i have been looking around to find a way to access the file and burn it to a CD or put it on a flash drive.... BUT i cant find the Drive and i have looked at many tuts but no use nothing worked even if i mount the partition.... all what i need is to find that file and then I'm going to FDISK my whole hard drive so that i can dual boot

PLZPLZ I'm really stuck here in Linux...i like it but i need to get the file .... plz some one post step by stem tut to Find Windows files from mandriva one 2007

welcome to linux and mub , i haven' t installed from the live-cd so i don' t know if it overwrites or repartitions but was the file located on a ntfs partition? btw which version of mandriva did you install? gnome or kde?

I use Gnome and i said so that it doesn't overwrites partitions but i guess it did...

How is the even possible? Accidentally? Isn't the icon called "install"? And didn't it ask you lots of questions along the way and give you a cancel button at each and every step?
Dumb question: Are you sure you've installed it? Are you sure you aren't just booting from the live CD each time? Try taking the CD out and booting again, see if you get Windows.
OK, but assuming you have installed:You can see the windows partition in Linux? You can mount this partition? After you've mounted it then you can just read it, or you get an error message?
You can't find the Windows drive or you can't find the CD drive? You said you can see the windows partition, right?
Well that's sounding definitely more like an install. You accidentally specified that it should install without overwriting partitions? In that case it must have shrunk your windows partition to make room for the install? Or was there already free space on the drive?
Definitely an intriguing question, but if you can see the windows partition it sounds like you'll be fine.

Reply:
How is the even possible? Accidentally? Isn't the icon called "install"? And didn't it ask you lots of questions along the way and give you a cancel button at each and every step?
No Questions at all just a pop up window with pictures of Mandriva Packages. Its a long story
Dumb question: Are you sure you've installed it? Are you sure you aren't just booting from the live CD each time? Try taking the CD out and booting again, see if you get Windows.
I know what im doing this is my first linux and yes its installed and yes i already got help
OK, but assuming you have installed:You can see the windows partition in Linux? You can mount this partition? After you've mounted it then you can just read it, or you get an error message?
I mounted it and it didnt show any windows files possibly errased
You can't find the Windows drive or you can't find the CD drive? You said you can see the windows partition, right?
Yes i can see it
Well that's sounding definitely more like an install. You accidentally specified that it should install without overwriting partitions? In that case it must have shrunk your windows partition to make room for the install? Or was there already free space on the drive?
Definitely an intriguing question, but if you can see the windows partition it sounds like you'll be fine.
When i said accidentaly means i clicked on install icon and it started to install so i shut down the window immediately and then when i restart pc it sayn no operating system so i HAD TO INSTALL Mandrive

Open your Konqueror and in the search bar type /mnt and hit enter.
Do you see a windows directory? If so, look for your files you need and copy it to your ~/home on your Linux partition, then open K3b and burn it on a CD.

Edit: I see your using Gnome so instead of Konqueror use Nautilus, and instead of K3b use Gnomebaker.

When you see the windows partition, are you mounting it from the console, and if so do you get any error messages? Are you sure it's the windows partition you're mounting? What do you get from "df" ?

Also, when you boot, do you get a lilo prompt asking you which OS you want to boot from, or does it automatically go straight to linux? And how was your drive partitioned before you clicked the icon, was it just one big NTFS windows partition occupying the whole drive?

That's very very strange about the lack of questions during install - I clicked that icon to install 2007.0 from a live CD and it asked me lots of questions before actually going ahead and doing it.

It seems to me that all you have done is screw up your MBR (Master Boot Record).
Surely all you need to do is insert your Windows disk and select Restore MBR and you will be back into windows again.



Cheers. John.

That was my first thought.

Post the output of the following commands so we can see the layout of your disk after the mandriva install. You must run them as root so type su and then enter your root password before executing them.

This thread delivers.

ok I did mess up my Master Boot Record and the Windows files are gone...BUT i have tryed to get back to windows but i have a SONY Vaio and the windows CD's (3 cds) dont let you partiton, or recreate the MBR all it lets you do is overwrite C or D drives and I messed up the partition sizes so now the SETUP CD's will NOT recognize the partitions and say its missing...so i dont know what to do...

What? Messing up your Master Boot Record (if that's what you've done) wouldn't mean that your Windows files are gone. It would just mean that your Master Boot Record needs to get fixed to point to your Windows partition.

From Mandriva, go into "Configure your computer" and select "Mount points" - that will tell you all about your partitions. Post a screenshot here if you're not sure.

When you see the windows partition, are you mounting it from the console, and if so do you get any error messages? Are you sure it's the windows partition you're mounting? What do you get from "df" ?

Also, when you boot, do you get a lilo prompt asking you which OS you want to boot from, or does it automatically go straight to linux? And how was your drive partitioned before you clicked the icon, was it just one big NTFS windows partition occupying the whole drive?

By the way, I looked at the icon for installing One, and at least for me the first dialog is this:
Click to view attachment with a cancel button. And I got another three cancel buttons before it started formatting my /.

First, do this from a command prompt so we can see what partitions are on all of your disks:



this will list all partitions. and it's an lowercase L. Once we can see what partitions you got, we can tell you how to mount it and get at your data. Alternatively, we can even get you to get the boot loader back to boot Windows or Mandriva. You missed soka's post and didn't give the info he asked for. We need you to get this for us so we can help you further.

Putting the windows boot record back to MBR is fairly easy using a regular windows CD, but it seems that all he's got here is a set of recovery CD's.
I do not know what to suggest, because the whole problem report is totally contradicting (it starts with something like "I accidentally shot someone in the head" and goes on like that).
Since it's sure that your mom can get her windows data back by consulting the right person (at some fee, of course), all I can advice is never messing with things you cannot understand.

No no no, Scarecrow, that's terrible advice! Of course you should mess with things you don't understand, otherwise you'll never understand them! But it's good advice to back up important stuff before formatting your hard drive!

The funny part is she actually wanted me to try linux and btw she found her files on a flash drive, so now im getting a friend to give me his STANDARD XP install CD so ill use my CD key and im still woundering why wont the computer distributors give you the Standard, original XP cd and instead they give you their own.

since i have 3 Recovery CDs and an Regular XP cd is only 1

The recovery CD's put back everything for the hardware that it came with. This means XP, plus all the drivers, plus all other software apps that come with your nice new computer.

Using the XP CD alone, you'll find a lot of devices won't work immediately, and will require you getting the drivers to get things such as video card, network card, sound card, etc working. Oh, and you won't have any of the additional apps that the recovery CD's give you for that machine it came with. Not that this is a major problem anyhow.