[16:35] <daxroc> Evening
[21:36] <airurando> anyone about?
[21:37] <moylan> hi
[21:38] <airurando> hi moylan
[21:38] <airurando> hope you can help me
[21:38] <moylan> go ahead
[21:39] <airurando> I've taken my sisters Windows desktop and installed ubuntu on it
[21:39] <moylan> all went well fingers crossed
[21:39] <airurando> before I did the install on the corrupt windows PC I took a copy of all data on to a 1TB external hardrive
[21:40] <airurando> I then installed Ubuntu onto the PC
[21:40] <moylan> always a good start
[21:40] <airurando> The ext HD can not longer be recognised by any PC
[21:41] <moylan> have you tried plugging the drive into a different system?
[21:41] <airurando> I left it hooked up to the desktop during reinstall
[21:41] <airurando> yip
[21:41] <airurando> both windows and ubuntu
[21:41] <moylan> doesn't bode well
[21:41] <airurando> fdisk sees it
[21:41] <moylan> does fdisk say it has partitions?
[21:44] <airurando> outupt for fdish at
[21:44] <airurando> http://paste.ubuntu.com/646061/
[21:45] <airurando> actual command used sudo fdisk -l
[21:46] <moylan> looks like it is still a huge ntfs partition there.
[21:46] <moylan> have you tried starting the system without the drive plugged in and then plugging it in?
[21:46] <airurando> that is what I was hoping
[21:46] <airurando> yip
[21:47] <moylan> did the windows system that you plugged it in to give a message of any sort?
[21:47] <airurando> nope
[21:47] <moylan> did you look at disk manager in windows?  it shows partitions
[21:48] <airurando> nope
[21:48] <airurando> how do i do that?
[21:48] <moylan> trying to remember the location.  been a while :-)
[21:48] <moylan> control panel
[21:49] <airurando> will take me some time
[21:49] <airurando> need to close down the new Ubuntu Desktop and restart the old windows desktop
[21:50] <moylan> that will give me a minute or two.  winxp or win7
[21:51] <airurando> win vista....... sorry
[21:52] <moylan> hey, i'm not the one who has to look at it! :-)
[21:52] <airurando> first smile I've had in over 2 hours :)
[21:53] <airurando> booting into vista machine
[21:53] <moylan> say when
[21:53] <airurando> shouldn't take more than 5 mins :)
[21:53] <moylan> that's fast for vista!
[21:54] <airurando> in now
[21:54] <airurando> in control panel#
[21:54] <moylan> control panel and then system
[21:55] <airurando> no disok
[21:55] <airurando> ok
[21:57] <moylan> should be a device manager.  seems to be different in vista according to what i'm reading online
[21:58] <airurando> have under Disk drives a WD 10EAVS External USB Device
[21:58] <airurando> believe this is the ext drive
[21:59] <airurando> says the device is working properly
[21:59] <moylan> ah it is really different in vista  http://www.vistarewired.com/2007/02/16/how-to-resize-a-partition-in-windows-vista
[21:59] <moylan> this should show the drive and what partitions are currently on it
[22:00] <moylan> and maybe allow you to change the drive letter to something that you can see
[22:02] <moylan> any of that link making sense?
[22:02] <airurando> oh god
[22:03] <airurando> Disk 5 931.51 GB unallocated
[22:03] <moylan> what does it say/show?
[22:03] <airurando> what have I done?
[22:03] <moylan> now it can get complicated.  not over by a long shot.
[22:03] <airurando> Disk 0 is C drive
[22:03] <airurando> Disk 1 nothing
[22:04] <moylan> it is possible to unformat a drive.
[22:04] <moylan> haven't done it in over 10 years.
[22:04] <airurando> Disk 2 nothing
[22:04] <airurando> Disk 3 nothing
[22:04] <airurando> Disk 4 nothing
[22:04] <airurando> Disk 5 Unallocated
[22:05] <moylan> wouldn't want to relearn on a disk with data.  let me have a look and see if there is a quick solution
[22:06] <airurando> Oh god I must have done something stupid during the install
[22:07] <moylan> i suspect that the ubuntu default partitioning system wiped it for swap space as it was plugged in.  i've done much much worse.  like explode a drive with shrapnel worse!
[22:08] <moylan> i'd definitely email the ilug list with the current situation in case there is somebody who has done this recently
[22:08] <airurando> within the last 3 hours...
[22:08] <airurando> it the data lost
[22:08] <airurando> why oh why did I not unplug it?
[22:09] <moylan> i've made the same mistake.  everybody does. you should see the steps i do now before an install.  people think i'm paranoid.  i tell them i'm not paranoid enough
[22:10] <moylan> i usually only start when i have at least 2 backups, preferably 3
[22:10] <airurando> last throw of the dice
[22:10] <moylan> i reckon the data is still on the disk but that it needs to be unformatted
[22:11] <airurando> is it possible to 'reallocate' without formatting
[22:11] <airurando> go throught the install process and see if it is recognised
[22:11] <moylan> software that will restore not just the partitions that were on it but the FAT (file allocation table) that points to the files.  all going well if possible you'll get back 90%+ of files.
[22:12] <airurando> sounds complicated
[22:12] <airurando> ohhhhhh
[22:13] <airurando> what an I to do?
[22:14]  * airurando is finding it hard to stick to the CoC here!!!
[22:14] <moylan> as i said it's been over 10 years since i needed such a technology.  not even sure if new partitions can do this.  an email to ilug would get an answer in a day i reckon.  i'm going to check their email archives as i reckon somebody already has done this
[22:14] <moylan> swear all you like i not going to be hurt by words
[22:19] <moylan> not good:http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/node/89
[22:21] <moylan> i can find lots of paid software that claims to unformat ntfs drives. still looking for free software
[22:22] <airurando> oh dear
[22:27] <airurando> what a screw up I've done!!!
[22:28] <moylan> again i say that it is not over yet.  what is on the drive?
[22:29] <airurando> ah I've just gone into gparted and added a ntfs partition
[22:29] <airurando> nothing present
[22:29] <airurando> I am an idiot
[22:30] <airurando> on the drive pics and vids for me backed up I believe
[22:30] <airurando> but docs and data from my sisters somputer
[22:30] <airurando> not backer up
[22:30] <moylan> the more you use the drive the less you can unformat it
[22:30] <airurando> as that was the back up
[22:32] <airurando> I'm not using it anymore as I haven't got a clue
[22:32] <airurando> I'm gutted for my sister and her kids :(
[22:33] <airurando> I really can't believe I did this
[22:34] <airurando> I have to hit the hay as I am in for work at 7 am tomorrow.
[22:34] <airurando> moylan: sincere thanks for the info provided here
[22:35] <moylan> if you put that drive aside and don't use it, it may be possible to recover the info.
[22:35] <airurando> I hold out slim hope that I may get some of the info back
[22:35] <moylan> i'd say about 30-40% chance myself
[22:35] <airurando> It's unplugged
[22:35] <airurando> :(
[22:36] <airurando> I'll chat to you tomorrow night  moylan
[22:36] <airurando> sincere thanks again
[22:36] <moylan> take care airurando
[22:36] <airurando> I am soooo stupid :(
[22:36] <moylan> no you are not!!
[22:36]  * airurando feels like you know what :(
[22:37] <moylan> i did this for a living and i can tell you of a thousand worse mistakes!
[22:37] <airurando> take care