Hello,
I have a very similar problem. That is the reason why I am posted this here. I accidentally deleted all the partitions of my laptop. I have tried to use TestDisk to recover the original partitions on the hard drive. I am stuck when I need to decide which labels I should assign to the found partitions in order have structure "ok".
Before my problem, my laptop (Dell Inspiron) worked with a multiboot. There were partitions associated to Windows 8 and others associated to Ubuntu 13.10. I briefly copied the output of df on Linux (I did not retain the sizes):
/dev/sda10 : /
none : /sys/fs/group/
udev : /dev
tmpfs : /run
none : /run/lock
none : /run/shm
none : /run/user
/dev/sda1 : /boot/efi
/dev/sad11 : /home
/dev/sda6 : /media/remy/DONNEES
/dev/sda5 : /media/remy/OS
/dev/sda4 : /media/remy/WINRETOOLS
/dev/sda2 : /media/remy/DIAGS
/dev/sda7 : /media/remy/PBR_Image
I wanted to upgrade Ubuntu 13.10 for Xubuntu 14.04. The first attempt went almost right: I lost the multiboot but and could not access my former /home directory. But the hard drive structure seemed unchanged. I decided then to re-install Xubuntu, asking to erase everything. I thought it would erase more cleanly the / partition. Of course it did not. It deleted all the partitions and I am now left with only Xubuntu on my laptop (no Windows, no division between / and /home anymore...)
I am currently trying to use TestDisk to recover the old partitions of my hard drive.
After a deep Search, here are the results:
1/ Linux 0 32 33 120571 43 48 1936973824 ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB, 991 GB / 923 GiB
2/ HPFS - NTFS 85 72 52 147 191 44 1003520 NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 513 MB / 490 MiB
3/ HPFS - NTFS 147 191 44 210 55 36 1003520 NTFS, blocksize=4096, 513 MB / 490 MiB
4/ HPFS - NTFS 147 191 45 11621 35 62 184320000 NTFS, blocksize=4096, 94 GB / 87 GiB
5/ HPFS - NTFS 147 191 45 120594 225 15 1934983168 NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 990 GB / 922 GiB
6/ HPFS - NTFS 147 191 45 121601 57 56 1951150080 NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 998 GB / 930 GiB
7/ HPFS - NTFS 11621 35 63 49865 196 59 614400000 NTFS, blocksize=4096, 314 GB / 292 GiB
8/ Linux Swap 49865 229 29 50861 233 60 16001024 SWAP2 version 1, pagesize=4096, 8192 MB / 7813 MiB
9/ Linux 50861 233 61 53351 196 29 39999488 ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB, 20 GB / 19 GiB
10/ Linux 50861 233 61 120601 98 9 1120364544 ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 573 GB / 534 GiB
11/ Linux 51929 50 26 54419 12 57 39999488 ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Recover, 20 GB / 19 GiB
12/ Linux 51932 98 7 54422 60 38 39999488 ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Recover, 20 GB / 19 GiB
13/ Linux 51936 150 55 54426 113 23 39999488 ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Recover, 20 GB / 19 GiB
14/ Linux 53351 196 30 120601 98 9 1080365056 ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB, 553 GB / 515 GiB
15/ Linux Swap 120571 76 18 121601 57 56 16545792 SWAP2 version 1, pagesize=4096, 8471 MB / 8079 MiB
16/ HPFS - NTFS 120601 98 10 121601 57 56 16062464 NTFS, blocksize=4096, 8223 MB / 7843 MiB
I tried to explore each of the found partitions. Here is what I can deduce:
--partition 1 is the new Linux, which I want to get rid of
--partitions 4,5 and 6 are Windows systems (I cannot distinguish which is the OS and which is the recovery one)
--partition 7 is not readable, could it be DONNEES ?
--partition 8 is the swap of my old Linux, the one I would like to recover
--partition 9 is my old /
--partition 10 seems to be the / of my first re-installation
--partition 11, 12 and 13 are not readable
--partition 14 is my old /home. This is what contains all the very precious (to me
) data I want to recover
--partitions 15 and 16: I don't know
Could you please tell me how to make the structure ok and which characteristics I should assign each partitions, in order to
1/recover the former "dual" structure?
2/be able to install again Xubuntu on my old / partition (I very rarely use Windows but do need it every now and then, this can wait...)
Another question:
Is it possible and necessary to copy the files in the partition 14 to an external hard drive?
With best regards,
Rémy