First, let me explain what went wrong. Windows was unable to boot for unknown reasons, and would have to be reinstalled anyway. Therefore I created a bootable USB with the most recent Linux Mint distribution, to see if I could access the windows file system. This was indeed possible, and I decided that I would like to install Mint next to Windows, I knew the installer has this option (but in hindsight, I should have made a backup of the windows files at this point).
However, when the installer started installing Mint, I realised that it didn't ask me if I wanted to install it alongside windows. So I aborted the installation.
When booting from USB now, the hard drive is not recognized (maybe because the installer removed the partition table?) running
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mint@mint ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
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Disk /dev/sda: 16.1 GB, 16058941440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1952 cylinders, total 31365120 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04dd5721
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 31365119 15682528+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
The thing is, I don't really know where to start since I am not experienced in this area. How damaged would the filesystem be, or is this just a partition table issue? Any pointers to the TestDisk documentation would be greatly appreciated.
If additional details are required, please let me know!
Jacco