Ubuntu/Linux Mint Installer wipe out on a SSD disk

[edouardlopez]

I'm trying to restore my data after hitting issue #1265192: Reinstallation wipes out all/other partitions, also described in Why “remove Ubuntu 12.04 and replace it with Ubuntu 13.10” means to use all of the disk and lose all data? [closed].

Partition tables
My disk is a ~100Gb Corsair disk. Previously to the events, the parition table was :

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/dev/sda1    ext4          7.5Go      /
/dev/sda2    extended
/dev/sda5    ext4          2Go        /home
/dev/sda6    ext4          100Go      /mnt/data
/dev/sda7    swap          2Go

After realizing there was no confirmation pop-up I close the installer to prevent further operation. However, I got a new partition's table :

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/dev/sda1    ext4          108Go      /
/dev/sda2    extended
/dev/sda5    swap          4Go

Gpart

I went to the Ubuntu Data Recovery page and tried to use gpart, which detect 4 partition but doesn't give much information :

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sudo gpart /dev/sda

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Begin scan...
End scan.

Checking partitions...
Ok.

Guessed primary partition table:
Primary partition(1)
   type: 000(0x00)(unused)
   size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
   chs:  (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r

Primary partition(2)
   type: 000(0x00)(unused)
   size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
   chs:  (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r

Primary partition(3)
   type: 000(0x00)(unused)
   size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
   chs:  (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r

Primary partition(4)
   type: 000(0x00)(unused)
   size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
   chs:  (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r

Using the -v flag give a little more but still not much :

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sudo gpart -v /dev/sda

dev(/dev/sda) mss(512) chs(14593/255/63)(LBA) #s(234436545) size(114470mb)

* Warning: strange partition table magic 0x0000.
Primary partition(1)
   type: 131(0x83)(Linux ext2 filesystem)
   size: -1061158912mb #s(-2173253452288) s(972733539046918144-972731365793465855)
   chs:  (0/32/33)-(1023/254/63)d (60549862374535/212/14)-(60549727095765/17/60)r
   hex:  00 20 21 00 83 FE FF FF 00 08 00 00 00 D8 7F 0D 00 FE FF FF 05 FE FF FF

Primary partition(2)
   type: 002(0x02)(XENIX / filesystem)
   size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
   chs:  (269/231/63)-(256/96/57)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r
   hex:  FE E7 7F 0D 02 60 79 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Primary partition(3)
   type: 000(0x00)(unused)
   size: 21mb #s(43605) s(0-43604)
   chs:  (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(2/182/9)r
   hex:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA 00 00 00 00 00 00

Primary partition(4)
   type: 000(0x00)(unused)
   size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
   chs:  (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r
   hex:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Testdik

When running testdisk Analyse tool here is what I got :

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Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 P Linux                    0  32 33 14097 252 43  226482176
 2 E extended             14098  30 11 14593  66  1    7954434
No partition is bootable
 5 L Linux Swap           14098  30 13 14593  66  1    7954432

Quick search

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Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63

     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 * Linux                    0  32 33 14097 252 43  226482176
 2 P Linux Swap           14098  30 13 14593  66  1    7954432

Deeper Search
Running a deeper search doesn't seems to give more, here a screenshot during :


And at the end I got back to this, that look like initial Analyse screen :

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Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>  Linux                    0  32 33 14097 252 43  226482176
   Linux                 1215 203 13 14338  75  9  210812928
   Linux Swap           14098  30 13 14593  66  1    7954432

Clone
I'm creating a disk image using dd as a friend suggest the disk could try to reorganize sector even if not currenlty used (something related to TRIM flag on the disk) :

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outf="/media/mint/51ee8de5-b1a9-4d57-9a94-24b9b1d0d10b/sdd-disk.img"; 
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of="$outf" & ddpid=$!

Questions

• At the bottom of the Analyse tool I got a A: add partition entry. Should I rebuild manually my partition table ?
• Does the fact that my disk is an SSD could explain why I got few information
• What can I try next ?

[cgrenier]

Try to list the content of each partition: select a partition and press 'p'.
This way you may be able to recover your partition.

[edouardlopez]

Try to list the content of each partition: select a partition and press 'p'.
This way you may be able to recover your partition.

Here is what I do, output below :

1. run testdisk
2. create a new log file
3. select & proceed > Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - Corsair Force GT
4. select Intel/PC partition
5. Analyse current partition structure and search for lost partitions
6. Run Quick Search
7. Select biggest partition (from current partition table, not older one!)
8. List files

Analyse

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Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 P Linux                    0  32 33 14097 252 43  226482176
 2 E extended             14098  30 11 14593  66  1    7954434
No partition is bootable
 5 L Linux Swap           14098  30 13 14593  66  1    7954432

Quick Search

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Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>* Linux                    0  32 33 14097 252 43  226482176
 P Linux Swap           14098  30 13 14593  66  1    7954432

[...]
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 115 GB / 107 GiB

List file
Got only two files, not even a file system.

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   * Linux                    0  32 33 14097 252 43  226482176
Directory /

>drwxr-xr-x     0     0      4096 19-May-2014 16:08 .
 drwxr-xr-x     0     0      4096 19-May-2014 16:08 ..
 drwx------     0     0     16384 19-May-2014 14:43 lost+found
 -rw-r--r--     0     0     21763 19-May-2014 16:52 testdisk.log

Previous Partition table
The one I'm trying to get data from.


Current Partition table
The one created by the Ubuntu installer.

[appalbarry]

By way of followup, I had the same thing happen with the Installer for Mint 17 - instead of just upgrading the OS it wiped out every partition on the drive.

Testdisk wasn't able to find the old partitions, so I now have what looks like an very long PhotoRec session pulling files off.

Anyhow - please add your name to the bug over at Mint's Bugtracker:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1325786