Windows Installer Wrecked My MBR/Partition Table

[linux-ftw]

Here are the steps I took to get where I am now:

1. I wanted to install a fresh version of Windows 7 as I use it for gaming.
   
2. I had made an image of the win7 partition with dd, and saved it to another partition (in case there were files I needed after I'd deleted the partition).
   
3. I booted into win7 install from a usb flash drive.
   
4. I wanted to delete the first two primary partitions as (for some bizarre reason) windows decided to waste one of four primary partitions with a 100mb part at the start of the disk, the other one was a 30gb part for windows.
   
5. I deleted them from windows setup.
   
6. Windows setup sat there for more than 5 minutes (no idea what the hell it was doing). So I got annoyed and thought "I will just boot into linux again and use gparted".
   
7. So I reset the PC...
   
8. I got the dreaded 'grub rescue' menu.
   
9. I have a laptop with Fedora installed so I booted into that and stuck grub2 + puppy linux onto a USB.
   

Before this nightmare started I had two primary partitions that windows allocated its self when I installed it, an extended partition with around 5/6 partitions in it for linux distros, some unallocated space, and the last primary partition was an 800gb ntfs partition I use for all my games/vids/music etc.

So here is a list of problems I need to solve:

• I have 700gb of data on the ntfs partition that is accessible from mounting sda3 in linux, the files are readable (the ones I've tested at least). I only have a 1TB HD available at the moment.
• When I load the drive up in gparted it does not show any partitions, it says "unallocated".

fdisk -l

Warning: omitting partitions after #60.
They will be deleted if you save this partition table.

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 129201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              14        5549    41840640    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            5549       13870    62912191    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           13870      129202   871905601    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5            5549        6243     5245222+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6            6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda10           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda11           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda12           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda13           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda14           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda15           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda16           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda17           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda18           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda19           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda20           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda21           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda22           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda23           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda24           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda25           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda26           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda27           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda28           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda29           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda30           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda31           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda32           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda33           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda34           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda35           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda36           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda37           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda38           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda39           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda40           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda41           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda42           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda43           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda44           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda45           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda46           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda47           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda48           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda49           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda50           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda51           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda52           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda53           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda54           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda55           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda56           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda57           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda58           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux
/dev/sda59           8988        9271     2141184   83  Linux
/dev/sda60           6243        8987    20747916   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

As you can see from the above, the Windows setup tool has really screwed me over!

I have assignments I need to complete tomorrow and would like to get my computer back online and be able to boot from a HD (into anything).

As I don't understand what windows setup has done to the drive I can't fix it, and don't want to either until I understand the problem. I don't want to risk losing my data on the ntfs partition.

If I had a spare HD lying around I know I could just copy the files over (or image the whole disk) and make a new partition table with fdisk, but I don't have one at the moment.

Does anyone understand what had happened here? Any help would be appreciated.

Side rant just for fun...

Why do Microsoft have to dumb everything down so much? I'm pretty sure they do it on purpose to keep people from learning too much about computers! "Let's keep 'em dumb, give them cool programming languages like VB so they don't learn how OSs work and team up to make their own!!!".

[rokytnji]

I have 700gb of data on the ntfs partition that is accessible from mounting sda3 in linux, the files are readable (the ones I've tested at least). I only have a 1TB HD available at the moment.

puppy linux onto a USB.

Just in case I am understanding you right. You should be able to copy over everything over to the 1TB drive while in Puppy using pmount.

Same for anything You can see In Fedora from Puppy Linux also. At least I can in MacPup and Racy 5.2 using pmount and rox file manager.

If I had a spare HD lying around I know I could just copy the files over (or image the whole disk) and make a new partition table with fdisk, but I don't have one at the moment

I thought your 1TB drive was the spare.

[rokytnji]

For cloning in Puppy. I have had success with Puppeee linux using PUDD (just a Puppy linux dd application) cloning a XP install (8gig SSD) to a external NTFS Partitioned 8gig SDHC Calss 4 Flash card. It would boot even when the bios was enabled for sd flash boot with esc key.

Pudd readme

[linux-ftw]

Sorry no, just one internal 1TB HD.

I'll have to re-read what I've written tomorrow, it's late here and I need some sleep

I could buy a 2TB HD tomorrow to fix the problem, but I'd rather not as I need my money for other things.

[linux-ftw]

Another quick question...

Can I install VirtualBox in puppy linux and will it work fully?

If I can then I could just install win7/lubuntu etc to a virtual disk on the ntfs partition and use that until I buy a new HD or come up with a solution for fixing the partition table.

It's the ubuntu variant of puppy BTW. I'm booting it from a 4GB flash drive and it's working beautifully!

[rokytnji]

Another quick question...

Can I install VirtualBox in puppy linux and will it work fully?

If I can then I could just install win7/lubuntu etc to a virtual disk on the ntfs partition and use that until I buy a new HD or come up with a solution for fixing the partition table.

It's the ubuntu variant of puppy BTW. I'm booting it from a 4GB flash drive and it's working beautifully!

I don't Virtual Box much because of hardware limitations but here is a bunch of stuff on it.

Link

If

using LUPU-528 kernel 2.6.33.2

Try virtualbox-4.1.4-1-dpup.sfs at the third post of this topic.
Puppy Linux Discussion Forum :: View topic - VirtualBox for many Puppies

You can load it by the sfs_load at the main menu > Setup > Setup Puppy.