How to retrieve data from hard disk after fedora linux installation on the system

[venubabu]

Dear Friends ,

I have never used Linux before and know nothing about it . But my cousin installed a Fedoro linux CD on my laptop which previously had Lotus symphony . Unfortunately my laptop had single partition and so Linux overrode the old OS ,ie lotus symphony .

I have some critical data on my hard disk but I have no clue how to take backup this data using Linux . I desparately need this data .

Could somebody let me know how I can access this data and take the backup ?

Thanks in advance

Regards

Venu

[whych]

Open a terminal and type su to login as root.
now type fdisk -l and post the results.
(If there are only linux partitions - ext3 or ext4 - on the fdisk output, all your previous data is lost unfortunately.)

[Lakshmipathi]

Venu ,
As whych could post the output of fdisk ,let's examine the status of your hard disk.

[oz]

Not sure they will help, but TestDisk and PhotoRec are the two best apps that I know of for recovering lost partitions and data:

TestDisk - CGSecurity

You can get them both on the Parted Magic LiveCD should you want to try them:

Parted Magic News

Hope they will be able to help you.

[whych]

Thanks ozar for the links - my hdd (ext2) in my linux sat box has since had a problem and I need to recover the recorded files.
Will remove the drive from the sat receiver and try later. I hope it works for me and the drive hasn't died.