Can't access Windows 7 after instaling Ubuntu

[AdrianM]

Hello,

Here is my problem: I had a 500GB HDD, with the fallowing partitions:
C - 100GB - NTFS - Windows 7
D - 300GB - NTFS - (for staffs)
H - 100GB - NTFS - unused

Yesterday I installed Ubuntu on tha last one (H), wishing to keep also the others two partitions. Now I can not access the first two, I don't see them any more. In my Disk Usage appears only the linux partition and one "Unallocated Space" of 400GB

Do you think that i have a chance to recover my data from the two partitions that I can't see them?

Thank you very much for your help, in advance.

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9c9e15c9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 6 260 2048000 42 SFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 260 261 797+ 42 SFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 261 13009 102400000 83 Linux


The first 3 are small partition, that were there also on Windows, but are missing the two partitions of windows (393GB togheter)

sudo cat /etc/fstab

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sda4 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1

[rcgreen]

It looks like bad news. Your original Windows partitions are
not there. There is a program called testdisk

TestDisk - CGSecurity

that can recover lost partitions, but it depends
on other factors, such as how much data have
overwritten the original data. Good luck.

[AdrianM]

Thank you very much for your post, I think that is working, it found 2 NTFS partitions:

Disk /dev/sda - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60802 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
D FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 4 254 60 80259 [DellUtility]
D FAT32 5 0 1 259 245 55 4096000 [OS]
D Linux 260 16 13 13008 69 53 204800000
D HPFS - NTFS 13008 69 54 48052 249 5 562993152
D HPFS - NTFS 48052 249 6 60801 15 14 204797952 [New Volume]


Structure: Ok. Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
Enter: to continue


But now I don't now what to do, what I should change there?

[AdrianM]

For example I'm trying this combination

Disk /dev/sda - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60802 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
P FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 4 254 60 80259 [DellUtility]
* FAT32 5 0 1 259 245 55 4096000 [OS]
P Linux 260 16 13 13008 69 53 204800000
P HPFS - NTFS 13008 69 54 48052 249 5 562993152
P HPFS - NTFS 48052 249 6 60801 15 14 204797952 [New Volume]

But it says to me that I can put "P" to both NTFS partitions,

[onederer]

Greetings!

If you'd be interested in avoiding this problems again, I would highly recommend that you use a separate hard drive (USB, or internal), for Linux, and a separate hard drive for Windows. This way, if one hard drive goes bezerk, the other will still remain intact, and you will still have an OS to continue your business.

Good Luck!

[jayd512]

For example I'm trying this combination

Disk /dev/sda - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60802 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
P FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 4 254 60 80259 [DellUtility]
* FAT32 5 0 1 259 245 55 4096000 [OS]
P Linux 260 16 13 13008 69 53 204800000
P HPFS - NTFS 13008 69 54 48052 249 5 562993152
P HPFS - NTFS 48052 249 6 60801 15 14 204797952 [New Volume]

But it says to me that I can put "P" to both NTFS partitions,

Correct. Both can be primary partitions. It's not a bad idea to make them both primary unless you have some reason to do otherwise.

[ProfTheory]

Since you have your Dell Diagnostics hidden partition, OS recovery, and (2) NTFS partitions
you won't be able to install Linux on the drive since you have p slots in the primary partition table. The 4th slot needs to be a pointer to an extended partition.
Your /boot partition needs to be a primary partition. You could boot a Live disk and use dd to backup the Dell partition, I never used mine anyway, and then you'll have room for the /boot partition as a primary and the / root can be an extended partition.

So it would be like this:
/dev/sda1 /boot <- this will need to be the same size as the previous Dell partition or resize / move things with Gparted.
/dev/sda2 OS <- recovery partition
/dev/sda3 Win 7
/dev/sda4 extended
/dev/sda5 NTFS <- Your data
/dev/sda6 / <- root

I've found Win 7 is a little more forgiving in such situations more so than XP.
One point I would make is when doing multi-boot NEVER let the OSes auto config the drive!

[Jonathan183]

Your /boot partition needs to be a primary partition.

I don't think the boot partition needs to be a primary partition, try installing Linux in a logical partition.

Ed: ... but you should probably just recover your data and back it up before making other changes to the partition structure. Then I suggest you keep the first three partitions and either install Linux to the 4th partition or create an extended partition as the 4th partition which you can then create logical partitions in (separate root and home partitions are usually a good idea).
Ubuntu default tries to use the whole hard drive for Linux, which you don't want so you need to use manual partitioning