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I used Ubuntu via Live CD on my lenovo laptop which had Windows 8.1 installed on it. Then I decided to install Ubuntu and while doing that I accidentally click next when it said wipe Windows and install Ubuntu, after which my whole HDD got formatted in some weird partition and all my data (250 GB) got lost.

So I tried putting my HDD in an external case and connecting it to another laptop to recover my data with software like (Get Data Back) but when I connected my laptop HDD to another computer and went to management page to initialize the disk it keeps showing data redundancy error, I've tried every single way to get my HDD showing on windows but its not working. Although it still shows in Ubuntu which means my HDD is in good state, so can someone please tell me how to get my Windows partition back so that I can recover my data ?

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  • There are a number of good answers here that deal with data-recovery. I suggest that you search those out and find those that deal with testdisk which may help. Initializing the drive under Windows will not help your effort and is likely to reduce your chances. Cease using the drive if you wish to recover data from it. You may wish to look here: askubuntu.com/questions/463076/… or here: help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
    – Elder Geek
    Jul 12, 2014 at 2:42

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If you overwrote your original Windows partitions with with Linux partitions and installed the whole operating system on it, it might not be possible to get back a lot of data. If you really require the old data, the first thing you need to do is stop using the hard-disk to boot Linux from it.

Connecting the hard-disk to a second PC is a good idea. Tools like Get Data Back should be able to help you to recover data that is not yet overwritten with new data. For help with GDB you would need to contact their support.

If that does not work out, and the data is valuable enough to you, try a professional service like http://www.data-recovery-software.net/.

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I guess you have two separate problems: the formatting and the HDD type.

First, if you selected the option to format the HDD...the entire HDD, then you are stuck. All of your data is gone and trying to get it to a drive type that is compatible with Windows won't get it back.

Second, Windows and Ubuntu uses a different drive type. Windows uses NTFS and Ubuntu uses ext4 (among others). You can use programs such as gparted to change from one drive type to another. As you are already doing, you can use an external enclosure but try booting into Ubuntu instead of Windows. There are other programs, too, but gparted should be on your Ubuntu boot disk and it is friendlier than the command-line programs.

You may also confirm if the HDD has been formatted. Take a look at gparted screen shot. In the top picture, it shows a 60 GB HDD on /dev/sda which has been partitioned into multiple parts that include ntfs, ext4, and linux-swap. If you see that, then there is hope. That might mean that the Windows partition is still intact and you just need Windows to see it.

Based on what you're describing, it sounds like what you may end up seeing is one or multiple blocks that all say ext4, linux-swap, etc. And nothing that is still ntfs. If that's the case, then your data is probably gone -- your NTFS partition has been deleted and replaced with Linux-compatible partitions. As far as I know, there is no way to recover the data.

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  • Recovering some of it is possible
    – Elder Geek
    Jul 12, 2014 at 2:43
  • Windows and Ubuntu use different filesystems, not HDD types. The odds of the OP's actions eliminating ALL of his data approach zero. It's likely that he can get some, perhaps much of his data back. If you are going to answer questions like this you should gain a working knowledge of how filesystems are constructed and some basic data-recovery techniques. You might start your lessons with the latter here: cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
    – Elder Geek
    Jul 12, 2014 at 2:54
  • Point taken but I think it is a bit harsh of you to criticize my "lack of working knowledge". You are more than welcome to post an alternative answer to mine, which the OP will up-vote if it sounds reasonable. We're all just trying to help others and it is always possible that someone with better knowledge comes it with a better solution; if we keep second guessing ourselves that someone knows more than us, then we will never help anyone...
    – Ray
    Jul 27, 2014 at 10:23
  • My aplogies if I seemed harsh. Actually I did post a better solution on this topic: See askubuntu.com/questions/463076/…
    – Elder Geek
    Jul 28, 2014 at 14:14

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