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I accidentally misread and selected 'Install Ubuntu over Windows 8' and it erased my entire hard-drive. I had photos and stuff that I would like to recover. Is it possible or should I just accept that I lost everything?

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Ugh. My friend, you're more or less out of luck. When you format and install you overwrite your old data with new data. There's an outside chance some kind of data forensics could restore part of your windows partition, but those services are very expensive.

Part of experimenting with Linux is breaking your computer! Welcome!

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If you are on a "moderate" level of computer usage (meaning far more than the average user and knowing enough to be...dangerous), you COULD try putting that HDD into an external case and use another computer with software-based file recovery software, like Recuva, Puran, or Glary Undelete.

They may not be able to recover your stuff, but it's worth a try before you make any more changes to that HDD. That's assuming, of course, that you have another computer handy and either an open HDD slot or an external case to put it in. Otherwise, you'd have to use a data forensics service, which as @ezgoodnight already said, can be VERY expensive.