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It feels so relieving to get your lost data back!

After trying multiple file recovery tools like TestDisk/PhotoRec, Recuva, etc. I had ran chkdsk (of course, from Windows) as a last resort on that particular partition last night. Since, Windows doesn’t show protected system files easily I couldn’t see the content of found.000 directory that got created in the said partition. I made a mental note of checking this directory out later from Linux.

As most of my mental notes go, I forgot about this as well. Just now accidentally visited that partition from Linux and browsed through the dir0000.chk directory inside, and voilà, there it was – my complete home directory backup! 😀

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Another strange thing and a big lesson learned today was regarding disk handling by Windows and Linux. I had been observing missing files from my hard disk for a few weeks now, always suspected it was due to bad sectors but tests didn’t turn up anything positive. When I took the backup of my old Ubuntu home directory to an NTFS partition, installed Linux Mint and then tried to access the backup I was left with a shock – the whole backup was gone!

I investigated a bit and found the possible reason at http://askubuntu.com/a/120540/112542 and quickly recalled that indeed I had booted up Windows after taking the backup. I felt idiotic not knowing this simple fact before that Windows, when booting to a hibernated system, considers any file system change as data corruption and fixes it. In my case, it was deleting all those files, I thought I was saving for opening in Windows. I immediately turned off the default behaviour of Windows which is to hibernate instead of shutdown, so that now no hiber file is generated. I am left wondering how could such a harmful behavior be default!

Well, huge lesson learned. And I have no idea apart from my home directory backup how much more data I lost all this time.

Restore GRUB in Ubuntu after installing Windows

So, you had Ubuntu (or any of its derivative) installed on your system and then decided to install Windowswith it? And after installing Windows, you can’t load Ubuntu again, just follow the steps to get this working:

1. Boot the system using a Ubuntu Live disk.
2. After you reach the desktop, open Terminal (press Alt+F2, type “gnome-terminal” without quotes and press enter).
3. Execute:

   sudo fdisk -l

4. Execute (after replacing sda7 with your corresponding linux root partition, which you will be able to identify from the output of the previous command – it’s usually marked as Linux):

   sudo mount /dev/sda7 /mnt

5. Just check whether you got the root partition right, if you have more than 1 linux partition on your hard disk:

   cd /mnt
ls

   If the listing contains names like bin, boot, dev, etc, home, tmp, usr, var, et cetera then you are in the right partition. If not, unmount this using:

   sudo umount /mnt

   and follow the above step again using another partition.

6. Now:

   sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

   and grub will get installed if it shows no errors.

7. As a last step unmount your /mnt directory using:

   sudo umount /mnt

   and restart the system. You will find the friendly grub boot manager giving you the choice to boot into Linux or Windows.

An edited version of this post first appeared at http://www.digimantra.com/linux/restore-grub-in-ubuntu-after-installing-windows/

—
Kartik – The TechGlider Guy
http://www.techglider.in

Recommended Linux Partitioning Scheme

Partitioning Basics:

When we need to install linux on our systems, we need to partition our hard disk as we do for windows. In the case of windows, partitions are called as c: ,d:, e:, etc. But on linux they are represented in the form of following (there are many others, but these are the most essential):

1. swap:
   This is meant for use by the system when it runs out of memory (RAM); it’s much like virtual memory in windows where the system utilizes that space as extra memory.
2. /:
   This is called the root partition; the most important partition, where all the system files are stored.
3. /home:
   This partition is meant for use by the users of the system to store their files and preferences. Although it can be merged with the / partition, but it is advised to have this as different partition so that you can store your files and preferences and reinstall the system (in /).

You don’t see the partitions as different drives (as in windows) under linux, they are visible as directories inside the root partition (/).

The Scheme:

After a lot of searching and reading on the topic. I have decided on the following scheme to be very suitable for most (home desktop) purposes:

• swap – 1.5 to 2 times [size of RAM] (e.g. I have 1.5 GB RAM so my swap is 3GB)
• / – 5 to 10 GB (5 GB is sufficient in most cases, but if you have large harddisk, like me, allocate at least 10 for /)
• /home – Greater than 10 GB or rest of the space (because this is where you will save all your work and downloads, etc; 40 GB in my case). And yes, you can leave other space on your hard disk as a storehouse for games, videos, music or files in the form of NTFS partitions, if you happen to use windows also (else make more room for /home).

Remember: things are not that complex, we make them complex. So, stick to a simple partition scheme like this and keep things simple.

Gparted showing my hard disk partition structure

Bonus Tip: Use Gparted instead of the partition editor that comes within the installer of most linux installers to have a complete control over your hard disk’s partitions.

This article first appeared at http://www.digimantra.com/linux/recommended-linux-partitioning-scheme/