Here is my problem:

I have a HD of 80GB,
1 NTFS partition of 40GB (Windows XP)


then I started FreeBSD setup from bootable CD.
I wanted to install FreeBSD on the free unpartitioned space, and then booT from floppy if I want to use FreeBSD.

Now, in the setup, in the "FDISK" utility, I created a new drive in the free space...
Then he asked me to install a boot manager?

I selected "leave the master boot record untouched", because primary part. = NTFS.

Then, I STOPPED FreeBSD install (cause wouldn't take the risk, my data on myNTFS partition are too important)

So, I restarted my PC,
and instead of loading my win xp,
he displays: Invalid partition
No /boot/loader
No kernel
>>FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot: _

So, he DID touch my master boot record, and I can't access my NTFS partition even from the Win XP recovery console :'(

IS THERE ANY WAY TO RESTORE MY PARTITION TABLES????
IF I LOOSE ALL MY NTFS DATA I'm ... ... R.I.P....

plz help...

You can try, from a floppy to /fixmbr or /fixboot or use those options with fdisk (i.e., fdisk /mbr, etc.) and see if that helps. If not, you might be screwed -- but get someone's suggestion that does more Windows type stuff before you take my hopeless suggestion as the only solution. Did you have other paritions? If so, those still might be intact. Can you boot from a floppy and get to the main drive parition Windows boots from? If not, this might be bad news.

Try booting off of you Windows XP CD. It should give you an option to repair your installation (if it can find it) when it's at the screen where it asks you if you want to install Windows. I'm pretty sure that it will be able to fix the bootloader. Of course, if the cd doesn't give you this option, you're quite likely screwed and at the very least will have to reinstall, at worst, you'll have gained nothing. I hope this helps. Good luck!

Chris Spangler

Windows couldn't even locate a known partition.

He listed 1 partition 76GB, unknown filesystem...

So, lost everything,
reinstalled Win XP...
:'(

but thanx for your help!

Don't do that yet. This same thing happened to me a few months back with win2k while trying to install a copy of Mandrake Linux.


I am not to familiar with FreeBSD but the first thing I would try would be to finish my install for it and see if I could get lilo or whatever FreeBSD uses to pull it up for you. I did end up getting all of my info back but to be honest it has been so long ago I don't remember the exact steps I took.

That would be the first thing I tried though. Anyway it can't hurt.

Regards,
Michael

Same i faced few months before when i did installation of linux, linux deleted all my previous partitions and all my data which was saved in winme :bawling:

No problem if linux install deletes all partitions...
if you say that the installer may do that...

but I only created a partition in the unallocated space!!!! :(

I can't believe you guys didn't back up the data onto another drive or CD or something, before trying to install another OS on the same system or another drive partition. Once you do it and know exactly what and how to do it, you can probably feel safe adding another OS, but if you're not sure or haven't before, you should always back up your data to a media where it won't be affected or in danger... unless you really don't care about the data.

No problem if linux install deletes all partitions...
if you say that the installer may do that...

but I only created a partition in the unallocated space!!!!

That is what I did and I ended up getting my info back. I can't promise you will get yours back I am just saying that it isn't impossible.

Regards