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#1 2010-11-19 10:14:54

tpho2500
Member
Registered: 2010-10-31
Posts: 13

[SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

Hi,

I partitioned my hard drive into 2.
70GB:160GB

I had Windows 7 installed on the 70GB partition and 160GB unallocated space next to it. (70GB is 1st, 160GB 2nd)
When I specified which partition to install Arch Linux (core) I selected /dev/sda1. I'm positive that sda1 is the 160GB unallocated space and not the Win7 partition. I labelled the SDA1 as "ARCH" for easy identification but for some reason it labelled my entire 250GB HD as Arch and not the 160GB partition. What happens if Arch is installed on the 70GB partition? Is all the data on my Win7 partition gone?

Last edited by tpho2500 (2010-11-20 14:54:32)

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#2 2010-11-19 10:32:35

Meyithi
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From: Wirral, UK
Registered: 2009-06-21
Posts: 550
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Re: [SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

tpho2500 wrote:

I'm positive that sda1 is the 160GB unallocated space and not the Win7 partition.

sda1 would be the first partition (windows), the other partition would be sda2, numerical order you see, doesn't make much sense to go backwards.  You've renamed it to arch and installed arch linux onto it.  Are you still postive?

And yes, if you've installed arch onto it the previous data will be mostly overwritten.

Last edited by Meyithi (2010-11-19 10:32:57)


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#3 2010-11-19 10:33:16

mikesd
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From: Australia
Registered: 2008-02-01
Posts: 788
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Re: [SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

Partitions are numbered from 1; sda1, sda2, etc. sda1 was probably your windows partition.

Check your partition layout with cfdisk or sfdisk.

sudo sfdisk -l /dev/sda

will print out your partition information for sda.

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#4 2010-11-19 10:35:48

tpho2500
Member
Registered: 2010-10-31
Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

I thought the order was sda then sda1.

Overwritten as everything is deleted or overwritten as arch got added to windows?

EDIT: Result from sfdisk

/dev/sda1 boot nfts
/dev/sda2  empty
sda3 empty
sd4 empty

Weird...I partitioned my drive into 2 parts but it is seeing it as 1 whole partition.

EDIT2:
The Arch DVD sees..

/dev/sda
/dev/sda1

but apparently it's suppose to be
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2

:confused:

EDIT3:
Ok i just figured out what i did wrong

the 160GB unallocated space had no actual partition made, it was just empty space so that's why ALIF didn't recognise that it was a partition, because there were none!

Ok let's see if i can recover data from my Win7 partition.

My original plan was to Split the drive into two. Install Arch on Part2, move all data to Arch, get rid of windows and then add the empty window-less space back to Arch so that i have Arch on 1 big partition. (i dont have any external hdds)

Last edited by tpho2500 (2010-11-19 10:50:53)

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#5 2010-11-19 11:57:45

ChoK
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From: France
Registered: 2008-10-01
Posts: 346

Re: [SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

sda refers to the whole disk, sda1 to the first partition on disk, sda2 to the second and so on.

If you didn't format the partition beforehand, your data should still be here (arch will be added to them)
If you did format, do not mount the file system read write, use a linux livecd or better livecd. Grab the testdisk package and use testdisk/photorec to recover important files. A basic arch install will not overwrite more than 2G.
Now if the tool formats by zeroing the partition, recovery might be a tad difficult, but if it's by just flagging the space empty you should be able to get everything back (but the data structure might be lost)

So don't forget to backup.

Last edited by ChoK (2010-11-19 11:58:20)


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#6 2010-11-20 11:34:22

tpho2500
Member
Registered: 2010-10-31
Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

where would the overwritten files be stored on the partition of Arch installed over it?

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#7 2010-11-20 12:05:00

Awebb
Member
Registered: 2010-05-06
Posts: 6,272

Re: [SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

tpho2500 wrote:

where would the overwritten files be stored on the partition of Arch installed over it?

They should be gone. They're overwritten.

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#8 2010-11-20 12:15:05

tpho2500
Member
Registered: 2010-10-31
Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED]/dev/sda vs /dev/sda1

Well if I didn't format the partition they should still be there somewhere.

edit1:
Testdisk is working. Got all my files back and now I'm putting them on a different computer while I install Arch. Thanks a lot guys!

Last edited by tpho2500 (2010-11-20 14:54:14)

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