How to make my Windows xp see my partition label ?

[zixx]

Hello,

I've got a problem, I had a primary Windows XP partition and in exteneded partition I had 3 ntfs logical partitions and 1 Linux logical partition, I accidentally formated that linux partition to fat 32 and now whenever I boot I see "invalid Partition Table" info. When I ran gparted it showed the whole HDD as it doesn't see any partitions. It's a real mess.

The only way i can see all partitions and sort of open files is by using Find and Mount. The problem with Mount and Find is that I cannot save update anything.

Is there any way to repair my partition label and make my partitions easily accessible ? Tried to use Unetbootin and remove MBR's but It didn't help.

Fdisk - http://s28.postimg.org/5v3ua9lct/parts.png

 

[stillblue]

You should be able to recover missing files using testdisk with your linux usb or dvd and an external storage place. Looking at the mess that your table has become I'd start over after saving what needs to be saved.

 

[zixx]

You should be able to recover missing files using testdisk with your linux usb or dvd and an external storage place.

I know how to access files, I used Find and Mount but it still doesn't solve the problem.

What if I'd like to recover the whole partitions. Make it visible when I click "My computer" the way it was before ? Is it even possible ?? I'd prefer not to format the whole hdd and loose all the files.

 

[stillblue]

Using a live linux with testdisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk installed you might be able to recover the table, might being the operative word there. You should be able to copy most/all of your files however. Concentrate on the Linux partition. Then you could try installing linux to that partition when you've saved your files. Other OS should be unaffected and then bootable.

 

[zixx]

Here's what I saw at the beginning http://picload.org/image/cawolcg/screenshot-1.png

Using a live linux with testdisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk installed you might be able to recover the table, might being the operative word there.

OK so I used Testdisk and found one partition which was corrupt, I ran deep search and found these http://img3.picload.org/image/cawogca/screenshot.png

When I typed P I could see some files were form my previous partitions like C and D and so on. When I clicked Linux it said "No file found, filesystem seems damaged" and at the bottom "EXT3 Large file Sparse superblock Backup superblock, 12 GB / 12 GiB
" . When i clicked Fat32 and few others it also said "No file found, filesystem seems damaged". For some I 've noticed "NTFS found using backup sector!"

What should I do next ? I remember that it all started when i accidently deleed some linux folder and changed ext3 to fat32.

 

[stillblue]

Backup the important files by copying to an external drive!
You are about to do something that can truly mess up your files.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step For explanation.

After you have the essentials backed up change the 4th partition (7782 3 1) from D to L (Deleted to Logical)
do the same for the Linux and last two NTFS.

Write the table. Try it out. Good luck but don't forget to backup first.

 

[zixx]

Backup the important files by copying to an external drive!

Done that.

Only 7782 1 1, 8872 0 1, linux 13852 1 1 and FAT32 LBA say "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged" Others show some files when i type P
http://img3.picload.org/image/cawogca/screenshot.png

Just to make sure before I start messing with it. Why should I ONLY change the 4th partition (7782 3 1) from D to L (Deleted to Logical) and do the same for the Linux and last two NTFS ?

Thank you for your help,

 

[stillblue]

Because testdisk sees partitions that existed prior to your modifications as well. This is why if you accidentally write over windows while installing Linux you can still recover many of the windows files if they weren't physically overwritten by Linux files. If you look at where one starts and finishes and the next begins 0 7781, 7782 1531, 1532.... you should see why I said those are the ones you want recovered.

 

[zixx]

Write the table. Try it out. Good luck but don't forget to backup first.

Thank you so much, everything worked like a charm I have my partitions !