Need help on Linux swap space,deleted files

[machine gewehr]

I needed to install Linux to complete my finishing project.

My hard drive had 2 sectors,namely C and D in NTFS format.

On C I have Vista installed,D was used as storage,had all my music archive etc.

So I created another partition from the free space of D,named it Z and formatted it Ex2 to install Ubuntu.

During installation it asked me to choose a swap space for virtual memory.So I though D has more free space available so Ubuntu can use that free space for virtual memory if needed. I choose drive D as swap space and installed Ubuntu on Z.

Now Vista can not see D,in Ubuntu (which didn't install properly for some reason beyond me) drive D is seen as swap space,all 130 GBs of it and it says it is 100% free.

I found partition manager tool on Ubuntu and tryed swapoff but no good.

What the heck? Did I lose everything on D for good?

[winston]

Just to be sure I understand correctly:

From the D partition you formatted the free space as an EXT2 Linux partition named Z, then you told the installer to format D as Linux swap?

In that case, yes the data on D was erased.
Since Ubuntu shows D as 100% free Linux swap partition, it's almost certainly gone.
You could contact a forensic data specialist, if so, don't turn your computer off until you do.

FYI, even if the data is there, Windows can't read Linux filesystems (whether EXT/swap/other) or detect Linux bootloaders like GRUB/LILO.
If you want to share a data partition in the future it should be FAT32 or NTFS (as long as Ubuntu can stably write to NTFS - it was still experimental a few years back).

Whenever I have installed Linux I made the swap partition a separate one from all the others...it's the same as "virtual memory" in Windows--info on swap partition gets erased when you turn the computer off.

As a rule of thumb (5 years ago) you made swap 2X the size of your RAM, now with 64 bit systems running 4-16 GB of RAM I don't think that's necessary.

Hope things work out, in any case it's a reminder to backup your data before experimenting.

[machine gewehr]

Originally Posted by winston

Just to be sure I understand correctly:

From the D partition you formatted the free space as an EXT2 Linux partition named Z, then you told the installer to format D as Linux swap?

Yes.From the partition D I created another partition using Computer Management stuff of Vista andnamed it Z,formatted it EXT2.

I choose D as as linux swap and did you just say "then you told the installer to format D as Linux swap?"

[winston]

Originally Posted by machine gewehr

Yes.From the partition D I created another partition using Computer Management stuff of Vista andnamed it Z,formatted it EXT2.

I choose D as as linux swap and did you just say "then you told the installer to format D as Linux swap?"

Yes, in my experience it's possible to re-size (sub-partition) a partition without losing data...I shrank my Windows C: partition to make room for Linux partitions on the same HD.

However, if you specified that all of remaining D: was to be Linux swap (which is how I interpreted the info in your first post), that partition would have been re-formatted with the new file system (Linux swap), with all data erased. Given that Ubuntu says the space is 100% free, that seems to be the case.

I see in your profile that you are a CS student...is there anyone at school who can help?

[machine gewehr]

It's no problem to shrink partitions,I used shrinking to create my partition to install Ubuntu.

I just don't get it,why would they leave it as an option.Windows doesn't ask for VM space,yes you can edit but you I never met anyone losing data for editing that.And no warnings for file deletion? Come on...I thought it would use the free space on the partition as virtual memory.

I contacted an instructor,basically he says if the partition is formatted when creating swap area, kiss your files goodbye.

Such a dumb mistake to be done,and I'm graduating in 2 weeks.guess I'm too tired to even install Ubuntu.

Some computer engineer I am going to be...

[machine gewehr]

Oh,and thanks winston.

[Selta]

Just reformat it to NTFS and run GetDataBack on it. You probably won't get everything back, but you'll get most of it for sure. Format does not actually erase data...

[machine gewehr]

Originally Posted by Ray Salamon

Just reformat it to NTFS and run GetDataBack on it. You probably won't get everything back, but you'll get most of it for sure. Format does not actually erase data...

Thanks Ray,I was about to format it back to NTFS and was asking friends for a good recovery program.

[Selta]

Originally Posted by machine gewehr

Thanks Ray,I was about to format it back to NTFS and was asking friends for a good recovery program.

GetDataBack is a pretty common/standard one you'll run into a lot if you stick in IT . Like I said, it probably won't get it all back (if the sectors have been overwritten multiple times in swap, what was there is gone), but you'll get a lot/most back, which IMO is better than nothing. Even through multiple formats the data is still technically on the disk

[winston]

Originally Posted by machine gewehr

Some computer engineer I am going to be...

Just be sure to learn from this...back up your data, and don't assume that different OSs do things the same.

Being based on UNIX (which does not hold your hand), a lot of Linux utilities let you make powerful decisions without the warnings you'd get in Mac/Windows.

[machine gewehr]

A friend of mine just called me to recommend GetDataBack,he said he recovered ~120 gb of data with this program.

I'm sure all of my data is still there just labeled as swap space,I never used Ubuntu after install so no virtual mem. was needed.

Man I hate computers.

[machine gewehr]

Originally Posted by winston

Just be sure to learn from this...back up your data, and don't assume that different OSs do things the same.

Being based on UNIX (which does not hold your hand), a lot of Linux utilities let you make powerful decisions without the warnings you'd get in Mac/Windows.

Heh,the friend I told about the above post told me the same thing.He's a pretty good software developer and he did the same mistake with higher costs before and just told me to learn from it.

The thing I'm angry about is I took 2 different classes that explains file systems as a part of the course and I know pretty good how file systems work,especially Unix systems.I passed those classes with good grades too.

theory != practice

[Selta]

Originally Posted by machine gewehr

theory != practice

Get used to that

[machine gewehr]

Originally Posted by Ray Salamon

Get used to that

Will do Ray,will do.

[MJ5150]

Linux Swap File Questions

-Mike

[machine gewehr]

Just want to say that GetDataBack sees all the contents of the partition and I'm recovering all my files as we speak.

Thankfully swap space was never used and nothing got overwritten.Thanks for the help guys.

[Selta]

Good to hear, Machine. It'll probably take awhile, but it sounds like it'll get most/all of your files back - success!