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Unable to see files from Windows Vista after installing Ubuntu 12.10

Asked by Karlen Alexander

Long story short, my kids downloaded a trojan that crashed my computer running Windows Vista. After several days of failed attempts, I ran and isntalled Ubuntu to get access to my files (mainly our family photos). When I was running Ubuntu from the DVD, I could at first see the files, but not edit them. Told me I didn't have permissions as an owner. When I installed Ubuntu, it created another partition and left (I think) my Windows data in a partition formatted as ext4 with just over 10 gigs of space, which I think is the right amount of data. I can also NOT dual boot, but this isn't that surprising as the Windows Vista instance wouldn't boot before I installed Ubuntu

Now my problem is that while I have installed gparted and can see the ext4 partition (assuming that is Windows), I can not get to it from HomeFolder, again as it say I do not have necessary permissions to view.

How do I unlock the files from the ext4 partition so that I can get access to my photos?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Why do you not have a backup?
How did you install Ubuntu (Did you use wubi, or otherwise)?
Can you give the output of:

sudo fdisk -l; mount; lsb_release -a; uname -a

Thanks

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Karlen Alexander (karlen-alexander) said : 		#2

Wubi

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003c457

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 968407039 484202496 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 968409086 976771071 4180993 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 968409088 976771071 4180992 82 Linux swap / Solaris
^C/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /run/user type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/alikat/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=alikat)
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10
Codename: quantal
Linux alikat-Inspiron-530s 3.5.0-18-generic #29-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 19 10:27:31 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Why do you not have a backup?

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Karlen Alexander (karlen-alexander) said : 		#4

If I had a back up, I wouldn't be in this situation. You're being kind of rude to point out the obvious.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#5

I'm just confused why if your data is so important why you don't have a backup. Makes no sense. I suggest you look into one. A cheap USB makes this a lot easier and costs next to nothing.

It seems you have used your entire drive for Ubuntu. This has removed your NTFS.

The only way I can see this moving any way forward is to grab another 500Gb drive and use foremost in a liveCD / USB, you can then attempt to recover your 'important' data. If the area that held your data as been overwritten by the Ubuntu install then the data is GONE.

foremost is far from perfect, so you may get full files, partial files or files which are copletely unusable. You have also lost the file names as well as the folder structure.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Karlen Alexander for more information if necessary.

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