Recover Data from Lost or Inaccessible Linux Partition on Windows

Linux is one of the most secure computer operating systems, which keeps your data protected against virus/malware infections and other like threats. However, does that provide your data enough security? Absolutely not! Various internal issues like file system corruption, missing or inaccessible partition(s), and other like issues cause data loss and leave you panic-stricken at the end of the day. Although Linux is used by end users rarely across the globe, it fails to keep your data protected and people make up their mind for an upgrade to a securer platform (usually to Windows).[post_ad]

Linux is majorly used as a workstation in corporate by software professionals for application development and other related tasks. This platform is intended to protect your ongoing projects from threats like viruses and malware infections. Such users often go for dual boot and run Windows side by side on another partition of the hard drive.

Even though dual boot is advantageous from various aspects, users must be careful while performing operations like OS upgrade, repair, and the like, as he might unintentionally lose the partition containing secondary OS.

Recover Data Loss during OS Upgrade

Having a secondary OS installed on your PC might help you run different applications based on both the platforms. You simply turn on your PC and select one of the operating systems as the primary OS at the boot time. Everything goes quite smoothly as if you have two different machines, but one of them is accessible at one time. In case you want to upgrade any of the OSes, you must act carefully because the other one might become inaccessible. To illustrate a similar situation, let us discuss a scenario:

You have two operating systems, i.e. Windows XP and Ubuntu, installed on different partitions of your PC. You boot to Windows platform for your personal work, while use Ubuntu for software development. In order to attain high-security for your personal stuff and for pleasing graphical user interface, you decide to upgrade to Windows 7. After inserting the Windows 7 upgrade DVD into the DVD ROM, you go on with the upgrade process and get it complete.

You are quite happy after upgrade and intend to move all the stuff stored on Linux partition to Windows platform. On restarting the PC, you select Ubuntu as the primary OS, but it fails to boot and lands you to a black screen that stays forever, and then you have to restart your PC. In other words, Windows upgrade makes your Ubuntu partition inaccessible and you are no longer able to boot from Ubuntu.

To check what is wrong with the Ubuntu partition, you boot into Windows and go to Disk Management. You see all the partitions listed there except the Ubuntu one, and you are like SHOCKED!! Since it contained your precious data, you might not be able to bear its loss no matter what.

Recover Linux Partition

Losing the Ubuntu partition on Windows (as discussed above) is deadly, as it caused a massive data loss. Commercial Linux recovery software based on Windows platform is the key requirement in such a case. Since the scenario discusses missing partition, the recovery software must be able to search for the lost partitions by scanning the hard drive thoroughly.

After the lost partition discovered with the Windows based Linux recovery tool, scan the partition for data it stores, and then save it to a secondary storage media.

Note: Using a secondary drive for saving data recovered from lost partition keeps the drive space intact and you can re-execute the recovery task on the save drive if required. Saving the recovered data on the source drive overwrites the drive space, which might cause trouble in data recovery.

What Makes Data Recovery Software Efficient?

Data recovery is a sophisticated task that must be performed with the involvement of necessary and sufficient care. Since you cannot perform this task manually, you must use a commercial and reliable data recovery tool based upon your respective platform.

When it comes to choose data recovery software based on your requirements, you might get puzzled and select one randomly. Consequently, recovery process results in data loss, even though you had the recovery tool available. Well, all that was responsible for such events to occur is your selection, which failed to come out as the reliable data recovery software.

In the scenario discussed above, the person needs to use authorized Linux recovery software based on Windows platform. Perform a thorough scan on the hard drive for lost partition recovery. Once the software discovers the lost partition, scan it for data recovery and save it on an external storage media. Try different modes of recovery provided by the software until to get desired results.

Note: Always use authorized data recovery tools no matter which platform you use. Take experts’ advice if required.

Author Bio

Abhay loves playing with tech stuff and writing helpful tutorials. If you want to see more from him, go ahead on his twitter page @ajms1989

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