Help to access my HD after installing TC

[Gyroux]

Hi all

I'm newbie, and I made a stupid error when installing TCplus, please be patient with me and show me step by step what to do.
My PC was running Windows7 with many other programs installed.
I want to install TC for use of live-CD player for a signage program.
I insert an USB flash drive and I followed exactly the default instructions in the link of: Frugal Install Tiny Core Linux.
The TC is now installed in my HD(sda1) instead of USB drive. I installed opera and Flash and used to play my signage link.
The problem is:
How can I return to my windows7. (I have only HD option on the boot option screen that open TC)
If there is no way, how can I uninstall TC, recover my Win7 and then re-install TC again on the USB drive.

Many thanks you for your help.

[Rich]

Hi Gyroux
Did  you tell it to format or did you select "No formatting, use existing"?

[Gyroux]

thank Rich for your reply.

I use the default, so with Formating ext2.

[Rich]

Hi Gyroux
I'm afraid there is no gentle way to tell you this, but it sounds like you may have selected the hard drive instead of the
flash drive and formatted it.

[Gyroux]

Thanks Rich

Do you know if there is a way to minimise losts.

Thanks

[Rich]

Hi Gyroux
If you formatted the drive , I don't think there is anything you can do.
Just to be clear, are the following two statements accurate?
1. Your machine is currently booting  Tinycore  from the hard drive, not the CD or USB drive.
2. You selected  "Whole Disk"  and not  "Existing Partition"

[Gyroux]

Yes it is. I used the 2 statments.

[Rich]

Hi Gyroux
It doesn't sound good. Open a terminal and enter   fdisk -l (that's a lower case L). If none of the entries under System
says NTFS or FAT then I think you need to install Windows from scratch.

[Gyroux]

Thanks Rich

I will try this and let you know.

[Gyroux]

Hi Rich

I opened a terminal and enter   fdisk -l
I get this:
Disk  /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 Bytes
255 heads, 63sectors/track, 48641 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Device      boot                 Start              End         Blocks                      Id    system
/dev/sda1      *                     1                   48641     3907008801            83    Linux

Then I did that:

tc@box: ~$ fdisk -l /dev/sda1
Disk  /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 Bytes
255 heads, 63sectors/track, 48641 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Device             boot                 Start              End            Blocks                Id      system
/dev/sda1p1         ?                     200716        227661      216435558+       7       HPFS/NTFS
partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda1p2         ?                     203676        57922      976730017           16       Hidden FAT16
partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda1p3         ?                     1                      1                     0                 6f       unknown       
partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda1p4                              3125               60663      462167897           0       empty
partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary
Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Rich, please can you explain me what really happened and what sould I do.
Thanks a lot.

[Rich]

Hi Gyroux
From what I see, the first command you executed tells the whole story. It shows a 400GB drive with one Linux
partition that occupies the entire drive. Maybe someone else on the forum can weigh in with an opinion, but
I think the results of that second command are invalid. As far as I know, fdisk -l  has to be run on a drive, not
on a partition, that means  /dev/sda  not  /dev/sda1. I'm sorry to say it looks like you overwrote the contents of
the drive, and your only recourse to get Windows running again is probably to reinstall it. You could wait and
see if someone else has some other ideas, but I wouldn't get my hopes up too high.

Although this won't help you, there used to be a warning on that page about formatting overwriting any existing
data where Tinycore was being installed. Maybe that should be added back in, something like:
Warning: If you choose ext2, ext3, ext4, or vfat under Formatting Options, any data in the drive/partion
you chose to install Tinycore in will be destroyed. Please be absolutely certain the drive/partion you
choose does not contain anything that is important to you. If in doubt, ask a question on the forum

A suggestion for the installation utility. On the panel that says  "Select disk for core". Maybe list what operating
is currently installed on each listed drive/partition, or at least display  "Windows"  next to any choice that has
an NTFS or FAT based format on it.

[Gyroux]

Thank you very much Rich

I will wait if someone have a suggestion.
I try to re-install windows but I can't. With Windows installation cd, I have only one partition 39 MB for TC Linux and I get this message: windows can't be installed because there is no NTFS or FAT16 partition.

[Rich]

Hi Gyroux
If you do decide to reformat and install Windows, I found these instructions:

Code: [Select]

Boot from the Windows 7 DVD
 Click Install Now
 Accept License Agreement
 When the option is displayed to select an installation type, click (Custom Advanced)
 Click Drive Options
 Select the drive
 Click Format and click Next to proceed with the installation

[Gyroux]

Hi Rich

I formatted the HD and installed windows. I lost many things but i recuperate the system.
I really appreciate your help. You are generous.
Thanks a lot, my problem was solved now.

[roberts]

I have updated the install GUI extension to mark "removable" the devices displayed on the "Select Target Disk"  pick list.  As soon as I get some feedback. I will post it and wil include it in CorePlus 4.5