HELP. I did something terribly wrong.

[Gat Pelsinger]

So I resized my NTFS partition in linux using cfdisk, and now in Windows, it won't open and says to format it. I AM DEAD.

[Kilrah]

cfdisk only sets partition boundaries, it won't actually resize the filesystem that may be on it.

 

Undo that change, it should work if nothing between the previous end of partition and the new was changed in the meantime.

Next time use a higher level program like gparted that will automatically do the multiple operations required to actually do this. Or even better a Windows-based tool like minitool partition wizard as NTFS support on linux probably shouldn't be trusted to that extent. Oh and have backups before any of it of course.

[whispous]

Yes you've ruined it if you truly wrote over any of the NTFS stuff.

 

If you need data, you'll need to perform and/or pay for data recovery

 

other than than, you need to format and reinstall.

[Gat Pelsinger]

@Kilrah

 

I wrote data on the remaining free space. Still though, I really doubt that I corrupted my data, instead I should have corrupted the NTFS or partition metadata. I used a data recovery software to scan for the data, and it did found most if not all files, but it also found the other files which were supposed to be deleted, and I cannot sure that the data it did recover is fully recovered. It would be better if I can fix the metadata itself rather than recovering files. Will clearing the new partition and rejoining it with its parent NTFS partition fix it?

 

edit - chkdsk doesn't work as it reports it is a RAW filesystem partition.

[Kilrah]

2 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

I wrote data on the remaining free space.

You're screwed then

2 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

Will clearing the new partition and rejoining it with its parent NTFS partition fix it?

Almost certainly not since the filesystem structure will have been borked by being overwritten.

Can always try, maybe the important bits weren't.

[Gat Pelsinger]

Just now, Kilrah said:

Can always try, maybe the important bits weren't.

I had 30 GB of free space remaining, and I only took away 2.5 GB of it. But yeah, I wrote 2.2 GB to that new partition. So, my real data should still be very intact. I just want a way to fix the metadata, as I am sure even most of the metadata itself is correctly placed in the partition.

 

If nothing works, I would have to recover the data.

[tkitch]

2 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

I had 30 GB of free space remaining, and I only took away 2.5 GB of it. But yeah, I wrote 2.2 GB to that new partition. So, my real data should still be very intact. I just want a way to fix the metadata, as I am sure even most of the metadata itself is correctly placed in the partition.

That's not how that works.  

On SSDs data is scattered all over the nand.  If you took a 2.5GB Chunk and then overwrote it, 100% you overwrote data that mattered. 

[Kilrah]

Yep, SSD or HDD matters a lot. Creating/formatting a partition on an SSD will usually issue a TRIM, in which case anything in the partition but the new filesystem's structures is wiped.

 

If it's an HDD try removing the partition and redefining the original how it was, that has some chance of working if the metadata was at the end, which is quite common although I don't know NTFS specifics.

[Gat Pelsinger]

@Kilrah @tkitch

 

Good news. I resized the partition in Linux and now it detects correctly haha. I told you only the metadata is corrupted and not the data. 

 

Damn Linux is scary. But I wasn't that scared from the first place because that partition didn't have too sensitive data. I might have lost a few files because I can't see them but I don't even remember if they were supposed to be there or were deleted.

[whispous]

From now on, you cannot trust this installation of Windows. If you have any problems with Windows or other programs, you cannot rule out that you mashed them up by doing this.

 

Good luck.

[Gat Pelsinger]

Just now, whispous said:

From now on, you cannot trust this installation of Windows. If you have any problems with Windows or other programs, you cannot rule out that you mashed them up by doing this.

 

Good luck.

What? The messed partition wasn't the C drive. I just have pure independent data on that partition.

[Kilrah]

Run a chkdsk on it now, and likely some files will be corrupted, which you won't find out until you need them. Unless you had e.g. a list of hashes of the files you could compare them against.

  

12 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

I told you only the metadata is corrupted and not the data. 

What "you told us"? We told you how it works and why you might be able to at least get it up again.

[tkitch]

11 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

@Kilrah @tkitch

 

Good news. I resized the partition in Linux and now it detects correctly haha. I told you only the metadata is corrupted and not the data. 

 

Damn Linux is scary. But I wasn't that scared from the first place because that partition didn't have too sensitive data. I might have lost a few files because I can't see them but I don't even remember if they were supposed to be there or were deleted.

until you integrity check every file on that partition, this doesn't mean much, 

[Gat Pelsinger]

Just now, whispous said:

If you have any problems with Windows

Jokes on you my Windows install is already broken. I mean it is Windows, what do you expect?

[Gat Pelsinger]

Just now, Kilrah said:

What "you told us"? We told you how it works and why you might be able to at least get it up again.

I just said that I was sure it was the metadata that was corrupted and the data was mostly not touched. Yes, you did help me figure out some stuff. 

[whispous]

2 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

Jokes on you my Windows install is already broken. I mean it is Windows, what do you expect?

The vast majority of people don't have broken Windows installations

[Needfuldoer]

20 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

Damn Linux is scary.

Only when you pop open the hood and start tinkering without knowing exactly what you're doing. If you're entering commands just because something on the Internet told you to, stuff's going to break.

 

5 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

Jokes on you my Windows install is already broken. I mean it is Windows, what do you expect?

Said the one who keeps breaking Linux.  

 

If you go in and "tweak" stuff to "make Windows run better", you're just going to cause problems. Then if your solution to those problems is to go in and "tweak" more stuff, or blindly replace system files with versions you download off magic fix-it .DLL library sites, problems are going to snowball.

 

"Techies" who know just enough to be dangerous are their own worst enemies. (Believe me, I've been there. That was me. The secret is to do that messing around and learning on disposable systems where you don't care if data gets corrupted.)

[BoomerDutch]

2 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

"Techies" who know just enough to be dangerous are their own worst enemies. (Believe me, I've been there. That was me. The secret is to do that messing around and learning on disposable systems where you don't care if data gets corrupted.)

*running main system*

Hey don't look at me.

I don't keep data anyways.