I NEED HELP NOW!

[Guest Gazzer96]

I tried installing arch linux following a video and it has gone completely wrong... And I do mean completely wrong: I changed all portions from NTFS to ext4 FS type including the system reserved, which has made the hard drives inaccessible and I cannot boot Windows. I had tried reinstalling Windows but all of the partitions seem to have free space. This is urgent!

[Guest Gazzer96]

Stupid android spell checker...

[orangecat]

I'm pretty sure you removed your bootloader for Windows and or you deleted your Windows partitions. Not much you can do.

[LonliestofAll]

Time to reformat those disks and install windows.

[Slaeowulf]

Agreed, you're just going to have to re-install Windows from scratch.

[SMURG]

Just gonna reiterate what everyone else has said.

You wiped Windows. Full reinstall is gonna be required I'm afraid.

[needmorewood]

clean install m an. think you deleted you win partition.

[StitchMonkey]

What about recovery programs?  Is there a reason this  worse than a normal "ohh shit I need to recover information" situation?  My better half got made at his computer and formatted it without thinking. . . . we managed to recover a hell of  a lot of pics off of it with very little effort.  Not sure if something like that might be an option.  From the tone of the OP it sounds like there could be specific information on the drives that is wanted.

[Guest Gazzer96]

which F key is it to format with bios?

[lutzee]

So yeah, you decided to install one of the most complex linux OSs without knowing what you are doing or understanding what you were doing.

Arch is not a basic OS, its designed for those who know what they are doing. 

 

And for your information, changing file system type means reformatting the drive, which means anything on there is potentially lost.

[Guest GRRigger]

i have a CD with bootable windows-like system for those situations. if you want to recover files i find the cd and tell you name of it. i cant remember. if its urgent, i am willing to bury myself under CDs

[Guest Gazzer96]

Problem guys, I cannot format the hard drive with a Windows disc!

[lutzee]

Problem guys, I cannot format the hard drive with a Windows disc!

Ugh, use the linux live media to wipe the partition table, the windows disk should be able to deal with an unformatted drive.

[LogicalDrm]

Get gparted and burn it as bootable disc. Reformat all those drives/partitions you need to NTFS. Reinstall windows. Or you can use that Arch linux cd/dvd for it.

 

On a side note here. There's always risks when installing something new by following only guide. Guides are never excatly same situation as user might be in. Though this might be also case of messy installation UI by Arch side.

[lutzee]

Get gparted and burn it as bootable disc. Reformat all those drives/partitions you need to NTFS. Reinstall windows. Or you can use that Arch linux cd/dvd for it.

 

On a side note here. There's always risks when installing something new by following only guide. Guides are never excatly same situation as user might be in. Though this might be also case of messy installation UI by Arch side.

 

Okay, arch doesn't use a fancy graphical installer, nor does it really have any installer, but if you follow the very verbose guides on the arch wiki you should be fine, this is of course you understand how to use linux, which is why arch is definately not recommended for a new linux user. 

[Guest Gazzer96]

I finally manged to fix it guys! I had to delete all of my partitions (including the C drive) to get Windows to install, but thanks for help anyway guys! I was worried about doing as I thought Windows would not be able to detect the hard drives, but since the computer was in tatters anyway, I just went ahead and did it.