Windows deleted(?) after installing Mint 13

[giorgosdi]

Hello to you all!
Yesterday I tried to install Linux Mint 13 on a Lenovo Z500 notebook, aiming in having a dual boot system with Win 7. Although I've done it plenty of times in other older notebooks and desktops, this time something strange happened. Although i didn't choose "Erase whole disk " and tried to create the partitions myself i didnt see any ntfs partition but it seemed to be only free space. Anyway, after a quick search i installed Linux mint and when i restarted the notebook it immediatetly logged me in Linux without the option of Win 7 as it happened every other time i did the installation. Not only that, but i coudln't see any of my win7 files and i got nervous because i don't have a backup. Anyway, i used testdisk and photorec and i managed to recover some of the files but in rec_up folders and unorganized.

1)Has my win7 parrtition been completely removed?
2)If it has so, how can my files be there to be recovered?
3)Is there any way to recover my files by folder and organized?(lets say to recover only my "Documents" folder,which it has a couple of important files i care about)?

Any help would be really appreciated!! Thank you very much!!!

[Mark Phelps]

i didnt see any ntfs partition but it seemed to be only free space

This should have been a clue that something was very wrong -- but you ignored it and charged ahead anyway. It's most likely you erased all your Windows stuff in doing that.

In my experience, Windows utilities do a better job of recovering Windows folders and files than do Linux utilities.

To recover the Windows stuff, you need to STOP using your PC (as every usage is overwriting former Windows files), and be prepared to spend some money. If you're willing to do that, read on ...

Since your data was on a Windows partition, based on my experience at doing this successfully, my suggestions are the following:
[NOTE: If your PC has a working copy of MS Windows on it, skip to step 4]
1) Find someone with a working MS Windows PC
2) Remove your drive from this PC.
3) Connect your old drive to the MS Windows PC.
4) Download and install the trial version of RecoverMyFiles from Runtime Software in MS Windows.
5) Right-click the RecoverMyFiles shortcut and select "Run as Administrator"
6) Select the option to Recover a Drive
7) You will get a list of drive, scroll down to find the one for your USB stick or memory card
Select Automatic Driver recovery, press Start button
9) It will run for a while but when done, will show a directory tree in the left pane. Do NOT interrupt it.
10) When done, browse the folders in the directory tree -- and be SURE to check the filesizes of the files you want to recover. If the filesize is zero, the file is trashed and you will NOT be able to recover it.

If the files look OK, you will need to contact Runtime Software to purchase a license for the recovery. You won't have to reinstall the app; instead, they will email you an activation code which you can use to turn on the recovery feature.

According to their website, the "standard" version of the app is $70 USD. They also have a Pro version for $99 dollars, but if you go to the website below, you can compare the features and (at least for me) the extra cost wasn't worth it:

http://www.recovermyfiles.com/data-reco ... rchase.php

Your data ... your money ... your choice.