Installation overwrote windows installation too easily

[NoOp]

On 09/06/2008 06:50 PM, Alan E. Davis wrote:
[snip]

> 
> One user called me after trying to install on his desktop.  He was
> struck by about four power outages during the process, and as it turns
> out, Ubuntu installed all over the entire (SATA) disk.  Only one hdd
> is on his machine.  There is not trace of Windows left on the machine.
>  The experience of many others was that despite their worst fears,
> they were left with the capability of booting either Ubuntu or
> Windows, at boot time, and they were pleased that Windows was still
> the default.
> 
> For my friend, however, this wasn't the case.  FIrst of all, he asks,
> is there such a software engineer who can recover the windows data
> after a formatting with ext3?

This might be of some help:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
[google for other possible solutions]

You can also download Testdisk from here:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
  http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

Note: *I very much recommend that Will does nothing further to his
drive/system until a qualified or at least knowledgeable tech has a look
at it*

> 
> And second of all, I think I would like to reiterate my comment, some
> months ago, that Ubuntu's installer makes it too easy to overwrite all
> the partitions.  I would suggest (without being a programmer myself)
> that it would be fairly easy to set up the installer with simpler
> messages, and require more verifications before actually doing the
> partitioning---especialy when selecting to use the entire disk.  It
> should, in fact, be almost impossible to overwrite the entire disk
> unless one really tried.  My friend said, after an 85% install, the
> reboot saw the system just install itself.  I'm not sure what he
> meant, but I think the upshot is that while he was given an option at
> one point to install beside windows, the installer finally overwrote
> the disk.

The questions/verifications are there. Given that you provided the
workshop you would have noticed that prior to formating any partition
Ubuntu _always_ asks if you are sure and the human installer _must_
answer yes or no before the partition/format operations are performed.
Unless there is a serious bug, or I am very much mistaken, one cannot
simply overwrite an entire drive/partition without giving permission
during the Ubuntu install.

> 
> I think a major problem for my friend Will is that he doesn't even
> know what a hard disk or a partition is.  Is it unreasonable to take
> that level of user into consideration when setting up the installer?

Then I hate to say it, but IMO Will shouldn't be attempting to install
an OS (Windows, Linux, Other): 1) by himself and, 2) in an environment
where he will possibly experience 4 power outages during the process.

But for the sake of testing, I've an old box and a few old hard drives
that wouldn't be a great loss if they got fried; I'll be happy to load
one up, install Win2KPro on the drive, start the Ubuntu install and pop
the power to the box 4 times to see what happens. However, I'll need to
know a few things first:

1. What was Will using to install: LiveCD, Wubi, Alternate CD? Unbuntu,
Kubuntu, Xubuntu? Version: Hardy 8.04, 8.04.1, Intrepid, Gutsy, other?
2. Where in the install process was Will when the power went out the
first time, second time, third time, fourth time?
3. What happened after the power came back on the first time, second
time, third time, fourth time?

The answers to 2 & 3 don't have to be detailed, nor would I expect them
to be given your basic description of the situation. But, any details
that Will can recall will be helpful in trying to recreate the
situation. They will also be helpful in determining if perhaps any data
on the drive can be salvaged.