viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

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s.dot
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viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by s.dot »

Hey,

I backed up all of my files from my ubuntu installation (ext2 fs) onto a 500gb NTFS external hdd. I could view them fine in ubuntu. Now that I've switched back to windows, my files aren't viewable on my external hdd.

Can I "recover" them?
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Benjamin
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Re: viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by Benjamin »

Did you reformat/repartition that drive while it was mounted? If so, the kernel wrote your files to the old partition table. You would need recovery software to retrieve them.
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Re: viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by s.dot »

no sir, i did not
i copied everything to external hard drive
booted into gparted
formatted my internal hard drive
then reinstalled windows
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Re: viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by Doug G »

Are you sure the external drive was really NTFS? Can you boot a live linux CD and see if the external drive is usable?

I use ntfs formatted external drives from fedora and interchange them with windows 7 all the time without any problems.
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Re: viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by s.dot »

i just booted the live cd and it shows the same contents windows shows
hmmmmm
i copied entire folders =/ i don't see how some contents can be there and some not
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Re: viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by Benjamin »

If some are there and some are not, maybe there were some errors during the copy process? eg permissions...
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Re: viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by s.dot »

Well it seems everything was copied except my php files.
everything in that folder though (/var/www/) was chown'd to me, and i was logged in as me

damn, i really shouldn't have formatted
now that i installed windows, i likely won't get any data back if i try to recover
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Re: viewing linux files in windows (on NTFS external hdd)

Post by daedalus__ »

MAN i hate that.

i keep my important files (such as web stuff) on my web host, an external, the internal, and a usb key. haha
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Post by Jonah Bron »

I don't know a whole lot about filesystem formats, but external HDD came formatted with FAT32, and it works seamlessly between Ubuntu and Windows.

Sorry about your files. :(
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