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I used Startup Disk Creator to try and make a bootable USB ubuntu stick to install on my new ultrabook.

I had my 2TB backup USB drive attached, as I had just backed up everything on the flash drive.

I ran the Startup Disk Creator (as detailed here: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu ). I selected the appropriate ISO (which was surprisingly also pre-selected), and I checked the "Device to Use" and confirmed that it was the correct drive (by name). I clicked "Erase" to clean the drive.

A few minutes went by, and I saw activity on my USB drive. I thought perhaps it was formatting instead of erasing. Then I noticed that my backup drive activity was churning...not a good sign.

Worst possible thing was true, the startup disc creator was erasing my 2TB backup drive.

I have been googling to see what to do, and what exactly "erase" does in Startup Disk Creator. I am currently running testdisk and doing a deep scan, as the quick scan did not show a partition with files.

What did I do wrong with the Startup Disk Creator? How could it erase a disc that wasn't selected in the "Devices" dropdown? What exactly did it DO when it erased, and is my data completely hosed or can I expect this long deep scan to bear fruit?

Mateo
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Jim
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1 Answers1

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How could it erase a disc that wasn't selected in the "Devices" dropdown?

It is a bug in 'startupdisk creator'. The list box in startup disk creator shows only the first usb device in the destination. But it selects the last device. So when you saw the destination you would have noticed your flash drive, but actually the 2TB hardisk was selected. This will be visible only when you scroll down or maximize the window.

What exactly did it do when it erased?

The program may have tried to erase or format the drive, but it couldn't do it due to some reasons and it managed to corrupt the data by deleting whatever was possible like partition-table and has left the data to an unrecoverable state. Or maybe it might have even formatted the disk and deleted the data and left something to show up in the drive properties.

Is my data completely hosed?

Your data is gone forever and there is nothing you can do to retrieve them with the same folder structure. But you can use the recovery software like potorec, scapel, foremost, recurva etc. to get pieces of your data. Some recovery software might also retrieve you the 100% of data. But still that wouldn't be what you expected.

can I expect this long deep scan to bear fruit?

If you are referring to the deep scan in testdisk, then the answer is no.

But there is one important thing that you should do first. Get an empty hardrive of 2TB or more and make a clone of the affected one using dd command. This does not recover you data, it helps to have a backup of the affected disk. Do every experiments that you want to do using the different recovery methods only on the cloned drive.

Braiam
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John John
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