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[tigers_gonads]

I've cocked up big style

I have a SD card which has various programs and data on.
The card was initially formatted using windows and all files dragged over and saved in the normal manor.

I downloaded a copy of Linux onto my Win 7 laptop (no problem)
I then copied Linux across to a usb stick for my own use using Win32DiscImager (again with no problem)

Okay, here is the cockup 

A friend also wanted a copy so I again copied it across to the SD card so I could transfer it across for him.

NOW I CAN'T ACCESS THE DATA ON THE CARD THAT WAS WROTE USING WINDOWS 

I would be perfectly happy if I could nuke the Linux bit and keep the window based stuff but no mater what I do, nothing will read the SD card.
It won't boot up on anything and if you go into properties, it says it must be formatted first before use 

Now here is the really shit bit, they are something's on the SD card which cannot be replaced 

No lectures please about back things up properly 

TIA

[zirk]

Long shot, will it read using MS Prompt, ie Dir:

[tigers_gonads]

Nothing on the list with todays date on 

[tigers_gonads]

A bit more information

When I copied it across to the SD card, it put the Linux in a bootable partition.
I can see this but I can't see the rest.
It just shows up as free space 

[cem_devecioglu]

A bit more information

When I copied it across to the SD card, it put the Linux in a bootable partition.
I can see this but I can't see the rest.
It just shows up as free space 

I dont think you can save any data from that card with standard operating system tools.. try some specialized recovery software..

and still not sure you can recover it..

[tigers_gonads]

I have my lad booting his computer up in Linux now
The idea is to get the unit to read the SD card and see if we can change the partition so that it is no longer bootable.
The pop the card in a windows machine and see if the other files are visible 

 

[kevinp58]

Just a long shot here but did you knock the little tab on the side so it is now locked. 

[Andy H]

How does Win32DiscImager work?

From its name I would assume that it writes an image to the target using a file provided by you (.iso or .img)

To preserve the existing info on your card it would need some free space or an empty partition to write the image to. From what you have posted so far it sounds as though it didn't do that and set up a new partition table and file attribute table (FAT) and overwrote anything that was in its way

How big was the Linux image? how much stuff on the card before?

Hopefully Win32DiscImager wrote to spare space on the card and screwed up the FAT but left your original data alone. Even if Win32DiscImager has trashed the data at the start the other data should still be there but will be inaccessible at the moment because the FAT was overwritten.

There are tools to recover missing data from sdcards and there are low level linux commands that can take a snapshot of the cards current state.

What you mustn't do is write any data to the card until you have taken a snapshot of the whole card (including the apparently empty space). Anything that opens the card for read/write access (eg MSWindows) could write to it without your knowledge.

I would keep the card safe and spend some time reading about the linux dd command (or ddrecover) to take a snapshot of the cards current state before moving on to trying to recreate the partition table. If you are lucky Win32DiscImager kept a log file of what it did (unlikely tho  )

[Kevin Wood]

If you wrote to the card using a disk imager then whatever was previously on there is gone, I'm afraid. 

A disk imager overwrites the whole content of the drive, including any formatted partitions and the files they contain. This is how they are able to make a drive bootable.

[cem_devecioglu]

How does Win32DiscImager work?

From its name I would assume that it writes an image to the target using a file provided by you (.iso or .img)

To preserve the existing info on your card it would need some free space or an empty partition to write the image to. From what you have posted so far it sounds as though it didn't do that and set up a new partition table and file attribute table (FAT) and overwrote anything that was in its way

How big was the Linux image? how much stuff on the card before?

Hopefully Win32DiscImager wrote to spare space on the card and screwed up the FAT but left your original data alone. Even if Win32DiscImager has trashed the data at the start the other data should still be there but will be inaccessible at the moment because the FAT was overwritten.

There are tools to recover missing data from sdcards and there are low level linux commands that can take a snapshot of the cards current state.

What you mustn't do is write any data to the card until you have taken a snapshot of the whole card (including the apparently empty space). Anything that opens the card for read/write access (eg MSWindows) could write to it without your knowledge.

I would keep the card safe and spend some time reading about the linux dd command (or ddrecover) to take a snapshot of the cards current state before moving on to trying to recreate the partition table. If you are lucky Win32DiscImager kept a log file of what it did (unlikely tho  )

[cem_devecioglu]

If you wrote to the card using a disk imager then whatever was previously on there is gone, I'm afraid. 

A disk imager overwrites the whole content of the drive, including any formatted partitions and the files they contain. This is how they are able to make a drive bootable.

unfortunately yes..

[tigers_gonads]

If you wrote to the card using a disk imager then whatever was previously on there is gone, I'm afraid. 

A disk imager overwrites the whole content of the drive, including any formatted partitions and the files they contain. This is how they are able to make a drive bootable.

That confirms what I was told earlier 

Thanks for your help lads

[Andy H]

If you wrote to the card using a disk imager then whatever was previously on there is gone, I'm afraid. 

A disk imager overwrites the whole content of the drive, including any formatted partitions and the files they contain. This is how they are able to make a drive bootable.

If the image was created to fit on a CD say it would be 640MB. If the OP has a card bigger than 640MB then the imager doesn't need to write anything beyond 640MB. The information will still be there.

The imager might have options for secure erasing the whole drive but the chances are that it didn't.

[tigers_gonads]

If you wrote to the card using a disk imager then whatever was previously on there is gone, I'm afraid. 

A disk imager overwrites the whole content of the drive, including any formatted partitions and the files they contain. This is how they are able to make a drive bootable.

If the image was created to fit on a CD say it would be 640MB. If the OP has a card bigger than 640MB then the imager doesn't need to write anything beyond 640MB. The information will still be there.

The imager might have options for secure erasing the whole drive but the chances are that it didn't.

[/highlight]


The card was a 8 gig version with nearly 4 gig of stuff on it.
The other usable 3.5 gig should have been for the Linux but it definitely wiped the lot before writing the image 

Looked into that Andy.
Sadly there is no facility to do that 


Oh well, now too pluck up the courage to tell the missus 

[dbug]

Even with new partition info overwriting original windoze partition, it may still be possible to recover data off original windoze partition.  Specialist software is needed - a couple of companies I used to deal with have this capability, and offered a no charge assessment.  But recognise data recovery can be pricey.  Have used these people for data recovery from individual hard drive platters with file rebuild successfully for customers in the past - http://www.krollontrack.co.uk/data-recovery/?gclid=COPf0dnl8r0CFRDItAod-S8Aww