Missing data after resizing partition during opensuse leap 42.1 installation.

[gonzalomay86]

Hello,

Well, I was installing OpenSUSE Leap 42.1 and I had "Ext4" partition as my /home. It was aproximately 880 Gbs in a 1 Tb HDD.

During the instalation, I've decided to resize my partition to 900 Gb, because I wanted to resize swap from 14 Gb to 2 Gb only.

This operation, not only resized my partition, it changed the file system too from ext4 to xfs (I was using Kubuntu before and I replaced with OpenSUSE...).

I had almost 300 Gb of file such like music, pictures, documents, etc. Today I was moving to another partition and I saw that my files were only 90 Gb, obviously I feel terrible.

I would like to know if there is any kind of solution or program to run in windows or linux, now I am trying to recover data from some windows-based-programs. I have tried two with no success.

Thanks in advance for all your time and consideration.

[caf4926]

TestDisk
Best using a live version of Parted Magic such as
https://www.dropbox.com/s/opbxefs7km...08_01.iso?dl=0

TestDisk is built in to the system

FYI: The openSUSE installer only does as instructed and would not format a partition unless you expressly permitted such.
All actions are also confirmed before it proceeds

[gogalthorp]

This shows why it is extremely important that you pay attention to ALL install screens understand them and agree to them before proceeding. You are in charge the installer can not read your mind and it only makes recommendation you accept them or change them

[Fraser_Bell]

... and also brings me back to MY advice for all who wish to perform such major tasks: Always Back Up First!

Too late to help you, I know, but a reminder for others reading this thread. I believe you will likely do so in any future work on your system.

[tsu2]

Sad, but AFAIK when you re-format you really do wipe all data so everything you've lost is irrecoverable.

This is one reason why I generally recommend making partition modifications using gparted live separately and before doing any other operation (like an upgrade or install).

gparted live will do many things like resize and move partitions without data destruction, and you can very clearly see all the steps being authorized... You shouldn't be surprised by something like a re-format.

BTW - I did an upgrade to LEAP (from 13.2) on a machine with objectives similar to what you wanted.
On this machine, I wanted to completely reformat the root partition while preserving the /home partition (which was formatted with ext4). Probably unlike what you did, I wanted to carefully inspect changes so declined the auto layout (important! and your probable mistake) and opened up the expert option. To my surprise, these steps automatically recognized my /home partition and allowed me to change the root partition to BTRFS, and I was able to further modify the size of the root and swap partitions (but not resize the /home). Satisfied with the final proposal, I accepted and proceeded with the install resulting in exactly what I wanted... a preserved /home while modifying everything else.

TSU

[gonzalomay86]

At first, I am sorry for my bad english,

I have recovered all my pictures (jpg format).

What have I done?

1) I have used "Hirens Boot Cd"

2) Boot "Mini Windows XP" and open "photorec" utility, this utility read ntfs, fat32, and ext2, 3, 4 partititions.

3) Photorec has the option to scan and recover partitions. In my own case I was recovering from "whole disk".

1 TB disk is spending approximately 40-50 hrs to recover all the data.

P.S.1- My pictures are 100% ok, even full hd quality (This is more important to me that all my music).
P.S.2- My only issue is with mp3 files, I am trying to play them, I only can read id3 tags but can't play any sound.
P.S.3- By the way, everything is recovering into different recovery folders and the file name is already different than the original one, this is already assigned by photorec, BUT, the date when my pictures were taken is still there and I can sort my files in the right order just searching and sorting by date.

I will be looking for a way to fix my mp3.

Thanks to all of you those try to help me.

[caf4926]

Are you trying to play the .mp3 files in openSUSE ? Or have you also tried them in Windows?

For multimedia (including .mp3) in openSUSE, you need to follow:
https://forums.opensuse.org/entry.ph...ltimedia-Guide

[Fraser_Bell]

At first, I am sorry for my bad english,

I have recovered all my pictures (jpg format).

What have I done?

1) I have used "Hirens Boot Cd"

2) Boot "Mini Windows XP" and open "photorec" utility, this utility read ntfs, fat32, and ext2, 3, 4 partititions.

3) Photorec has the option to scan and recover partitions. In my own case I was recovering from "whole disk".

1 TB disk is spending approximately 40-50 hrs to recover all the data.

P.S.1- My pictures are 100% ok, even full hd quality (This is more important to me that all my music).
P.S.2- My only issue is with mp3 files, I am trying to play them, I only can read id3 tags but can't play any sound.
P.S.3- By the way, everything is recovering into different recovery folders and the file name is already different than the original one, this is already assigned by photorec, BUT, the date when my pictures were taken is still there and I can sort my files in the right order just searching and sorting by date.

I will be looking for a way to fix my mp3.

Thanks to all of you those try to help me.

Glad to hear you got your pictures back. And glad you chose to share the way you did that, so others might benefit.

As caf4926 suggests, you might try those mp3 files on another system, see if they work there.

In any case, it would be great if you share your results with them, if the problem gets solved and how it was done.

At the moment, not sure I know enough about mp3 construct to help you, but someone else here might.

Good luck.

[gonzalomay86]

Well, hello again.

I was not able to recover all my mp3 and pictures. Most mp3 are missing, and the ones that I have recovered are not complete (part of the song at the beginning is missing).

There is an utility called PhotoRec Sorter, it helps a lot to sort files by extension type, or file name (those without extension).

Now I am trying with "UFS explorer", just trying luck.

[d_hinds]

I was not able to recover all my mp3 and pictures. Most mp3 are missing, and the ones that I have recovered are not complete (part of the song at the beginning is missing).

There is an utility called PhotoRec Sorter, it helps a lot to sort files by extension type, or file name (those without extension).

Now I am trying with "UFS explorer", just trying luck.

Good luck, Gonzalo. Beyond that I can only suggest that you create a separate partition for your own data (as distinct from your operating systems and applications). If you multiple boot to other operating systems and one of them is Windows, you can create a nfts partition. Also (as others suggested) NEVER choose the automatic formatting option and to be safe, always back up your data to an external optical, magnetic or flash drive or disk.

Since you said you English was not so good (although all that you said was quite understandable), I am going to repeat this in Spanish:

Buenas suerte, Gonzalo. Espero que logras recuperar sus datos. Pero para la siguiente ocasión, le recomiendo crear una partición separada para sus datos y si utiliza windows, que sea en formato ntfs. Ademas, tal como le han recomendado otros, nunca selecciona la opción "partición automática" y siempre respalda sus datos a un disco óptico, magnético o memoria flash externo.