Hello everybody!
In this video, I’m going to show you how to recover lost data after you reinstalled
your Linux operating system, or after you formatted the hard disk.
Almost every novice user knows how it feels to lose data after reinstalling the operating
system.
You may have forgotten to copy important information from the system disk before you start the
reinstallation process, and now all those files are gone.
It’s a bitter feeling of trying to find important data and discovering is doesn’t
exist anymore...
Fortunately, there are many solutions nowadays that can help you get your data back.
One of them is Hetman Partition Recovery, a well-tried and reliable utility globally
recognized for successful data recovery.
As long as there is no version for Linux, I’ll show you a trick how to run this utility
on Linux and recover missing data from the hard disks.
How to install a VMware virtual machine To make the utility work in this environment,
we need a virtual machine with a Windows OS.
As I said before, there is no version of Hetman Partition Recovery for Linux, but the existing
version for Windows can recover files from Linux disks as well.
It supports almost every file system used in Linux.
To run the utility, you need a virtual machine, for example, one based on VMware - One of
the most popular applications of this kind, and you shouldn’t have any difficulty installing
it.
VMware is not distributed with open source code, but it comes in two variants - a commercial
Pro version and a free version with basic functionality.
The Pro version has a trial limitation of 15 days, and that should be enough to recover
the lost data.
I’ll show you how to install a VMware virtual machine, create a machine with Windows 10
and recover your lost data from Ubuntu version 18.04.
To install VMware, download the installation file.
You can find the latest stable version on its official website.
We need a version for Linux.
Select to save the file and wait until it is downloaded.
In addition, you need to install components required for VMware: GNU Complier Collection
and Build Essential.
You need to set permissions for the downloaded file.
Right-click on the file and open Properties, jump to the tab “Permissions” and check
the box next to “Allow executing file as program.”
Go to the downloads folder and run the Terminal from there.
Do it by right-clicking on an empty area in the folder and selecting “Open in Terminal.”
Before installing any software, you need to update the package repository with the following
command.
sudo apt update After that, install GNU Complier Collection
and Build Essential that will be used for VMware installation.
Here is the command to use: sudo apt install gcc build-essential
Hit Yes to confirm your action, and then Enter.
For further actions, you need the full name of the VMware package file.
For this purpose, list the files in your downloads folder with the following command:
ls Copy the full name of the downloaded file.
You’ll need it to extract the files from the package.
In the terminal, type sudo ./and paste the package name.
This is how the command looks like.
Enter.
When the files are extracted, the VMware installation window should appear.
If it doesn’t, go to the list of installed applications and launch it from there.
When it starts, select the configuration settings and proceed with the installation.
When it’s over, you’ll see the corresponding notification about it.
When started for the first time, the program asks you to enter a license key, but we choose
free trial for 30 days.
Now you can create a virtual machine.
How to create a virtual machine with Windows 10
To create a virtual machine with a specific operating system, you have to download an
image of such system first.
Go to the Microsoft website and download the ISO file containing the version of Windows
you need.
After the image is downloaded, start VMware as a superuser (or root).
For this purpose, exit the program and enter the following command in the terminal:
sudo VMware This will help you to avoid possible issues
when connecting a physical disk at a later time.
In the program’s window that opens, click File - New Virtual Machine.
Select Typical configuration type - Next, check the box for “Installer disc image
file (iso)” and specify the path to the downloaded image of the operating system - Next.
Set the name of the virtual machine, and change it location if necessary.
If you are going to recover data from the system disk, it’s better to choose a different
disk for installation, because otherwise this process may overwrite the data you are trying
to restore.
Here, you can set the virtual machine disk size, check the box next to “Store virtual
disk as a single file” and click Next.
In the next window, you can access virtual machine settings.
In the first line, choose the amount of system memory to be allocated for this machine.
Of course, the more is the better, but you have to consider how much RAM is installed
on your PC: if you assign most of it to the need of the virtual machine, your real computer
may freeze.
So think twice.
Other settings are not as important at the moment, so close them and click to finish.
Now the virtual machine is ready: the last step is to launch it and install the operating
system.
The installation begins as soon as you launch the machine: in this case, it follows the
same procedure as if it were an ordinary computer.
Just follow the directions and wait until all elements are installed.
Visit our channel for a detailed video tutorial about installing Windows, and you can find
the link in the description below.
How to add a physical disk in VMware Now, use the virtual machine settings to add
the physical disk from where you want to recover data.
To make sure your machine will boot from the hard disk, and will not start the installation
every time you launch it, uncheck the “Connected” option in the CD/DVD tab.
Right-click on the virtual machine to open its settings.
Find CD/DVD and uncheck this option.
Below, find the Add button, click on it and select a hard disk - Next.
Specify its type, and in the next window, check the box for “Use a physical disk”
- Next.
Select the necessary device from the list.
If you find it difficult, open the disk utility and find the disk you need by its name or
size.
Select the disk and click Next, then hit Finish to complete this step.
Now start the virtual machine and wait until the operating system boots.
To connect a USB pen drive, plug it into your computer’s port, and in the VMware app below,
enable it by clicking on the device and selecting “Connect to host.”
After that, it should be displayed in the program, too.
How to recover data from a Linux disk To get things going, download and install
the program.
Open your browser, download and run Hetman Partition Recovery.
If you did everything right, you will see your disk in the Drive Manager.
Right-click on it - Open.
For starters, try a fast scan - the utility will analyze the disk and display the detected
information in the right-side panel.
This scan type requires very little time.
But if the fast scan can’t find the information, then go for Full analysis.
When the analysis is over, open the folder where the lost information used to exist,
select the files you want to restore and click Recovery.
Specify the path for saving the lost data and click Recovery again.
When the process is over, you will find the recovered files in the folder you have chosen
for saving them.
Also, our program can create a disk image and then conduct all recovery operations with
this image which increases your chances to restore the deleted information successfully,
because multiple rounds of scanning may result in data overwriting.
Hetman Partition Recovery will help you restore files lost after removing or formatting partitions,
after system errors, virus attacks and other scenarios that involve loss of valuable data.
It can also recover data from internal and external hard disks, USB storage devices,
SD memory cards, digital cameras and other devices used to store information.
Now you know how to recover lost data in Linux after reinstalling the operating system, or
formatting the hard disk.
That is all for now!
I hope you will find this video guide useful.
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Thank you for watching.
Good luck.