(Urgent!) Need help recovering system files

[roharia]

I was supposed to format my friends computer and install Windows 7 for him (He was on Ubuntu 11.04) - After the install we updated windows (System update) about 3 times and an hour later he remembered that he had some very important school files on Ubuntu which are now lost due to me formatting his drive. I want to know if there is any way I could recover these for him? They were all open-office documents (About 4 of them, nonetheless they took him about 2 weeks)

 

[karlsnooks]

roharia,
Welcome to SevenForums.

What ever you do, do NOT use the disk with the missing info until someone brings a solution for you.

I will give you a solution that has worked for others, but your case is a little different so I can make absolutely no guarantees.

I'm giving you to link to the portable version. Please read the description there.
Recuva - Portable version

 

[roharia]

Thanks for the quick reply; I'm trying it now.

 

[roharia]

Damn! It has an ETA of 14 hours! Is that normal? Should I wait it out?

 

[karlsnooks]

I don't have an idea what you are talking about.

However, if that is the time for the scan and recovery, then:
YES. Wait it out.

14 hours is nothing compared to the anguish of losing days of work.

 

[kado897]

I hate to put a dampner on this but Ubuntu uses an entirely different file system and partitioning. I think it extremely unlikely that recuva will be able to recover them but don't let that stop you from trying.

 

[mjf]

You may need to do some googling in the linux community.
This may be worth a read
Recover Data Like a Forensics Expert Using an Ubuntu Live CD - How-To Geek