1. What's in

This mini-HOWTO addresses only the "lost partition table" problem. This can be when :

• you have no more access to your computer, with the "no operating system" message,
• you have installed a new system (ie windows) and you see no more Linux, and windows take up all the capacity of the disk.

Here you will learn that if you know the right thing and do it, Linux comes usually safe from such things. Windows can, but it's luckier.

We will first see what you can do before the problem to ease the future recovery and what you must do after to recover. There is little to do to prevent from erasing a disk, usually this is done by automatic windows or Linux-install ill behaved programs or users mistakes - nothing can be done to prevent this except care, but you are already careful, isn't it ?

It can also be done by the use of MSDOS/Windows fdisk. avoid it as most as you can, but you probably can't.

I have done this many times, on my computer and on others' guy computers and restored Linux most of the time and windows sometimes. I wish you luck !