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How to rescue files on Windows D-drive? My computer: Acer Aspire T3 715 desktop

D

DiaNo

n00b
Joined
Oct 18, 2022
Messages
40
My computer:
Acer Aspire T3 715.desktop machine.
CPU Intel Core i5-6400
DDR4-SDRAM 16GB 2133MHzDDR4-SDRAM
GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
SSD C-drive 128GB running Windows 10 home 64b 22H2.
HDD 1. D-drive, 3.5" SATA3 HDD 7200rpm 1.0 TB
**And a newly added HDD, 2.5" SATA3 Seagate 120gb MX Linux is just installed.

Problem occured:
1.I installed MX Linux 25.2 on the newly added HDD.
2.Windows D-drive disappeared after the installation.
3.The newly added 2.5" HDD becomes Windows D-drive. EFI.
4.Windows cannot boot from BIOS. The GRUB provides a Windows optios.

How to recover the D-drive or rescue the files on there?
Thanks.
DiaNo
 
Ok, stupid questions first. Are you SURE that you installed Linux to the right drive (meaning the 120gb, NOT the 1TB?) It sounds like GRUB overwrote the Windows boot loader. My first suggestion, before you do ANYTHING is to make full image copies of all of your drives (there are a lot of freeware utils you can use to clone or image your existing drives) so you can always get back to where you are right now in case something doesn't work. Once you have the copies safely stored away, use a Windows boot USB stick (for your specific windows version) to do a repair of your Windows installation and see first if that fixes the issues. Once you get to that point, then if it isn't working we can go from there.
 
mwroobel said:
Ok, stupid questions first. Are you SURE that you installed Linux to the right drive (meaning the 120gb, NOT the 1TB?) It sounds like GRUB overwrote the Windows boot loader. My first suggestion, before you do ANYTHING is to make full image copies of all of your drives (there are a lot of freeware utils you can use to clone or image your existing drives) so you can always get back to where you are right now in case something doesn't work. Once you have the copies safely stored away, use a Windows boot USB stick (for your specific windows version) to do a repair of your Windows installation and see first if that fixes the issues. Once you get to that point, then if it isn't working we can go from there.
Click to expand...
Thank you.

"Are you SURE that you installed Linux to the right drive"
Yes, possitively sure.

The current situations:
1. I do not use the newly installed MX Linux, except for check to see whether the Windows D-drive is in the Disk Manager. Yes, it is there with a different name. I can identify it by its capacity.
2. By booting a live tootable USB stick of Linux Mint Xfce, checking its Disks, the Windows D-drive is there but it labelled as HomeMX.
3. I am to boot into Windows by pressing F12 or selecting the option of Windows in the GRUB, but can not find any files saved in the last few years.
4. In Windows Disk Manager, the is now listed as disk 2 (disk 1 is the newly installed 2.5" HDD with MX Linux installed on it), and it is totally empty, and labelled as a Primary Partition.
5. Windows can not "see" at all the HDD D-drive, 3.5" SATA3 HDD 7200rpm 1.0 TB.

MX Linux has changed all the hard disks, including the SSD on this PC to EFI format. Is there any way to change it back or to recover the original table?

Thank you.
DiaNo
 
Can you see the missing files if you boot into Linux? How is the 1TB HDD partitioned and formatted? Was Bitlocker on? Avoid writing anything to the drives you want to recover files from while you're determining a solution.

Edit: As far as disk and partition imaging, I'd suggest Clonezilla if you can use it.
https://clonezilla.org/
 
Last edited:
Prince Valiant said:
Can you see the missing files if you boot into Linux? How is the 1TB HDD partitioned and formatted? Was Bitlocker on? Avoid writing anything to the drives you want to recover files from while you're determining a solution.

Edit: As far as disk and partition imaging, I'd suggest Clonezilla if you can use it.
https://clonezilla.org/
Click to expand...
Thanks!
"Can you see the missing files if you boot into Linux?"
No, can not see.
"How is the 1TB HDD partitioned and formatted?"
The 1TB HDD is not partitioned.
"How is the 1TB HDD ...formatted?"
Not sure, fat32 pr ntfs, formatted by OEM 11 years ago.
"Was Bitlocker on?"
Can not access to Bitlocker and Hibernate because the original password is lost.
"Avoid writing anything to the drives....?
No, not even trouch it. Thanks for the advice.
Appreciate!
DiaNo
 
I imagine one of the first step taken was to just disconnect the Linux harddrive ? windows still cannot boot in that case ? (beacuse the linux installer wrote on the different drives during its install ?)
 
DiaNo said:
Thanks!
"Can you see the missing files if you boot into Linux?"
No, can not see.
"How is the 1TB HDD partitioned and formatted?"
The 1TB HDD is not partitioned.
"How is the 1TB HDD ...formatted?"
Not sure, fat32 pr ntfs, formatted by OEM 11 years ago.
Click to expand...
Wait, there is NO partition table of any kind on the 1TB drive (this is your original D drive in Windows, I believe?) Since it seems like the D drive is where all the important data lived, Again, the first thing to do before you do ANYTHING else is to make image copies of all your drives (or at least the D drive) so you have a starting point you can always get back to. Since it is/was FAT32 there are a number of utilities that can help you recover files, but every time you try something there is a good chance you can make things worse (or at least minimize your chances of a successful recovery if one is at all possible,)
 
LukeTbk said:
I imagine one of the first step taken was to just disconnect the Linux harddrive ? windows still cannot boot in that case ? (beacuse the linux installer wrote on the different drives during its install ?)
Click to expand...
Thanks.
"disconnect the Linux harddrive ?"
Are you saying disconnecting the hard drive on which Linux is installed? If so, I wonder whether Windows can boot since Linux has changed or disabled all Windows boot settings in BIOS.
"windows still cannot boot in that case ?"
I do not know. Have not tried.
"linux installer wrote on the different drives during its install ?"
The installer installed the distro on the right hard drive. And it also did something else. One of them is formatted by Windows D-drive and took it over for its /home. This is why the Widows D-drive is disappeared.
Thanks.
DiaNo
 
mwroobel said:
Wait, there is NO partition table of any kind on the 1TB drive (this is your original D drive in Windows, I believe?) Since it seems like the D drive is where all the important data lived, Again, the first thing to do before you do ANYTHING else is to make image copies of all your drives (or at least the D drive) so you have a starting point you can always get back to. Since it is/was FAT32 there are a number of utilities that can help you recover files, but every time you try something there is a good chance you can make things worse (or at least minimize your chances of a successful recovery if one is at all possible,)
Click to expand...
Thank you.
"there is NO partition table of any kind on the 1TB drive (this is your original D drive in Windows, I believe?)"
Yes. You are right.
"make image copies of all your drives"
Where to make the image copies? In MX Linux, there is no such image. The Windows D-drive is /home in MX Linux disk manager. Windows simply does not have such a D-drive any more. Is is still in Windows Disk Management but it shows entirely different from what it was. It is now just a disk with a primary partition.
"but every time you try something there is a good chance you can make things worse"
This, I am aware of and have learnt in the years.
Thanks.
DiaNo
 
DiaNo said:
Are you saying disconnecting the hard drive on which Linux is installed? If so, I wonder whether Windows can boot since Linux has changed or disabled all Windows boot settings in BIOS.
Click to expand...
Yes that would have been my first reflex
 
"The installer installed the distro on the right hard drive. And it also did something else. One of them is formatted by Windows D-drive and took it over for its /home. This is why the Widows D-drive is disappeared."

Sounds like the drive was unintentionally reformatted when you installed Linux. To recover files you'll want a separate physical drive to try and recover (write) them to. I'm way out of date and can't make any useful suggestions as to which software to use though.
 
LukeTbk said:
Yes that would have been my first reflex
Click to expand...
Thanks.
This is what I have found:
1. Linux has disabled all Windows boot settings in BIOS.
2. Kinux has moved Windows desktop from its original location to /home in Linux. The folder of /home will be removed if Linux is disconnected. There will be no desktop even if Windows were booted.
3. If tke disk containing linux is removed, Windows can not boot and become useless.
Thanks.
DiaNo
 
Prince Valiant said:
"The installer installed the distro on the right hard drive. And it also did something else. One of them is formatted by Windows D-drive and took it over for its /home. This is why the Widows D-drive is disappeared."

Sounds like the drive was unintentionally reformatted when you installed Linux. To recover files you'll want a separate physical drive to try and recover (write) them to. I'm way out of date and can't make any useful suggestions as to which software to use though.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
"unintentionally"
No it is not unintentionally, it is intentionally! It not just formatted the hard drive. It 1.formatted it, 2.changed to be /home of Linux, and 3.assigned many folders and functions to that HDD.
Theoretically, yes. Just restore the original system table on that hard disk, all of the original files can be recovered, but In practice, it is not sure at all. This is what I have read on the internet.
DiaNo
 
DiaNo said:
Kinux has moved Windows desktop from its original location to /home in Linux.
Click to expand...
Is it possible that Acer setup because the windows drive was so small (128gb) had the documents/desktop/temp and folder of the sorts setup on the bigger harddrive to avoid issue. that common for OEM to do so.

Maybe:
1) Windows is still installed on C and fully intact, but the small EFI partition has the linux GRUB now on it and require the linux drive to be there for that grub to work
2) The Linux installed on the 120GB but did choose the D harddrive for its /home data partition ? that why you do not see it in windows anymore.

If you type this in your Linux terminal:
lsblk -f

do you get something like;
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 ext4 8930f446-72dd-461f-b84b-59cde680d575 /
├─sda2
└─sda5 swap 231cfd05-f6e0-4121-bbd2-4409a9294bbe [SWAP]
sdb
└─sdb1 ext4 WRedNAS5 812ee052-d433-4d1f-aab3-173b34ff46c2 /srv/dev-disk-by-label-WRedNAS5

If the D: drive is still fat32/ntfs that not the case, if it is now ext4, could be what happened.
 
LukeTbk said:
Is it possible that Acer setup because the windows drive was so small (128gb) had the documents/desktop/temp and folder of the sorts setup on the bigger harddrive to avoid issue. that common for OEM to do so.

Maybe:
1) Windows is still installed on C and fully intact, but the small EFI partition has the linux GRUB now on it and require the linux drive to be there for that grub to work
2) The Linux installed on the 120GB but did choose the D harddrive for its /home data partition ? that why you do not see it in windows anymore.

If you type this in your Linux terminal:
lsblk -f

do you get something like;
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 ext4 8930f446-72dd-461f-b84b-59cde680d575 /
├─sda2
└─sda5 swap 231cfd05-f6e0-4121-bbd2-4409a9294bbe [SWAP]
sdb
└─sdb1 ext4 WRedNAS5 812ee052-d433-4d1f-aab3-173b34ff46c2 /srv/dev-disk-by-label-WRedNAS5

If the D: drive is still fat32/ntfs that not the case, if it is now ext4, could be what happened.
Click to expand...

Thank you!

"Is it possible that Acer setup because the windows drive was so small (128gb) had the documents/desktop/temp and folder of the sorts setup on the bigger harddrive to avoid issue. that common for OEM to do so."
Yes. It is indeed. The original install was: Windows on the SSD as the C-drive, and the documents/desktop...on the beger hard drivea as the D-drive.

"Maybe:
1) Windows is still installed on C and fully intact, but the small EFI partition has the linux GRUB now on it and require the linux drive to be there for that grub to work
2)The Linux installed on the 120GB but did choose the D harddrive for its /home data partition ? that why you do not see it in windows anymore."
Yes. Windows is still on the C-drive and can be booted into via MX Linux Grub or by pressing F12 at the startup.
"the small EFI partition" NO, NO, not a small partitionl, in fact, it is the entire hard disk of 1tb capacity.
"...that why you do not see it in windows anymore." In Windows, the partition is still there but is not the original D-drive. It is just a hard drive, without Windows drive letter, or any indication to show its identiry. In Windows desk Manager, it is a Primary disk.

"If you type this in your Linux terminal:
lsblk -f"
Will try and report back.


DiaNo
 
LukeTbk said:
Is it possible that Acer setup because the windows drive was so small (128gb) had the documents/desktop/temp and folder of the sorts setup on the bigger harddrive to avoid issue. that common for OEM to do so.

Maybe:
1) Windows is still installed on C and fully intact, but the small EFI partition has the linux GRUB now on it and require the linux drive to be there for that grub to work
2) The Linux installed on the 120GB but did choose the D harddrive for its /home data partition ? that why you do not see it in windows anymore.

If you type this in your Linux terminal:
lsblk -f

do you get something like;
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 ext4 8930f446-72dd-461f-b84b-59cde680d575 /
├─sda2
└─sda5 swap 231cfd05-f6e0-4121-bbd2-4409a9294bbe [SWAP]
sdb
└─sdb1 ext4 WRedNAS5 812ee052-d433-4d1f-aab3-173b34ff46c2 /srv/dev-disk-by-label-WRedNAS5

If the D: drive is still fat32/ntfs that not the case, if it is now ext4, could be what happened.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
Can not up load the picture of the terminal result. It is quite different from what you have said.
Screenshot_2026-07-12_00-02-53.png

All right. Have uploaded.
DiaNo
 
Last edited:
so this confirm that linux used your 1 TB drive for its home folder and turned it into an ext4 format (sdb1), that why your windows folders are not showing to the /home in your linux, it is not that they were move to the Linux drive but that linux used that drive for its home folder.

Windows cannot read the ext4 drive, so it will not show up anymore when you boot windows.

Do not write any single data on that 1TB drive while it is ext4, if you have space on an external or otherwise drive I would copy them first then fix the drives back.

Having to guess

sda is the original windows drive (C), called Acer by the oem
sdb is your data drive that Linux used for its /home folder and turned intoext4, was probably the default option during the install process.
sdc your Linux drive, it created a new EFI boot parition instead of using the window one (I guess that even unplugged the bios-motherboard still get mixup but that could be an easy fix, the windows EFI is probably fine)
sdd i assume is an usb stick drive ? called Test

your Data on D should be fine and copyable, something like https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step could help you do it and the chatgpt of the world are really good at this, if you explain everything and give them the feedback they want, they are extremelly good at Linux because of all the powerful tools easy to use via the command line.
 
The big question is what was the underlying original FS from the original Windows D drive? If it was NTFS (which if it was an internal, not setup as a removable or ejectable disk it likely was) as far as I know (and believe me if there was a quick way to do it that I don't know of, I would love to hear it!) there is no way to do an inplace conversion without data loss from NTFS to /ext4 without format/newFS/move data. Your sdb (if that is the 1TB ex-D drive) shows that has almost 900GB free, has 0% data usage and is of type ext4. I am guessing that was the 1TB because it is the only volume with enough capacity to be it. Unfortunately, that is NOT a good sign.
As I suggested above, DO NOT write anything to any of the drives before you have images of their data because you can make things worse.
 
Last edited:
LukeTbk said:
so this confirm that linux used your 1 TB drive for its home folder and turned it into an ext4 format (sdb1), that why your windows folders are not showing to the /home in your linux, it is not that they were move to the Linux drive but that linux used that drive for its home folder.

Windows cannot read the ext4 drive, so it will not show up anymore when you boot windows.

Do not write any single data on that 1TB drive while it is ext4, if you have space on an external or otherwise drive I would copy them first then fix the drives back.

Having to guess

sda is the original windows drive (C), called Acer by the oem
sdb is your data drive that Linux used for its /home folder and turned intoext4, was probably the default option during the install process.
sdc your Linux drive, it created a new EFI boot parition instead of using the window one (I guess that even unplugged the bios-motherboard still get mixup but that could be an easy fix, the windows EFI is probably fine)
sdd i assume is an usb stick drive ? called Test

your Data on D should be fine and copyable, something like https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step could help you do it and the chatgpt of the world are really good at this, if you explain everything and give them the feedback they want, they are extremelly good at Linux because of all the powerful tools easy to use via the command line.
Click to expand...
Thank you!
Mr. LukeTbk, how about re-install MX Linux?
The reasons I am thinking about a re-install are:
1. I am a common PC user and a newbie to Linux. Very difficult for me to understand the Linux terms and phrases. Even more difficult for me to operate Linux apps.
2. I have the entire copy, backup of all the files on the Windows D-drive. On another HDD, The same make and type and capacity.
3. When I installed MX Linux on a newly added hard drive, the Windows D-drive was not disconnected. This provided a chance to MX Linux installer to take over the D-drive for its /home.
4. Disconnect the D-drive and re-install MX Linux onto the newly added hard drive. MX Linux installer has to make a /home on the same hard drive, the newly added one.
5. Then, I'll connect that D-drive, the 1 tb hard drive, and boot Windows and format the disk and restore all the files from the backup disk.
6. Thus, MX Linux has its /home and Windows D-drive is back and functioning.
This is only my layman's thought. How do you think, please?
Again, thank you
DiaNo
 
It would have saved some time if you had mentioned from the start that you already have a backup of the data ;). Your plan should be fine.
 
mwroobel said:
You should have led with this!
Click to expand...
Thank you.
What do you mean, please? I have not tried any copying or restoring files or data back to the D drive before, do not know the details. I thout it would be like copy abd paste. Will you please help?
DiaNo
 
DiaNo said:
Thank you.
What do you mean, please? I have not tried any copying or restoring files or data back to the D drive before, do not know the details. I thout it would be like copy abd paste. Will you please help?
DiaNo
Click to expand...
With the fact that you had a backup of the files.... That would have removed the most imminent issue (getting your data back, if it was at all recoverable.) Knowing you had a good copy would have just required we get the 2 OS's reinstalled and happy with each other.
 
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