MAJOR BOOT CAMP PROBLEM everything gone!!!!!!!!

[biohazard6969]

ok, so i tried to install boot camp windows on my intel imac, i went through everything a couple of times, it asked me to format the drive more than one time, which is what i think deleted everything, but i don't know why it would even TOUCH the OS X partition...anyways, now when i boot up and hold option there are two options, "Windows" (image of hard drive) or "windows" (image of a CD)

NO OS X!!!!!!!!!!!

windows didn't even install correctly so i now have NO OS and i think everything is gone!

i'll try and explain better

i partition for XP, reboot with my CD in it, it goes through the setup, asks me to format, i choose NFTS (or watever its called) and it does that, then it copies windows files to a folder to prepare for installation. then it restarts and goes back to ask me to format the disk again, but there is another option, something like leeve the disc how it is, then it says choose the folder to install windows and the only option that would let me go further was pressing the "L" key and it said erase partition and reinstall or something like that....so i did that and now THIS

i'm FREAKING OUT, PLEASE tell me everything isn't gone....

 

[SilentPanda]

Everything isn't gone.





Okay actually everything probably is.

Most likely you formatted the OS X partition when you went to install Windows (during the actual Windows installation). If you had followed the documentation you would have A) backed up your Mac OS X partition and B) formatted the correct partition. There's pretty much nothing you'll be able to do at this point within reason.

 

[plinden]

I hope you made a backup, because everything is gone. Sorry, but there's nothing you can do about it if you format the whole of your hard drive ... although that's not strictly true. Some companies may be able to retrieve data from a formatted drive, but that's very expensive. VERY expensive.

 

[eva01]

Backups are great aren't they?

 

[biohazard6969]

dammit, ok, i DID mak a backup of my most important stuff like music, video's and school work. but a lot of my pictures are gone i guess.

sorry about the initail freak out, i thought i lost my system resore discs as well, but things calmed down once i found them.

is there any way to get video's off the video ipod? also, i know this has been asked before but what would be the best way to get songs off of the ipod as well, i would like to keep playcounts and ratings if at all possible

 

[KD7IWP]

When my laptop was stolen I used ilinkpod to grab my songs off my ipod. It worked fine. The file names will all be 4 random capital letters, but they import just fine into itunes with the playcounts preserved and names are fine too. I would do that. There are a plethora of free utilities to help you though. Also, it could possibly tedious to get the songs off because on my ipod they were all saved in about 40 different folders, so I had to go through them all and extract the songs, but it worked and I have plenty of music today.

 

[plinden]

Senuti? I haven't tried it.

 

[biohazard6969]

ok, thanks, i know of all the major players like senuti, and ipodrip but i NEED to know, is there anything i could use to take the VIDEO's off the ipod???

 

[theBB]

Can't you use terminal?

cd /Volumes/iPodName

and do a few more cd and ls commands to find out where your files are and then just

cp /Volumes/iPodName/folder1/folder2etc/yourvideo.m4v ~/Desktop/.

to copy the files over. Would this method not work?

 

[strydr]

I hope you made a backup, because everything is gone. Sorry, but there's nothing you can do about it if you format the whole of your hard drive ... although that's not strictly true. Some companies may be able to retrieve data from a formatted drive, but that's very expensive. VERY expensive.

We used to charge $1,000 per Gig of data recovered.

Actually had a customer (with a 8 drive, 60GB RAID5) who lost his data 4 times.. He finally bought a new server, complete with a tape backup system..

 

[MattyP]

Video

You might try handbrake to get your video from off the ipod if the terminal thing doesn't work... I never think of using terminal

 

[Kingsly]

Funny, I had to rescue my neighbor from this EXACT thing yesterday. She tried to BootCamp on her own, didn't read the instructions, and selected her OSX partition to format!
<rant>People! Read the damn instructions! Its there for a reason! Drive fracking C:!!!!!</rant>

 

[plinden]

Using terminal will only work if your iPod is configured for disk use.

I've played about with it, but couldn't find a way to mount an iPod if it's not configured for disk use ... just in case I needed to do that sometime.

 

[dejo]

You might try handbrake to get your video from off the ipod if the terminal thing doesn't work... I never think of using terminal

How is using Handbrake going to pull video off an iPod?

 

[Nermal]

Using terminal will only work if your iPod is configured for disk use.

I've played about with it, but couldn't find a way to mount an iPod if it's not configured for disk use ... just in case I needed to do that sometime.

Set iTunes for manual iPod management (so that it won't synch an empty library) then plug in the iPod, go into preferences, and enable disk use.

then it restarts and goes back to ask me to format the disk again

It should've rebooted from the hard drive (Windows partition), but it sounds like it booted from the CD again. The Windows installer presents a somewhat confusing message "press any key to boot from CD" when it's not necessary to do so. It sounds like you did so, not knowing any better.

Before you panic too much, I've seen OS X "disappear" if you delete the EFI partition. If this has happened, then your data should be safe (assuming your HFS partition didn't get wiped too). I believe that doing an Archive and Install of OS X will restore EFI.

 

[biohazard6969]

oh well thanks for the help, its too late, i zero'd the drive and re-installed OS X from the restore discs. looking bakc i only lost maybe a couple movies, but almost 1000 pictures...

 

[Kingsly]

How is using Handbrake going to pull video off an iPod?

My thoughts exactly. Handbrake is for ripping movies from DVD.

 

[SupaPuerco]

ok, thanks, i know of all the major players like senuti, and ipodrip but i NEED to know, is there anything i could use to take the VIDEO's off the ipod???

Yo, Senuti does rip videos. I did it myself the other day to transfer them to my new MacBook Pro. They show up just like songs do.

 

[biohazard6969]

Yo, Senuti does rip videos. I did it myself the other day to transfer them to my new MacBook Pro. They show up just like songs do.

great, just wat i'm looking for, thanks a lot

 

[Gordy]

<rant>People! Read the damn instructions! Its there for a reason! Drive fracking C:!!!!!</rant>

Can't agree more the number of people that can't read simple instructions is stunning. Seriously if you can't read a pdf file you shouldn't be installing boot camp ever!

 

[roguelogo]

Don't panic, it happens

First off, let me say as a new member, I am amazed at how supportive and helpful some of the people have been toward this problem.

Second, now to your problem.
You accidentally formatted the MAC OS partition. Although it is possible to recover data lost in a format, it is not worth the effort for most users. It is usually better to reinstall the OS and start over. Because of the way boot camp works you will have a few more steps involved. First put your Mac OSX DVD in the drive. Then reboot the machine. Holding down your option key should give you a boot choice between two partitions. One of these was your original Mac OS partition. Boot to that one. It should prompt you through a restore after that.

I have not tested this, but it should work.

Good luck,
Rogue Logo

 

[synth3tik]

I am seeing at least one of these threads every day. Same issue every time. As others may have pointed out a little less then helpfully that you need to read the "Read Me First" files. They are entitled that way to let you know that you should read it. Also for anyone who is going to be installing windows through boot camp, simply open up the MR forums while you work, this way one can avoid problems by reading what others have figured out. Then and only then will there be no need to start up a thread in a total panic without searching for similar cases.

To the OP, sorry you lost your data, with all the resources from Apple and sites like MR making an uninformed decision is rather ignorant.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

One reason I don't keep my data on my internal. I use my internal hard drive daily. My external drive is used far less frequent, so there is a lesser chance of hard drive failure. I keep some data, but my pictures, itunes folder copy, is all on the external.

 

[matt1219]

I think this happened to me on the first day I got my iMac. My hd was rendered unusable so I had to take it to the Apple store. They tried for an hour to reformat it but it didn't work, so I needed a new hd. Luckily I didn't have to pay for it. What version of Windows did you install? And you might accidentally installed on your OS X partition, which for me reformatted the hd to NTFS.

 

[MacHappytjg]

I dont see how you can screw up though because your mac drive is called mac or w.e you called it and you dont really want to reformat that drive, and would rather reformat untitled.....