Need serious help [Hardware/software]

[QuantumPhysics]

Okay so here's the story. I tried many things on this but i want to quote you guys as of helping me and tell you what I already tried. I need some serious help so please tell me anything you can!

I was installing arch linux one day on my laptop, and as many of you may know - arch linux does not install from a usb booter you have to compile/create it manually on startup (for the first time). So I was making it (without reading online) and I got to a part where I had to edit
my partition tables to make room for the new OS. So I created a new entry on the table (1 SDA, and 3 SDB entries). It wrote 512mb to the SDA and allocated the left over amount on the drive to the SDB. When I exitted that table and type fdisk -l to show my partition table again... It was gone, even the new entries that I had written. I freaked out and turned off my computer. When I turned it on the next day. I got to a prompt that said "Grub rescue" with no help option or support of what to do there. So I searched online a little bit and found out (windows is my main OS) that I had to boot up my windows 7 64 bit ultimate edition disk and select the repair your computer option to rebuild the MBR (master boot record). I went into the startup repair and first of all I must say that the CD didn't find any Operating systems installed. I opened up the command prompt with the windows 7 install cd into recovery mode. I typed in bootrec.exe /fixmbr (a valid command with bootrec.exe) and it returned the operating was succesful. I then typed in bootrec.exe /fixboot and it returned "element not found" (I found this help online). None of this fixed my problem, except now when I reboot my laptop it doesnt show grub rescue anymore it just jumped to the operating system loading screen and just says boot media not selected... I really need the files on that laptop so I cannot simply delete the operating system. Any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you so very much!

Sincerly,
~ QP

[Insectoid]

Quote:

arch linux does not install from a usb booter

False.

Quote:

you have to compile/create it manually on startup

Also false.

Quote:

So I was making it (without reading online)

There's your problem. RTFM. It's there for a reason. You might try to run some partition recovery software. I can't recommend any in particular though since I've never had to use one.

In the future, try your installs in a VM or on a spare computer before running doing anything risky with your primary one. Or back up all your files. Back up all your files anyway, actually. You never know what could go wrong.

[[Gandalf]]

Insectoid @ 2013-02-25, 9:06 pm wrote:

You never know what could go wrong.

Sure you do. Everything.

[Tony]

http://xkcd.com/349/

[QuantumPhysics]

I managed to fix this problem by debugging my EFI Bios and detecting where the errors occurred, then I whipped up some tools in assembly ran them externally to recover my lost drives and patch the errors.