Live Disc Install Wizard Options to Replace Previous Mint Installation Reformats Entire Drive
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux Mint |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
I had previously installed Linux Mint 16 RC Mate (64 bit) to my laptop and set it to dual boot with Windows 8.1. My laptop had come with a 750GB drive with two roughly 350GB partitions, plus the EFI system partition and a recovery partition at the front of the drive. I had taken about 100GB from the end of the drive (15GB for /, 83GB for /home, and 8.5GB swap) for the original install, but realized at the end that I wanted the Cinnamon version.
I downloaded and burned the 64 bit Cinnamon version of the Mint 16 RC, booted it, and double-clicked the "Install Mint" icon on the desktop. The installation wizard detected the previous installation and provided me with the option to "Replace Linux Mint 16 Petra (16) with Linux Mint" and warned me that this would delete all of my Linux Mint 16 programs, data, etc (see attached screenshot). I considered whether I ought to recreate the partition scheme myself, but as it seemed to have been smart enough to detect the previous installation, it seemed reasonable to let it do its thing. 30 minutes or so later, it turned out that instead of overwriting just the previous ext4 partitions, it had reformatted the entire disk, destroying all of my NTFS partitions as well.
I feel that the installation wizard was misleading about something with fairly devastating consequences. At the very least the verbiage on that particular screen should be changed to make it clear that it won't just overwrite Mint.
For what it's worth, I chose the "Use LVM..." option when I proceeded from the screen in the attached image. I should additionally note that the attached screenshot was obtained by booting from the live disc AFTER the above had transpired, so Windows was no longer on the machine. The option I chose, though, was the same as that shown in the image.
| Stuart Elston (stuart-b-elston) wrote | #1 |
| Barry Rueger (barry-rueger) wrote | #2 |
| Barry Rueger (barry-rueger) wrote | #3 |
Sweet Jesus - this is one NASTY default option! I just inadvertantly lost three BIG partitions full of things that actually matter because I assumed that Mint 17 would just install over the PARTITION containing Mint 16. I honestly did not know or even suspect that it would delete all other partitions in one fell swoop.
I hope to hell that TestDisk can recover this mess! I did boot into the new install once, and then realized that the other partiitons had been nuked.
This is SERIOUSLY a BAD, BAD thing.
FOLKS! I've installed Mint many times. If this caught me unawares it is VERY DNAGEROUS.