Unable to boot after flubbed install

[MtnMan]

I (had) several installed partitions and tried to take a section of empty partition to install FM (the disk is good as I have installed from it before).  Problem is now I cannot boot into it or any other partition.  There are some errors about not finding files and panicking etc.  I can write them down and post if needed. 

I tried to install again hoping that would fix things but during the install I get the message ~ "cannot read partition table of sda ~ too corrupted.  The error is extended partition: reading of partition in sector 4294967360 failed ~".

Loaded a live disk and as root the command fdisk -l responds with "Unable to seek on /dev/sda".

I did not try RedoMbr - little nervous about jumping out of the pan and into the fire.  Any suggestions for fixing this would be greatly appreciated.

Pat

[menotu]

Can you see/read any partitions from the LiveCD?  If you can, I suggest you consider backing up any important data/files/settings etc to a Flash drive (or similar) before doing any re-installs etc.

[MtnMan]

Hi menotu

I can read only one partition which which is primary.  All of the others that are on the extended partition do not show up.

before doing any re-installs etc.

Is it true that one hairy install can cause everything to be unreadable?  (sighing with broken spirit).

[AS]

Loaded a live disk and as root the command fdisk -l responds with "Unable to seek on /dev/sda".

Look like a corrupted partition table. There is still the chance that the partitions content may be good. There are tools to recover a corrupted partition table, (testdisk) and to recover files from hard disk even when partition table is corrupted, (photorec).

Your best path could be:
- do a raw copy of the whole hard disk to some other hard disk, using dd, this will allow you to restart the recovery procedure a second time if needed, ask for help if needed.

- run testdisk from livecd, trying to recover the partition table.

- run photorec from livecd, trying to recover your own files, you will need a separate large storage to save the recovered files.

Good Luck 

AS

[Old-Polack]

MtnMan:

In addition to what as said, and before doing anything else, turn off the computer, open the case and check the cables. Unplug and replug, at both ends of the data cable, and unplug and replug the power cable to the hard drive. Restart the computer and again try to boot. If the problem still exists, continue with the instructions from as.

[MtnMan]

Thanks for the suggestions.

old-polack>  I tried re-seating the cables first, just as you suggested but no change.

I have testdisk running now and it is waiting for my next step but I am not sure what to do:

TestDisk 6.11.3, Data Recovery Utility, May 2009
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 320 GB / 298 GiB - CHS 38913 255 63
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 E extended                 0  65  2 15683  91 24  251949056
 2 P Linux                15683  91 25 38896 179  3  372922368 [Storage]
No partition is bootable
 5 L Linux Swap           15197  36  8 15683  91 24    7811072
   X extended             267349  90  6 268869  81 12   24418240

Bad relative sector.
Must be in extended partition
 1 E extended                 0  65  2 15683  91 24  251949056
   X extended             267349  90  6 268869  81 12   24418240


*=Primary bootable  P=Primary  L=Logical  E=Extended  D=Deleted
[Quick Search]  [ Backup ]
                            Try to locate partition

After Quick Search I have this:
TestDisk 6.11.3, Data Recovery Utility, May 2009
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 320 GB / 298 GiB - CHS 38914 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
* Linux                    0   2  1  3038 254 62   48821408
P Linux                 3039  44 14  3691 224 53   10485760
P Linux                 4345  25 33  5650 131 49   20971520
L Linux                 5651   1  1  8260 254 60   41929584
L Linux                 9657  71 15 10650 125 35   15955968
L Linux                10922   1  1 14837 254 58   62910472
L Linux                14838   1  1 38895 254 60  386491704 [Data]


Structure: Ok.  Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable  P=Primary  L=Logical  E=Extended  D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
     Enter: to continue
EXT4 Large file Sparse superblock, 24 GB / 23 GiB

Should I continue?

(I should add re: recovering data - I copy anything important to a partition at the end of the disk named "Storage".   It was just by dumb luck that this is my only Primary partition and is unaffected by this extended partition meltdown.  What I want to recover is the last 4 weeks of installing and tweaking that I did since giving up on VirtualBox).

[djohnston]

Should I continue?

(I should add re: recovering data - I copy anything important to a partition at the end of the disk named "Storage".   It was just by dumb luck that this is my only Primary partition and is unaffected by this extended partition meltdown.  What I want to recover is the last 4 weeks of installing and tweaking that I did since giving up on VirtualBox).

First, copy your data from that still accessible partition to another device. It can be an external hard drive, CDs, USB thumb drives, etc. Once your data is backed up, it won't matter if you are able to reconstruct the partitions or not.

[MtnMan]

Should I continue?

(I should add re: recovering data - I copy anything important to a partition at the end of the disk named "Storage".   It was just by dumb luck that this is my only Primary partition and is unaffected by this extended partition meltdown.  What I want to recover is the last 4 weeks of installing and tweaking that I did since giving up on VirtualBox).

First, copy your data from that still accessible partition to another device. It can be an external hard drive, CDs, USB thumb drives, etc. Once your data is backed up, it won't matter if you are able to reconstruct the partitions or not.

Thanks for responding djohnston.  I have already done so except for ISO files.  My confusion is this:  Lines 2 and 3 are listed as Primary partitions yet IIRC the last one is the only primary and it is listed as logical.  I was looking at the website step-by-step but unclear if I should I should use the arrow keys to change the partition characteristics. 

"it won't matter if you are able to reconstruct the partitions or not." 

That may be your opinion but I feel a little differently about it.

[djohnston]

"it won't matter if you are able to reconstruct the partitions or not."  

That may be your opinion but I feel a little differently about it.

Okay, I wasn't specific. But what I meant was, even if you lose the partition structure, you will still have your data.

To your problem. Here's what I see out of whack from your previous post:

Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 E extended                 0  65  2 15683  91 24  251949056
 2 P Linux                    15683  91 25 38896 179  3  372922368 [Storage]

 5 L Linux Swap           15197  36  8 15683  91 24    7811072

Look at the starting position of partition #2. It begins after partition #5, which is clearly not possible. So, it appears the partitions are actually out of order. You can try putting them in order using fdisk.

What are the results of fdisk -l as root from a terminal? (fdisk dash lower case l)

[MtnMan]

"it won't matter if you are able to reconstruct the partitions or not." 

That may be your opinion but I feel a little differently about it.

Okay, I wasn't specific. But what I meant was, even if you lose the partition structure, you will still have your data.

To your problem. Here's what I see out of whack from your previous post:

Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 E extended                 0  65  2 15683  91 24  251949056
 2 P Linux                    15683  91 25 38896 179  3  372922368 [Storage]

 5 L Linux Swap           15197  36  8 15683  91 24    7811072

Look at the starting position of partition #2. It begins after partition #5, which is clearly not possible. So, it appears the partitions are actually out of order. You can try putting them in order using fdisk.

What are the results of fdisk -l as root from a terminal? (fdisk dash lower case l)

See post #1

Not concerned about lost data - it is OK.  Concerned about 4 weeks of work down the toilet.  Beginning to pine for the days when you just had to pay protection money to the anti-virus cartel for stuff like this.

[djohnston]

Sorry, I missed that. If that's what testdisk "sees" as your partitions, then I would just continue instead of changing partition characteristics. I don't know what was on that disk. So, if what is offered looks okay to you, continue.

[MtnMan]

Sorry, I missed that. If that's what testdisk "sees" as your partitions, then I would just continue instead of changing partition characteristics. I don't know what was on that disk. So, if what is offered looks okay to you, continue.

Point is - it doesn't look ok to me - that's why I am asking for guidance.

[djohnston]

MtnMan,

Like I said. I don't know what was on your hard drive. What part doesn't look okay? Have you searched those listed partitions by highlighting each one and entering P?

[MtnMan]

MtnMan,

Like I said. I don't know what was on your hard drive. What part doesn't look okay? Have you searched those listed partitions by highlighting each one and entering P?

Sorry I am a little behind the curve here.  There are 2 Ps and I am a bit confused.

Structure: Ok.  Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable  P=Primary  L=Logical  E=Extended  D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
     Enter: to continue
EXT4 Large file Sparse superblock, 24 GB / 23 GiB

The * for the first one seems right but shouldn't all the others be L except for the last "Data" which is a primary - should the others be changed to L and the last to P? 

Is that done on this screen or the next?  I know you don't know what my partitions are but I am trying to describe.

I can read only one partition which which is primary.  All of the others that are on the extended partition do not show up.

That primary is the one shown in the list followed by [Data] I assume.

[AS]

MtnMan,

no one other than you can know if a (testdisk recovered) partition table is OK or not, and no one other than you can know how much important is (or is not) to recover your partitions.

If you don't have a precise idea of what the partition table should look like, forget about testdisk, it can't help you, or accept the proposed partition table as it is (it may be or may not be a correct partition table, you will see later).

If you don't have valuable data to recover, or if you already have backup copies of your data, forget about testdisk and photorec and go straight to reinstall. tesdisk and photorec (and other tools) are emergency recovery tools, to be used when no other path is possible.

A corrupted partition may come from a software error (in partitioning tools or other software) or from a fault hard disk (bad sectors or other hardware failure), right now it's still unknown the cause of partition corruption, and therefore there is a chance your hard disk is fault.

old-polack suggestion about cables/connectors was to exclude one possible failure (cables/connectors).

The suggestion about backup the raw disk before to do any testdisk operation was a way to secure your hard disk content, so that if you do some wrong operation while using testdisk, you will still have a chance to restore the current hard disk content.

Based on your answers I should assume that you have nothing valuable to recover.

Right now, from one side you said that you have already backup your data, from another side you think there is something to recover:

Not concerned about lost data - it is OK.  Concerned about 4 weeks of work down the toilet.  Beginning to pine for the days when you just had to pay protection money to the anti-virus cartel for stuff like this.

You are trying to recover something you think of as valuable and you don't have a backup, you are doing it the wrong way!

Pause a few time and think about the whole issue. A cup of coffee is greatly suggested 

AS