When I try to boot up into Ubuntu Linux, I get the error:

Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

I think it's caused by the errors from an accidental power-off when the "Unmounting local filesystems..." part of the Linux shutdown sequence was running. Since I'm on a dual-boot with Windows XP, I checked PartitionMagic 8.0 to see what was up. There is an error on Ubuntu's ext3 partition that says the partition's beginning is overlapping with the previous partition (in Ubuntu, /dev/hda1 is Windows NTFS, /dev/hda2 is Linux ext3, /dev/hda3 is Linux swap). Is there any way I can repair this drive at all, from a bootable floppy/CD or Windows? Would any sort of reformatting or repartitioning help, and in doing so, could I save my Windows partition?

I have already tried the disk diagnostic programs for my hard drive.

The only other cause of this problem that I can think of is my installation of a 686 kernel package...but I would assume that ext3 support is contained in this update. Even if it isn't, wouldn't the error message be different if the filesystem was unrecognizable?

Thanks in advance for helping this Linux n00b!

I think it would be possible to resize an overlapping partition so they have clear endpoints. that should not wipe either partition, so you should be ok.

What sort of program should I use to do that? Could I use fdisk (does that have partition resize capabilities) or some other program in Knoppix? PartitionMagic won't even touch the physical drive.

Also, does resizing a partition only resize it from its end? I can't resize the NTFS partition in Linux, and no matter how I resize the Linux partition, its beginning will always have a conflict with the end of the previous one...I guess I'll try running the disk diagnostic program again.

mmm... donuts!

No! do not use fdisk! it has no resize capabilities. knoppix might have something, i use it often but i have never looked for a partition thing specifically...
why won't partitionmagic do the job?

PartitionMagic won't do the job because there are errors on the disk. When I first ran it, it gave me an info box asking me if I wanted to repair the damage and I clicked "OK" or "Yes", but sadly it did not fix the error and now the physical C: drive is "BAD" and I can't perform any partition functions on it. I'm thinking of just deleting the Linux partition and starting over (I only had it for 2 days anyways). But I really don't wanna do everything over again...any other options?

i think you could use chkdsk or scandisk to fix the drive or you could use disk management to fix the Linux partition from win xp. or you could back up stuff and reinstall ubudubudub linux.

btw, did you see the simpsons last night?

Knoppix has qtparted for resizing partitions, but if partition magic won't work because of errors on the disk, qtparted might not either, but it's worth a try.