GRUB error: No such partition Fedora 16
I tried to boot into Fedora 16 this morning and I got this error:
GRUB error: No such partition I think I MAY have deleted a partition using fdisk to test hard drives yesterday. I could really use help on how to restore files, fix the feodra installation, any recovery tips, but I cannot format the hard drive before getting certain files off of the hard drive. I am typing this from a fedora 16 Live CD. I run a computer store off this computer and need the help ASAP. |
Hi,
Okay, let's see now. What can you mount? If anything, is it your data? If so, copy that to a safe place (a USB stick, an external hard drive, an FTP server internally, dunnow) and re-install. That is ONE option, the other one is to re-instate the lost partition with Fdisk, as long as no formatting happened, I think you're fine. Just make sure all the setting are the same as before. Of course: I'd welcome any second opinion before jumping to it, if I were you... And...good luck I'll be watchin' this threat from up close! Thor PS - there is a trick to keep me from messing up my harddrive: I play some music on the "main" system while I tinker on the other one... |
Preferably I would like to recreate the lost partition but I have no idea of how to do that.
I can mount the hard drive but no files are popping up in the home directory, it's just blank. And it's not just showing a "160GB Hard drive" as it should, it's two "_Fedora-16-x86_6" one that I can mount and one that I cannot mount, and "16mb filesystem" which after I try to mount dissapears, and a "8.2 KB Filesystem" that I can mount and it has a file named "OSMIN" inside of it. If you could, walk me through the process of creating the needed partition. And thanks a lot for the quick response! |
Oooopps!
May I tell you that it is not good to accidentally delete partitions? - Ok, you already know that... (Sorry, just had to.. :p ) Now to the actual problem: fdisk is a very good tool, one thing that is extremely good with fdisk is that it doesn't do anything more than you tell it to. This means that if you delete a partition fdisk only writes the change in the partition table - no data on disk is touched! So if you know how the disk was partitioned before your accidental delete, simply run fdisk again and recreate the original partitions. I have tried this several times, always worked like a charm every time. BUT! To be on the safe side first take a copy of the disk, then you can fiddle around with the copy not risking to destroy anything on physical disk. There are several ways to copy a disk, I prefer "dd_rescue". Boot from a live-CD, install dd_rescue (the package might be called "ddrescue") and run it: # dd_rescue if=/dev/sda of=/someplace/mydiskimage.iso |
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open a console enter fdisk -l to list what's on the box, typically, you'd see something like this Quote:
Okay, now issue this : fdisk /dev/sda - no number, just the name Once in fdisk, let's see what there is to see, hit "p" and enter. See? That's what fdisk sees Okay, well, I assume that the lost partition was a primary one, so here goes, hit "n" - new partition hit "p" - primary enter a number (1-4) then, fdisk should suggest the right start and stop block. Just check with what you noted after fdisk -l Good luck Thor |
I used fdisk to view all of the partitions and I have ZERO partitions! I can't believe that I deleted ALL of the partitions! This sounds like a disaster...
I tried to make a .ISO of the hard drive using just dd and here's what happened: # dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/liveuser/Documents and then my computer crashed. |
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I'd suggest rebooting, then post the output of Code:
fdisk -l |
Here is the output of fdisk -l
"[root@localhost liveuser]# fdisk -l WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted. Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System Disk /dev/mapper/live-rw: 4294 MB, 4294967296 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 522 cylinders, total 8388608 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/mapper/live-rw doesn't contain a valid partition table Disk /dev/mapper/live-osimg-min: 4294 MB, 4294967296 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 522 cylinders, total 8388608 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/mapper/live-osimg-min doesn't contain a valid partition table [root@localhost liveuser]# " |
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Now what are you doing???
If you used fdisk before on that disk, then how can it suddenly have a GPT partition table? How many disks do you have in this computer, are you sure you're messing with the right one? Go back to the beginning. Tell us what you know about the state of your disk before this started. Exactly how many partitions did you have, primary / logical? What did you do when you accidentally deleted a partition? Did you use some other partitioning tool afterwards? Please, let this take a little time and most important: don't do anything before you are sure it is the right thing to do! No trying out "just-in-case, maybe it works..." Tell us,step by step, exactly what you had and what you did. Command by command, and pray be precise as to details! |
First thing to do, make a copy:
Get a usb hard drive same size or bigger than the faulty one. Then boot from live-cd, mount the usb drive, install ddrescue and copy the entire disk to an image on the usb-drive. It will take time - don't know how big the drive is but we're definitely talking several hours with modern disk sizes. If you don't take a copy to work with, then every tried-but-failed-fix will render your disk even more ruined... |
I really haven't altered the drive at all. I have tried to view my files on the drive, but I haven't tried to alter it in any way shape or form since it has been messing up. I'm going to make a copy of the drive following pingu's advice and then I will try Thor 2.0's advice and do the ubuntu Rescue me method. I will keep you all updated.
Once again, thank you all for helping me through this disaster. |
But you must have done something?
In your first post you said "I think I MAY have deleted a partition using fdisk" - so you did do something! Anyway, you're doing the right thing now according to your latest post. Just one thing: Thor_2.0:s disk layout contains only primary partitions. If you have logical volumes (and thus an extended partition) the numbering could be different. Logical volumes are always numbered from 5 and up and always in sequel whereas primary partitions don't have to be in sequel, so you could have like "sda1, sda3, sda5, sda6". And a final tip on how to handle the copy: 1) To be able to try several things, take a copy of the copy - then if a fix doesn't work take a new copy of the copy etc. This takes more time of course, but you only have to copy from real drive once which is very good! 2) You can mount the copy with #mount -o loop /my-copy-of-disk.iso /mnt/mountpoint 3) If I remember correctly you should be able to use fdisk on the image itself. (Like #fdisk /my-copy-of-disk.iso ) |
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Lookin' at ya! Thor |
"I think I MAY have deleted a partition using fdisk" was referring to what caused the problem, but after I messed the partitions up I haven't altered it. Sorry about the misleading information.
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