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Clarence-Adams 01-22-2012 11:22 AM

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.

ButterflyMelissa 01-22-2012 11:51 AM

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...

Clarence-Adams 01-22-2012 11:54 AM

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!

pingu 01-22-2012 11:55 AM

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

ButterflyMelissa 01-22-2012 12:10 PM

Quote:

If you could, walk me through the process of creating the needed partition.
Sure, but, please take pingu's advice at heart: take (if possible) a backup...okay, here goes:

open a console
enter fdisk -l to list what's on the box, typically, you'd see something like this

Quote:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 208844 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 208845 738989 265072+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 738990 16113194 7687102+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 16113195 488392064 236139435 83 Linux
This one's on one of my boxes. See the /dev/sda1? Well, sda is the name of the whole disk, this one is chopped up in four pieces, you'll have one missing.

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

Clarence-Adams 01-22-2012 12:19 PM

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.

impert 01-22-2012 12:45 PM

Quote:

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.
well, you've just tried to copy the whole hard disc, including unused space, deleted files, everything, on to something that is very much smaller. Don't know how big a live disc's ~/Documents is, or where it lives (RAM? swap?) but it obviously can't be big.
I'd suggest rebooting, then post the output of
Code:

fdisk -l
(little L, not one).

Clarence-Adams 01-22-2012 12:51 PM

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]# "

ButterflyMelissa 01-22-2012 12:57 PM

maybe, just maybe??? This or that?

As far as titanic-size disaters go, you've got one right there :(

pingu 01-22-2012 12:58 PM

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!

pingu 01-22-2012 01:06 PM

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...

Clarence-Adams 01-22-2012 01:19 PM

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.

pingu 01-22-2012 01:34 PM

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 )

ButterflyMelissa 01-22-2012 01:38 PM

Quote:

Once again, thank you all for helping me through this disaster.
Hey, no sweat, this is what this site is for...but, you've got us glued to the screen :D , for sure! Take pingu's wise words as advice: proceed with caution.

Lookin' at ya!

Thor

Clarence-Adams 01-22-2012 01:40 PM

"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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