It won't boot after restore image files to the partitions
 

custom installed CentOS 6 with 2 partitions: boot (300mb) and root (14G), it works fine.
save the 2 partitions to image files using partimage in systemrescueCD, in Gzip format.
I wrote a bash script to create the partitions on another hard drive
---------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=1
parted -s /dev/sda mklabel msdos
parted -s /dev/sda mkpart primary ext3 0 512
parted -s /dev/sda -- mkpart primary ext3 512 -1
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda2
---------------------------------------------------------
Restore the partitions with image files using partimage, it did not boot and show the message “Verifying DMI pool data” and stop there. I don't know why. Please help!

Boot issues
 

I have had a similar issue due to partitioning.
I reformatted to 2 partitions and found out the I had to utilize the NTFS style partitioning.
Once I reformatted to the NTFS everything worked.

Interested to know if this is your problem as well.

The computer hanging at "Verifying DMI pool data" can be caused by several reasons. The most likely reason and since you did not mention it in your post is that you never installed a boot loader.

You can use a CentOS live/install disc and boot to rescue mode.

Verify/mount sda1 and sda2

Change to your /(root) i.e. chroot /mnt/sysimage (use your actual mount point)

Then run grub-install /dev/sda to install grub to the MBR.



FYI I'm not sure what you mean by NTFS partitioning but most x86 PCs will either be msdos (MBR) or gpt.

Since you didn't do a full disk clone, likely your disk label/UUID is different on the new drive than what the OS is trying to load.

Good point. CentOS 6 does use UUIDs vs labels so that could be a problem if the OS was actually booting. However, since the OP used partimage would not think this an issue. Since the OP mentioned a custom installation I assume that ext3 is correct since ext4 is not supported.

Thank you for all of your help!
michaelk, you are right, I never install a boot loader. Can use systemrescueCD to run grub-install? I use DD command to install MBR on sda, it did not work. I will try your method next week when I go to work.
Mike-Gra, can you give more details on how to fix your problem. my computer is 32-bit.

My Bad I was wrong with the NTFS- you want the UEFI format (vs. legacy)
the UEFI format requires at-least 4 partitions.
here is a link to help explain it better.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/35368...ng-for-dummies

NTFS is used on SD cards for video and large files. Compared to Fat32.
We had just gone over NTFS in Computer Structure and Logic class.

Yes, you can boot the computer via a SystemRescueCD and use the same process i.e. mount partitions, chroot and then run grub-install.

grub has several stages with only one being the MBR so using dd did not work as expected.

michaelk,
I use a removable hard drive which install partitions boot and root: sda1 and sda2,
I would like to make the hard drive bootable. The computer which have the hard drive
boot up with systemrescuecd.

when I issue a command: "grub-install /dev/sda" in systemrescuecd, I got this error
message "/dev/sda does not have any corresponding BIOS drive"
Do you have any idea how to fix the problem?

My system have another computer which connect to the previous one with internal network.
I mount to this computer to save my partitions.

Try running:
grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

michaelk

Thank you for your help!
I tried you command: grub-install --recheck /dev/sda I got this error message:Could
not find device for /boot: not found or not a block device.

Did you mount your /boot partition?

michaelK,

I already restored sda1 and sda2 in the remove hard drive, do I still need to mount them.

Thanks

Yes but using the method I suggested earlier you only need to mount your / partition. Check out the link below.

http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-P...a-damaged-Grub

michaelk,

I followed your method and the document you recommended "Sysresccd-Partitioning-EN-Repairing-a-damaged-Grub". It works. I really appreciate your help!

One more question I would like to ask you about custom the systemrescuecd, is it possible to put the followings to the systemrescuecd:
1. create partitions, such as sda,sda1, sda2
2. restore image files to the partitions.
3. grub-install the partitions
4. configure the network for the partitions