Retrieving data from a DVD
 

I saved some files (GParted details, a screenshot) on my GParted live disc. Is there any way of retrieving those files? I seem to remember getting an error message when I tried earlier today.

This is probably where the errors begin:

I'd made a new partition and increased its size by just one MB and... no more boot-in.

I should also mention the error I was getting when I tried to mount the DVD drive. (I say "was" because it seems to have gone away.)

You need to provide some additional information as to how you added files to your gparted live disc?

Without knowing how the drive was originally partition and how you created the new one we have no clue as to what happened.

When asked where to save the files, I chose the DVD (home/user if I recall correctly). As for the partitioning- Windows had three: the C drive (sda2), System (sda1), and HDDRecovery (sda4). sda3 is an extended partition, with Mint installed on sda5; sda7 is the new one. sda6 is the linx-swap.

Creating a new logical partition should not of affected anything. Did you use gparted to create the new partition? Would be nice to see a post of your partition layout using fdisk or gparted. By no more boot-in do you mean nothing boots i.e. neither windows or Mint?

Live DVDs depending on what OS you are running run from memory and disc using a unionfs or similar. Anything downloaded is saved to memory assuming you have enough and once shutdown is lost.

Yes, I created the new partition in gparted. And yes, neither Windows nor Mint will boot (grub rescue comes up instead).

I believe by default Mint creates a /(root) and swap. With knowing what steps were used to get to the posted snapshot all we can tell is that your / might be corrupted which would lead to grub not finding your grub menu which then only drops you to a grub rescue prompt.

I made a new partition, saw that Mint couldn't mount it for some reason, and resized it.

Did you resize the root partition?

I think I resized the extended partition a bit.

I would boot a live Mint CD and see if I can mount the / partition on the hard drive.

All right. Have a look at this and tell me if it's relevant, please.

No harm in trying to boot linux from the grub rescue command line.

Well, I checked the drive in grub rescue. It found several entries- (hd0,msdos1), 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Then after using ls -l on a few of them, I got the same result each time: unknown filesystem. How do I learn which (hd0) entry corresponds to which /sda?

You can try booting a live CD and see if you can mount your sda5 or run fsck.

I think it may be wise to wait for the Windows recovery disc I ordered.