Issue with Many Extended partitions

Jeff91 · 09-08-2010, 12:00 PM

Howdy All,

So I have a 640gig hard drive that is currently formatted as one extend partition. This is extended partition is then broken up as follows:

4 gig - Swap
300 gig - EXT4 (Storage)
60 gig - EXT4 (Ubuntu 10.04 Root)
20 gig - EXT4 (Ubuntu 10.10 Root)
20 gig - EXT4 (PCLinuxOS Root)
200gig - Open/Un Partitioned

When I went to install Fedora 13 to the next 20 gigs, the partitioner threw an error telling me it needed to wipe out my drive in order to proceed, I told it to cancel instead. I now no longer can see my partition layout in GParted (On Ubuntu 10.04 or a Live Disc) instead it just shows the whole drive as un partitioned space:

http://i53.tinypic.com/2ilhnyu.png

What did I do and can it be un done with out wiping the hard drive? I'd really like to install Fedora and another distro or 2 (don't ask why, I'd just like to do it).

Halp!
~Jeff Hoogland

smoker · 09-08-2010, 01:53 PM

Don't wipe it just yet !

Here's a similar case to yours that may help.
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showth...37#post1364122

I'm guessing that it still boots ?

BTW, have you got a primary partition that isn't logical too ?

Jeff91 · 09-08-2010, 06:13 PM

Yes it still boots (into all three distros installed to the disc none the less!).

No, only the one extended partition. Reading over that thread you linked to now.

EDIT: That thread is almost like my own expect that Ubuntu also cannot read the partition table! (10.04 or 10.10 beta). I am going to give TestDisk a try and see if that can do the trick... Really don't want to reinstall everything again :-/

~Jeff

syg00 · 09-08-2010, 07:09 PM

No need for testdisk (which is excellent) - just use fdisk to allocate the extended to cover the entire disk again.

Pre-allocate the partitions before using any installer - they all are flaky at some point.

jefro · 09-08-2010, 08:33 PM

Might try ultimate boot cd. I has a group of tools that may help. It got one of my mistakes to where I could at least copy the data off.

Jeff91 · 09-08-2010, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

just use fdisk to allocate the extended to cover the entire disk again.

Mind enlightening me on how to do this? The drive is located at /dev/sda

~Jeff

syg00 · 09-08-2010, 11:23 PM

I just tested this on an old 500Gig I had laying around.

Code:

fdisk /dev/sda
m    <<<=== just lists commands
n    <<<=== create new partition
e    <<<=== an extended
1    <<<=== make it partition 1
<enter>      <<<=== default start
<enter>      <<<=== default end
p    <<<=== list it to check
w    <<<=== update the table
q    <<<=== quit

Updates to the partition table don't affect the data within (as you found out). Reboot it anyway.

syg00 · 09-08-2010, 11:27 PM

Hold that for a moment ...
[Later:] Sorry, seems you'll have to run testdisk to find the logicals after doing that. I thought they just magically "appeared", but not on my disk.
Testdisk found my NTFS and two ext3 logicals fine.

Jeff91 · 09-08-2010, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Hold that for a moment ...

Holding.

~Jeff

Jeff91 · 09-09-2010, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

I just tested this on an old 500Gig I had laying around.

Code:

fdisk /dev/sda
m    <<<=== just lists commands
n    <<<=== create new partition
e    <<<=== an extended
1    <<<=== make it partition 1
<enter>      <<<=== default start
<enter>      <<<=== default end
p    <<<=== list it to check
w    <<<=== update the table
q    <<<=== quit

Updates to the partition table don't affect the data within (as you found out). Reboot it anyway.

What distro are you using fdisk from that it works like this? Using a 9.10 LiveCD right now and the command seems to be a bit different...

~Jeff

syg00 · 09-09-2010, 06:52 AM

Fedora 12 ... what are you seeing ?.
I may be able to find a Karmic somewhere. Might take a while, and it's getting late here.

syg00 · 09-09-2010, 08:22 AM

Just went and did the same thing (same disk actually, in an external housing) on a Ubuntu 9.04 system.
All looked the same to me.

Jeff91 · 09-09-2010, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Just went and did the same thing (same disk actually, in an external housing) on a Ubuntu 9.04 system.
All looked the same to me.

After I select "n" for new I have the option of hitting p or l for primary or logical. "e" for extended is not a valid input.

I selected logical on a whim and then pressed enter to select the default start, but it did not ask for an end after wards... I have 9.04 and fedora 12 discs laying around. Will try them shortly.

~Jeff

syg00 · 09-09-2010, 09:10 AM

Almost sounds like there is a (primary) partition defined.
What do you see (from within fdisk) with a "p" ???.

Jeff91 · 09-09-2010, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Almost sounds like there is a (primary) partition defined.
What do you see (from within fdisk) with a "p" ???.

I'll check when I get home (30ish minutes).

As a heads up though testdisk does find my partitions, they are just listed as deleted... System still boots to any of the operating systems just fine though

http://i51.tinypic.com/20hn42p.png

~Jeff