My partition table is now corrupt (due to user error), but I am still up&running - howcan i best rectify the situation? I have the output of parted, 'print' from before i messed it up.

This is what I did - I was repartitioning my HDD using parted as follows:
(i) i resized an existing partition (shrunk dev/hda5)
(ii) then i thought i'd add a new partition (i thought this would be /dev/hda8, but sit between 5 and 6 on the disk) in the available space by
> mkpart logical ext2 39000.001 56266.721 [- the available bit of disk]

it didn't like logical so i accepted 'extended'. Now my partition table on /dev/hda reads

Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-57231.562 megabytes
Disk label type: msdos
Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
1 39001.553 56266.721 extended lba

but the other partitions are still there but i have to first 'select /dev/hda2...etc' - which i didn't have to do previously. [ also /dev/hda5 doesn't exist...]

the fact that i don't really understand makes me leary of any further messing - at this stage i'm sure its easy to put right, but maybe not if i start to play....

how do i get my old partitions back? (and - to help me understandwhat is going on why do i now have a different _type_ of output from print?)

thanks for help in my hour of need.
dee

Hardrives can only have 4 partitions normally. This of course is a problem so A special extended partition type is used. Within this partition you can add logical partitions. Normal partitions ( either extended or not ) have values from hda1 to hda4, logical partitions always start counting from 5.

i.e.
hda1
hda2 ( ext'd contains 5 and 6 ).
---hda5
---hda6
hda3

This best thing to do is reset the values back to what they where, and back up everthing in the partitions your going to be messing with ( and the ones after them ) and setup the disk how you like it then restore everthing back.

i thought i understood about the logical, extended partitions, which is why i was asked for a logical partition
this is what it llooked like before i started messing with parted:
part
Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-57231.562 megabytes
Disk label type: msdos
Minor Start
End Type Filesystem Flags
1 0.031 5718.449 primary ext2 boot
2 5718.450 15257.043 primary ext2
3 15257.043 24795.637 primary lba
4 24795.637 57231.562 extended
5 24795.668 56266.721 logical ext2
6 56266.752 56745.219 logical ext2
7 56745.250 57231.562 logical linux-swap
(parted)

i shrank 5, and was trying to put another logical partition in the physical space freed between 5 and 6, but for reasons that are not clear to me, that failed.

my problem is that if i run
select /dev/hda1
mkpart primary ext2 0.031 5718.449

(imo apparently turning it back to the original)
i get the follwing message:
Error: Can't create any more partitions.


which indicates to me there is somethng i do not understand about what i thought i was doing (confirming this from having got here in the first place...)

as i indicated if i select /dev/hda and 'print'
i get

Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-57231.562 megabytes
Disk label type: msdos
Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
1 39001.553 56266.721 extended lba

(and no longer the complete list above) however i can select /dev/hda2

Disk geometry for /dev/hda2: 0.000-9538.593 megabytes
Disk label type: loop
Minor Start End Filesystem Flags
1 0.000 9538.593 ext2

(right size, for some reason now 'loop')

To proceed should i
select /dev/hda
rm 1
mkpart primary ext2 0.031 5718.449


as i still sitting on a functioning system i am leary of doing anything that says remove by boot partition.

tia

This is dangerous stuff but...

You can rewrite the whole partition table ( removing then adding back in the partitions ). But this can go wrong ( So don't blame me! ). Theres another option which is rescue ( See parted manual ) Which may be better.

Resizes are never the best bet. When you accepted extended it seems to have wiped the partition ( Logical was correct ). Logical partitions have space available either side of them, also the have to end or start on a cylinder, which may have been why parted wouldn't accept the new partition as it was.

To achieve what you want, I'd of backuped 5 and 6 removed the 5, 6, 7 partitions. and added the new ones back in. You can try to set what you want now though 6 ( now 7 ) will be the hardest to set right.

8 wouldn't be the new partition, it would be 6, ( 6 and 7 would of been increased to 7 and 8 ).