"Cannot find root device" this is a bad error right?

steventux · 02-07-2003, 07:42 AM

I think I have lost the lot - the panic is beginning to set in - I really dont know what I can do.
Mandrake 9 / Seagate 40gb HDD
I ran diskdrake (how I wish I had used cfdisk as a friend advised) to delete a DOS partition and format it as an ext3 this was on the same physical disk as my OS - one of the options was to mount the new partition as /home and move my files over - exactly what I wanted to do in the first place - keep personal stuff safe. So I choose this option - glibly ignoring the 'backup your data' advisory(I'm in a rush/I'm an idiot/I'm incapable of seeing the inevitable misfortune ahead) and I get and error telling me to reboot. Then fsck runs on reboot. And now my system will not boot - the error "no root device found". So I try the rescue boot from installation CD - it cant mount the filesystem (this is the route I usually take when I have an unbootable system). Now I am realy screwed - none of the boot options (bar win98 - seperate HDD) will boot to linux - I have lost the filesystem I fear - one of the options with rescue is to listpart - the partitions listed do not show ext3 at all - just unknown swap and unknown (that would be right - OS was on 19gb hda1 swap 1gb then free space 19(ish)gb). I know now what a fool I was ignoring the advisory and I have backed up in september and not lost vast amounts but significant nonetheless. What are my options? I have seen r-linux a windows GUI based disk recovery util (http://www.r-tt.com/RLinux.shtml) but dont wanna do anymore damage - please if you know what I should do to recover (even at the exense of the HDD) I would be glad to know. thanks

rch · 02-23-2003, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by steventux
I think I have lost the lot - the panic is beginning to set in - I really dont know what I can do.
Mandrake 9 / Seagate 40gb HDD
I ran diskdrake (how I wish I had used cfdisk as a friend advised) to delete a DOS partition and format it as an ext3 this was on the same physical disk as my OS - one of the options was to mount the new partition as /home and move my files over - exactly what I wanted to do in the first place - keep personal stuff safe. So I choose this option - glibly ignoring the 'backup your data' advisory(I'm in a rush/I'm an idiot/I'm incapable of seeing the inevitable misfortune ahead) and I get and error telling me to reboot. Then fsck runs on reboot. And now my system will not boot - the error "no root device found". So I try the rescue boot from installation CD - it cant mount the filesystem (this is the route I usually take when I have an unbootable system). Now I am realy screwed - none of the boot options (bar win98 - seperate HDD) will boot to linux - I have lost the filesystem I fear - one of the options with rescue is to listpart - the partitions listed do not show ext3 at all - just unknown swap and unknown (that would be right - OS was on 19gb hda1 swap 1gb then free space 19(ish)gb). I know now what a fool I was ignoring the advisory and I have backed up in september and not lost vast amounts but significant nonetheless. What are my options? I have seen r-linux a windows GUI based disk recovery util (http://www.r-tt.com/RLinux.shtml) but dont wanna do anymore damage - please if you know what I should do to recover (even at the exense of the HDD) I would be glad to know. thanks

do you know which partition of yours is supposed to be ext3
well suppose you know that the partition you have ext3 is /dev/hda6
now change the flag of the partition to 0x83h(ext3)
it generally works
if you have no idea what i am telling you
after fdisk
type
l(list known partitions)
to change partition types(if you don't know)
man lilo
keep posted