hi everybody,

i have a PC with a 80 GB HD

fdisk -l gives the following information :

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1912 15358108+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 1913 4462 20482875 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 4463 7012 20482875 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 7013 9729 21824302+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 7013 7649 5116671 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 7650 7904 2048256 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda7 7905 9729 14659281 83 Linux

the problem is that when the PC boots, it is not able to mount the /dev/hda2 partion. when i try to manually 'fsck.ext3' it says :

fsck.ext3 : Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/hda. Could this be a zero length partition ?

I tried to search for information on the google, and everybody seems to be suggesting to 'dd' the partion/entire disk to some other disk and fsck later. can we not 'dd' only the 'partition' which is not able to mount and then 'fsck' only that partition ?

also can i 'dd' it to some other partition on the same hard disk and then 'fsck' manually ? what are the changes of recovery of data ?

thanks a lot in advance,

aaditya

Are you fsck /dev/hda ? or fsck /dev/hda2? I think it has to be the latter(not sure).

Why did you chop such a small hd into so many parts?

lazlow

^ really tho.
with only 80gig, i would have two partitions, max... well, maybe a 3rd for swap.

What error do you get when you attempt to mount /dev/hda2 ? I'm just curious.

Use partimage to extract the data from hda2 to a .gz file... preferably onto an external drive. You should do this from a bootable System Rescue CD

Delete the hda2 partition and recreate. Use partimage to restore back the .gz image you created to the new hda2 partition.

HOWEVER, you should repartition that drive.

/dev/hda1 --> /boot - 30mb
/dev/hda2 --> swap - 512mb
/dev/hda3 --> / - remaining gb or most of it
/dev/hda4 --> FAT32 (if you REALLY need it... otherwise put the space in hda3)

Again, if you have an external hd you can backup all your data from your current partitioning scheme, fdisk the drive, format the new partitions and then write the data back into respectable places. edit the /etc/lilo.conf and make appropriate changes and also the /etc/fstab

Just be careful, take your time, and BACKUP your data first!

when trying to mount /dev/hda2 it says :

/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit : line 391 1294 bus error /sbin/lvm.static vgscan > /dev/null 2>&1

and before the system messages start, it gives a message :

buffer i/o error on device hda2, logical block 0.

i have FC2 installed on the HD. and there is no tool called 'partimage', but i have 'parted'.

for now i have disabled the partition in /etc/fstab.

is it that hda2 has got corrupted ? in case it is corrupted, can i copy the data to another hard disk, reformat the old drive and use it again ?

any help would be nice.

aaditya