LinuxQuestions.org - Recovering A Destroyed Ext3 Rh6.2 Partition

I need some help to recover my lost data urgently. My problem is that somehow I destroyed my old HD from which I wanted to copy data to a new computer. I must also add that I don't have a lot of knowledge of Linux yet.

I've recently upgraded my PC which used one 40GB IBM HD, dual booting configured for WIN98 and RH6.2. I had a large partition (primary) for WIN (I think 30 or 35 GB) and the rest for two linux partitions - swap and root. I've installed FC3 on my new comp with dual boot (win2k and FC3), but because of booting problems I had to backup/restore MBR between booting Win2k or FC3.

When I tried to restore my FC3 boot MBR I accidentally restored it to my old HD. I copied data from win partition to my new windows installation earlier, but somehow I can not mount my linux partition from FC3 to copy data. And this is where my really important data is!!! I can succesfully mount first partition (win), but I can not access my linux partition. I have to mention also that while booting a lot of I/O errors show up for my old drive.

The concerned HD is secondary master (hdc). This is the output from some commands:

Code:

[root@petelin ~]# mount /dev/hdc3 /mnt

/dev/hdc3: Input/output error

mount: /dev/hdc3: can't read superblock

Code:

[root@petelin ~]# fdisk -l



Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes

255 glav, 63 sektorjev/stezo, 9964 stez

Enote = cylinders od 16065 x 512 = 8225280 bajtov



 Naprava Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/hda1  *          1        7649    61440561    7  HPFS/NTFS

/dev/hda2            7650        9833    17542980  83  Linux

/dev/hda3            9834        9964    1052257+  82  Linux swap



Unable to seek on /dev/hdc

[root@petelin ~]#

Code:

[root@petelin ~]# fsck /dev/hdc2

fsck 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)

e2fsck 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)

fsck.ext2: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/hdc2

Could this be a zero-length partition?

[root@petelin ~]#



(the same for /dev/hdc3)



[root@petelin ~]# fsck /dev/hdc4

fsck 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)

e2fsck 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)

Couldn't find ext2 superblock, trying backup blocks...

fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hdc4



The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2

filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2

filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock

is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:

  e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

Sorry for such a long post - I wanted to give as much data as possible. The problem is that I don't actually know what my linux partition was but I think it must have been hdc2.
Is there any chance to recover my linux data? I'd really appreciate all the answers!