partition table invalid or corrupt

colindoig · 09-28-2003, 09:19 PM

Apparently my partition table is either invalid or corrupt

( I (used to) have mandrake + win98 installed, I can still boot windows by typing :
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot
at the grub prompt. However I haven't been able to boot linux. Can anyone help? Have I lost everything on the partition ? I haven't tried reinstalling linux, but will this help? WIll I have to reformat the whole disk?

Thanks
Colin (colin_doig@REMOVEhotmail.com).

raven · 09-29-2003, 05:18 AM

No reformatting should be needed. It would be nice if you could tell me (us) what the error is at your bootlaoder, why you cant boot into linux. Are you sure, you still have the correct kernel image selected? The correct partition?

Anyway, you can try to boot from a rescue disk (cd), mount your drives from there, and then you will know whats the stuff about your partition table. If you dont have a rescue disk, try with some install cdrom (for examle gentoo stage1, or beehive)

Good luck

colindoig · 10-01-2003, 07:16 PM

When I type geometry (hd0) I get :
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 1024/255/63, The number of sectors = 39865392, LBA
Partition num = 0, FIlesystem type is fat, partition type 0xc
Error : Partition table invalid or corrupt

and when I type root (hd0,1) :
Filesystem type unknown, partion type 0x85

I don't have a rescue disk nor an install disk but I could get one if you think that will help?

Colin

quatsch · 10-01-2003, 10:14 PM

since you're using mandrake, your first installation CD is the rescue disk. Boot from it, press F1 for more options and then type
rescue
this will get you to a rescue mode. Try reinstalling the boot loader and if that does not help you can get to a console and work from there.