Grub Rescue Help!

[goseph]

Hi everybody!

I installed Ubuntu 10.04 alongside windows XP on my eeePC. all was fine until I resized the Ubuntu partition in order to increase SWAP to 3GB. (I have 2 GB of RAM)

Now when I switch on the computer I just get a Grub-Rescue>

How can I rescue my system?

[goseph]

Running the Boot Info script http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Gives this:



Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #5 for /boot/grub.
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Windows XP: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /boot/bcd

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 151,123,454 151,123,392 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 296,126,145 302,214,779 6,088,635 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 296,126,208 302,214,779 6,088,572 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 302,230,845 312,480,314 10,249,470 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.1 GB, 16064184320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1953 cylinders, total 31375360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 63 31,375,359 31,375,297 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 4A30C94A30C93E27 ntfs
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda3 CCED-990E vfat PE
/dev/sda5 ac87daa3-3f07-4328-bf69-407d9994106b swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 C4FA-0C34 vfat Äè%
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos"

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,i ocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[darkod]

You don't have a Ubuntu (Linux) partition reported at all:


Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 151,123,454 151,123,392 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 296,126,145 302,214,779 6,088,635 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 296,126,208 302,214,779 6,088,572 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 302,230,845 312,480,314 10,249,470 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

I guess it is (it was) between /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2. You really messed up when resizing...

If you have important data to save, you could try recovering the partition with testdisk, otherwise, a simple reinstall might be better option.
Just delete /dev/sda5 and then /dev/sda2 and install into that unallocated space.

[goseph]

Bah! Did a re-install. All I did to mess things up was resize my swap in GParted - if I mess around with partitions in the future and get error messages (which I basically ignored this time round). Is it possible to undo the changes? Is there a program that is safer to use?

[darkod]

If you want to save this partition, there is a program called testdisk. You can install it and run it in live mode with:

sudo apt-get install testdisk
sudo testdisk

Here is their guide about restoring a partition:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

People have reported good success with it restoring a deleted partition. It basically scans your hdd and if it finds the partition, you can write it back in the partition table.

But be careful with it, you can mess up all of the current partition, as with any software of this kind. As long as you pay attention of the sectors /start/end, so the partitions don't overlap, you should be fine.

Otherwise, Gparted is a very good tool for partition management but it all depends what you actually did. For example, it looks like you actually resized not the swap partition /dev/sda5, but the whole extended partition /dev/sda2 which was probably also holding your root partition.

An extended partition is just like a container, and the logical partitions are inside. When you want to resize a logical partition, make sure you do that, and not resizing the extended container.

[goseph]

Thankyou for your wise words Darkod,

Incidentally, running sudo apt-get install testdisk doesn't do anything - the terminal can't find it.

running apt-cache search test gives lots of results but no testdisk

This is all on an unaltered live USB of Lucid netbook remix and following a sudo apt-get update.

I downloaded the binaries from here http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

and it worked fine, any ideas as to why it is not in the repositories?

[darkod]

Ups, I now remember that it seems you need to enable another repository called universe. I think it's not in the default ones. Sorry. :)