Partition table not detected while attempting installation

[Steveire]

Hi,

I currently use gutsy, and want to do a fresh hardy install.

I tried a hardy, gutsy, and an intrepid cd, but none of the installers detect my existing partition table.

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/602/installpartitiontablemivu1.th.png (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=installpartitiontablemivu1.png)

Here's fdisk output



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x28000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 14267 14594 2620416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 16 1321 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1321 3752 19531250 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 3753 14594 87081357+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 14267 14594 2620416 dd Unknown
/dev/sda6 3753 4360 4883728+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 4361 13901 76638051 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 13902 14266 2931831 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order



sda6 is my gusty root partition
sda7 is my home partition
sda5 is a Dell MediaDirect thing.
sda1 seems to be the exact same thing.
sda3 seems to be windows vista
sda2 is a recovery partition
sda4: I have no idea what this is.

Here's a thread which seems to describe the same issue:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=780113

The answer given is 'use testdisk', but there is no instruction on what to do with it.

Here's what I tried:



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org


TestDisk is a data recovery designed to help recover lost partitions
and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms
are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error.
It can also be used to repair some filesystem errors.

Information gathered during TestDisk use can be recorded for later
review. If you choose to create the text file, testdisk.log , it
will contain TestDisk options, technical information and various
outputs; including any folder/file names TestDisk was used to find and
list onscreen.

Use arrow keys to select, then press Enter key:
[ Create ] Create a new log file
[ Append ] Append information to log file
[ No Log ] Don't record anything


Click create



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

TestDisk is free software, and
comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

Select a media (use Arrow keys, then press Enter):
Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB









[Proceed ] [ Quit ]

Note: Disk capacity must be correctly detected for a successful recovery.
If a disk listed above has incorrect size, check HD jumper settings, BIOS
detection, and install the latest OS patches and disk drivers.


Click proceed

...
Select intel (Don't know if that's right)
Select analyse



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

1 * FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]
2 P HPFS - NTFS 15 10 60 1320 117 13 20971520 [RECOVERY]
3 * HPFS - NTFS 1320 117 14 3751 251 56 39062500 [OS]
4 E extended LBA 3752 0 62 14593 33 32 174162715
Only one partition must be bootable
Space conflict between the following two partitions
4 E extended LBA 3752 0 62 14593 33 32 174162715
1 * FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]
5 L Sys=DD 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832
X extended 3752 0 63 4359 254 63 9767458
6 L Linux 3752 1 1 4359 254 63 9767457
X extended 4360 0 1 13900 254 63 153276165
7 L Linux 4360 1 1 13900 254 63 153276102
X extended 13901 0 1 14265 254 63 5863725
8 L Linux Swap 13901 1 1 14265 254 63 5863662

*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
[Proceed ] [ Backup ]
Try to locate partition


Don't know what to do now. Is that message



Only one partition must be bootable
Space conflict between the following two partitions


important? I selected proceed, and got this:



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14594 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
* FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 14 254 63 240912 [DellUtility]
P FAT32 LBA 15 0 1 4192 254 63 67119570 [NO NAME]
P Linux 4360 1 1 13900 254 57 153276096
L Linux Swap 13901 1 1 14265 254 41 5863640
L FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]








Structure: Ok. Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
Enter: to continue
FAT16, 123 MB / 117 MiB



I press enter to continue.



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14594 255 63

Partition Start End Size in sectors

1 * FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 14 254 63 240912 [DellUtility]
2 P FAT32 LBA 15 0 1 4192 254 63 67119570 [NO NAME]
3 P Linux 4360 1 1 13900 254 57 153276096
4 E extended LBA 13901 0 1 14593 254 63 11133045
5 L Linux Swap 13901 1 1 14265 254 41 5863640
6 L FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]









[ Quit ] [Search! ] [ Write ]


Then I click Quit. I seem to have come full circle.



Any advice?

[Steveire]

I'm guessing partitions 4 and 5 shouldn't be there at all.

Is that what testdisk is trying to tell me, and can testdisk fix it?

[Steveire]

I ran it again, and selected Search! to search deeper, and got this output:



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14594 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
* FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 14 254 63 240912 [DellUtility]
D FAT32 LBA 15 0 1 4192 254 63 67119570 [NO NAME]
D HPFS - NTFS 15 10 60 1320 117 13 20971520 [RECOVERY]
D HPFS - NTFS 1320 117 14 3751 251 45 39062489 [OS]
D Linux 3752 1 1 4359 254 62 9767456
D Linux 3759 0 1 4366 253 62 9767456
D Linux 4360 1 1 13900 254 57 153276096
P Linux Swap 13901 1 1 14265 254 41 5863640
P FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]




Structure: Ok. Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
Enter: to continue
FAT16, 123 MB / 117 MiB



It's quite different to the other output. Any ideas on what I need to do here?

[Steveire]

I found this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=628229

It might be something to do with my issue.

[Steveire]

More interesting links:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=782810

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/953088.html

http://www.dellideastorm.com/article/show/74178

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=606345

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.sys.pc-clone.dell/2008-05/msg01131.html

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/installation/83201-dell-mediadirect-messed-up-my-dual-boot-2.html

Next steps:


Try the media direct button a few times, and see if things recover or break more
Try the rmbr iso (found in the DellKit directory on the MediaDirect re-installation DVD apparently) and fixmbr/fixboot
Reinstall grub and see if that works. Try fixmbr
Use testdisk, extended search, and remove the [NO NAME] and the middle linux partition.


I'll try


rmbr 1 1

to make the mediadirect button function the same as the power on button.

I'll try to do this tomorrow with fresh eyes, but I'm still very confused, and hope someone else can shed some light on what's going on here and what I have to do.

Steve.

[caljohnsmith]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x28000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 14267 14594 2620416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 16 1321 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1321 3752 19531250 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 3753 14594 87081357+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 14267 14594 2620416 dd Unknown
/dev/sda6 3753 4360 4883728+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 4361 13901 76638051 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 13902 14266 2931831 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

First problem I see is that in your fdisk output in your original post, it shows two partitions as being bootable; only one partition on a HDD should be marked as bootable or "active". Also, partition sda3 starts on the same cylinder as the end of sda2, not on the next one. And sda5 and sda4 are on top of each other. And... well the list goes on.

So bottom line is your partition table is quite messed up unfortunately.




Next steps:


Try the media direct button a few times, and see if things recover or break more
Try the rmbr iso (found in the DellKit directory on the MediaDirect re-installation DVD apparently) and fixmbr/fixboot
Reinstall grub and see if that works. Try fixmbr
Use testdisk, extended search, and remove the [NO NAME] and the middle linux partition.


Reinstalling Grub or using "fixmbr" will unfortunately do nothing to fix your partition table. Can you mount any of those partitions, or even still boot into any of them? If you can, I would recommend saving important data right away. And you probably could use testdisk to somehow untangle the whole mess, but if it is at all a possibility, I would simply wipe the HDD clean and start over.

[Steveire]

Reinstalling Grub or using "fixmbr" will unfortunately do nothing to fix your partition table. Can you mount any of those partitions, or even still boot into any of them? If you can, I would recommend saving important data right away. And you probably could use testdisk to somehow untangle the whole mess, but if it is at all a possibility, I would simply wipe the HDD clean and start over.

Hi,

Yes, I can use the vista and gutsy installations fine and I have backed up my data.

I want to try testdisk to fix it, but I can't find anyone who has actually used it to advise me on what to do in this case.

As far as I understand, I must have pressed the media direct button at some stage after installing gutsy. When it loads, mediadirect does 'ignorant writing' to the partition table - ignoring everything that's already there.

It writes part of the partition table as it was in factory settings. It wrote sda4 (vista) covering cylinders 3753 to 14594, and sda5 (mediadirect) covering cylinders 14267 to 14594, and set it's label to unknown to hide it from vista. That's despite the fact that the partition is already there (sda1), albeit with a different label (maybe set by parted or grub when I installed gutsy). That is a strange overlap though. It also wrote a second bootable flag.

In any case, I'm going to try to run testdisk this morning with fresh eyes, remove the [NO NAME] and middle linux partitions, and set some logical and primary flags.


Thanks for the reply caljohnsmith.

[Steveire]

OK, I went for it and here's what happened



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14594 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
* FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 14 254 63 240912 [DellUtility]
D FAT32 LBA 15 0 1 4192 254 63 67119570 [NO NAME]
P HPFS - NTFS 15 10 60 1320 117 13 20971520 [RECOVERY]
P HPFS - NTFS 1320 117 14 3751 251 45 39062489 [OS]
L Linux 3752 1 1 4359 254 62 9767456
D Linux 3759 0 1 4366 253 62 9767456
L Linux 4360 1 1 13900 254 57 153276096
L Linux Swap 13901 1 1 14265 254 41 5863640
L FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]




Structure: Ok. Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
Enter: to continue
NTFS, 10 GB / 10 GiB




TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14594 255 63

Partition Start End Size in sectors

1 * FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 14 254 63 240912 [DellUtility]
2 P HPFS - NTFS 15 10 60 1320 117 13 20971520 [RECOVERY]
3 P HPFS - NTFS 1320 117 14 3751 251 45 39062489 [OS]
4 E extended LBA 3752 0 1 14593 254 63 174176730
5 L Linux 3752 1 1 4359 254 62 9767456
6 L Linux 4360 1 1 13900 254 57 153276096
7 L Linux Swap 13901 1 1 14265 254 41 5863640
8 L FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]







[ Quit ] [ Write ]
Return to main menu


The recovery and OS partitions are too close for comfort really, meeting on the same cylinder, and what looks like consecutive blocks. I'm not sure exactly how to read those start/end columns.

I confirmed and saw this almost immediately:



TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org


You will have to reboot for the change to take effect.




So, now I reboot

[Steveire]

Well, after rebooting I get a grub error 15, so back into a livecd for me. My fdisk -l looks like this:



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x28000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 15 120456 6 FAT16
/dev/sda2 16 1321 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1321 3752 19531244+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 3753 14594 87088365 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 3753 4360 4883728 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 4361 13901 76638048 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 13902 14266 2931820 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 14267 14594 2620416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


And testdisk analyse reports this:


TestDisk 6.8, Data Recovery Utility, August 2007
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

1 * FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 14 254 63 240912 [DellUtility]
2 P HPFS - NTFS 15 10 60 1320 117 13 20971520 [RECOVERY]
3 P HPFS - NTFS 1320 117 14 3751 251 45 39062489 [OS]
4 E extended LBA 3752 0 1 14593 254 63 174176730
5 L Linux 3752 1 1 4359 254 62 9767456
X extended 4360 0 1 13900 254 57 153276159
6 L Linux 4360 1 1 13900 254 57 153276096
X extended 13901 0 1 14265 254 41 5863703
7 L Linux Swap 13901 1 1 14265 254 41 5863640
X extended 14266 229 1 14593 33 32 5240939
8 L FAT32 LBA 14266 230 45 14593 33 32 5240832 [MEDIADIRECT]



*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
[Proceed ] [ Backup ]
Try to locate partition


Hopefully a grub install will give me a working installation again, and hopefully I can find some way of repartitioning correctly. I'm starting to think that the problem now is that OS and RECOVERY end and begin on the same cylinder. I'm not sure if that can be fixed if no partitioning tool is able to use the drive...

[caljohnsmith]

Your partition table looks great now except that as you pointed out, sda3 starts on the same cylinder as sda2 ends.

If you want to get Grub working again, I bet all you need to do is the following from the Live CD:

sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
[should return your Ubuntu partition in the form (hdX,Y), use that:]
grub> root (hdX,Y)
grub> setup (hdX)
grub> quit

[Steveire]

I ran grub, but


find /boot/grub/stage1


gave me a grub error 15 (file not found), so I followed instuction here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/root /dev/sda5
Due to a bug in xfs_freeze, the following command might produce a segmentation
fault when /mnt/root/boot/grub is not in an XFS filesystem. This error is harmless and
can be ignored.
xfs_freeze: specified file ["/mnt/root/boot/grub"] is not on an XFS filesystem
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /mnt/root/boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0) /dev/sda
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /mnt/root/boot/grub/menu.lst
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 1

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=575a68fe-7c6c-4aac-9589-372dbc3f5736 ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,5)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-15-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-15-generic root=UUID=575a68fe-7c6c-4aac-9589-372dbc3f5736 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-15-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-15-generic root=UUID=575a68fe-7c6c-4aac-9589-372dbc3f5736 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-15-generic

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=575a68fe-7c6c-4aac-9589-372dbc3f5736 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=575a68fe-7c6c-4aac-9589-372dbc3f5736 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda3
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda5
title Microsoft Windows XP Embedded
root (hd0,4)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[caljohnsmith]

It looks like you may have a dedicated Grub partition on sda5 (hd0,4). Try the following:

sudo grub
grub> find /grub/stage1
If that returns with (hd0,4), proceed with:

grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> setup (hd0)

[Steveire]

I'm really glad I put all the details into this post. A couple of days ago I had to use testdisk again to do the same fix.

By the way I fixed the partition issue at the time by using Acronis no Hirens Boot CD. It able to handle the partition boundaries being very close together, so I put some space between them and was able to install over my existing '/' partition.

Cheers,

Steve

[DrGNU]

Any advice?

I am wondering what the conclusion to this was?
Were you able to repair your partitions?

I have a problem but only see ONE boot partition and need it to be a different partition. I'm not able to mount the partition that I need (to back-up files in Vista).

To see what I am experiencing view this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7252450

Thank you,

DrGNU (Steve)