Major Partition Problem

[SecretCode]

Not sure how to do this from the command line, but launch gparted, right click the visible swap partition, and click 'swapoff' (if it's enabled)

[SecretCode]

Your edited pt looks fine.

If you can't get past the 'currently in use' error, just use the --no-reread flag it suggests. You need to get this done!

Also ... Happy New Year!

[TrevT93]

Okay, I'll do it all either tomorrow or tonight after the New Year's party.

Happy New Years to you too, and to anyone who might happen to come upon this thread and read this post!

[TrevT93]

I just used "sudo swapoff -a" to turn off the swaps and it worked...

...that is, until sfdisk chimed in at the end of the partition structure I wanted it to use, saying:

New situation:
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot    Start       End   #sectors  Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        63  21478904   21478842   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2      21478905 167027804  145548900   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3     167027805 261378740   94350936   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4     261393615 312576704   51183090   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5     261393741 282358439   20964699  83  Linux
/dev/sda6     282358566 308094569   25736004  83  Linux
/dev/sda7     308094633 310199084    2104452  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8     310199148 312576704    2377557  82  Linux swap / Solaris
Warning: partition 3 does not end at a cylinder boundary

sfdisk: I don't like these partitions - nothing changed.
(If you really want this, use the --force option.)

Just one last "I'm making sure" moment.

[SecretCode]

Since partition 3 isn't changing, I think it's safe to ignore that warning and use --force.

[SecretCode]

Any luck yet?

[TrevT93]

Yeah, but...

GParted notes that the Xubuntu journal superblock is bad. The Debian superblock is just fine, and mounting it works.

Worst comes to worst, I think my teacher can get me back my non-backed-up history notes.

Do tell me if you want to try something else, though.

[SecretCode]

Oh well. I suspect all bits of the partition table are now pointing to the right places. The sda5 superblock probably did get corrupted

Do tell me if you want to try something else, though.

Hey - it's your data - your call!

If you want to keep on trying, try this: boot the live CD (or the Debian partition, I suppose) and enter

sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sda5 | grep Block size
sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sda5 | grep superblock

(Will probably give nothing.)

sudo fsck.ext4 /dev/sda5

(Will probably give an error)

sudo fsck.ext4 -b 32786 /dev/sda5

sudo fsck.ext4 -b 98304 /dev/sda5

[TrevT93]

Let's keep going until Sunday night. I'd like to see the return of all my precious data, if possible.

Don't count out your commands too soon:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sda5 | grep Block size
grep: size: No such file or directory
dumpe2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sda5 | grep superblock
dumpe2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
  Primary superblock at 0, Group descriptors at 1-1
  Backup superblock at 32768, Group descriptors at 32769-32769
  Backup superblock at 98304, Group descriptors at 98305-98305
  Backup superblock at 163840, Group descriptors at 163841-163841
  Backup superblock at 229376, Group descriptors at 229377-229377
  Backup superblock at 294912, Group descriptors at 294913-294913
  Backup superblock at 819200, Group descriptors at 819201-819201
  Backup superblock at 884736, Group descriptors at 884737-884737
  Backup superblock at 1605632, Group descriptors at 1605633-1605633
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck.ext4 /dev/sda5
e2fsck 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
The filesystem size (according to the superblock) is 2620603 blocks
The physical size of the device is 2620587 blocks
Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt!
Abort<y>? yes

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck.ext4 -b 32786 /dev/sda5
e2fsck 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
fsck.ext4: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda5

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>

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck.ext4 -b 98304 /dev/sda5
e2fsck 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
The filesystem size (according to the superblock) is 2620603 blocks
The physical size of the device is 2620587 blocks
Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt!
Abort<y>? yes

There were a few times it asked me to abort, and so I did to see if you could use the feedback and make a decision from there.

Helpful at all?

[SecretCode]

Slight error in my typing there ... could you try

sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sda5 | grep 'Block size'

The result is bound to be 4096.

But if the disk sector we're pointing at is recognised by

sudo fsck.ext4 /dev/sda5

then we have made progress!

Run that command again, but don't abort on the size error. However, if it offers to fix errors, say no.

We probably need to resize the filesystem:

sudo resize2fs -p

sudo resize2fs -p 2620603

Enter the first command. Try the second if the first reports an error. If they seem to work, run the fsck command again.

I'd prefer to check the filesystem before resizing it, but if fsck objects, it might be necessary to resize first.