Corrupted partition table

[pveurshout]

Hello,

Ever since installing Ubuntu there has been a discrepancy between the info shown by Gparted and the Windows Vista disk management utility. As I never use Vista, I never bothered fixing this thing as it didn't create problems anyway. When I deleted my pre-installed HP_TOOLS partition (because I needed to create another primary partition), I got a GRUB rescue screen at reboot. Using the Maverick LiveCD I found out that both my / and swap partitions had turned into unallocated space. Note that these were inside an extended partition (which still exists, including two other logical volumes).

I've searched through the forums and the internet, and found out that it should be possible to recover my 'lost' / partition - but I don't know where to start. Does anyone know how to do this? Below I have provided an overview of my partitions, indicating those which have turned into unallocated space

-------
sda1: Vista (NTFS)
sda2: Extended

• sda7: Ubuntu (ext4) [now: unallocated space]

• sda8: swap [now: unallocated space]

• [there was some unallocated space inbetween]

• sda5: ext3 partition

• sda6: NTFS partition

[unallocated space - formerly: HP_TOOLS partition which I deliberately deleted]
sda3: Vista Recovery partition
-------

sda7 and sda8 should still be out there - somewhere..

Thanks a LOT for your help!

[blueridgedog]

Can you post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

While booted on the live CD?

Though I have not seen the fdisk output, if the partition is missing, I would use testdisk to attempt to recover it.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

[pveurshout]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x80d2f3ee

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        6687    53711276    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            7471       29160   174223361    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           29226       30401     9439232    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5           11423       26482   120969324   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           26483       29160    21509120    7  HPFS/NTFS

Note that /dev/sda3 is actually located at the very end of the disk. The lost partitions are located in /sda2, just before /sda5.

[pveurshout]

I read through the TestDisk documentation and am now ready to use it - but I can' t seem to get it started from the LiveCD. Using apt-get I get the error "Unable to locate package testdisk". Do you happen to know where to find the program?

[Rubi1200]

Check Software Sources and make sure universe and multiverse are enabled then run apt-get update before installing Testdisk.

[pveurshout]

Thanks! Now let's see if it works

[pveurshout]

I get a message that 'hidden sectors are present'. Should I simply continue?

TestDisk 6.11, Data Recovery Utility, April 2009
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 250 GB / 232 GiB - ATA ST9250421AS

Hidden sectors are present.

size       488397168 sectors
user_max   488397168 sectors
dco        488397168 sectors
Device Configuration Overlay (DCO) present.






[ Continue ]  Continue even if there are hidden data

[pveurshout]

Testdisk is now done with its Deeper Search and seems to find all my partitions in a correct manner. However, because there was an inconsistency between Vista and Ubuntu with respect to considering partitions as Primary or Logical, I must now choose one of these layouts to write to the disk using TestDisk. (they are all considered as Deleted, so I must assign P and L characteristics manually anyway)

Vista treated the two hidden partitions (see my first post) as separate primary partitions (don't ask me why/how it managed to show 6 primary partitions), whereas Ubuntu included these as a part of the extended partition (sda2). Regardless of this issue, everything worked perfectly fine under both OSs. I think I should go for the Ubuntu layout - any different ideas?

[pveurshout]

Allright, I decided to go with the Ubuntu structure, but unfortunately I keep getting the same GRUB error. Will now try to update GRUB - perhaps my partition numbering was altered in the process.

[pveurshout]

IT WORKS! blueridgedog and Rubi1200: thanks for your help!

Before I mark this thread as solved, there is one small remaining issue. Because my partition numbering was altered (sda5 became sda7 etc.) I had to reconfigure my auto-mount options using Storage Device Manager. When opening the /etc/fstab file, however, I noticed that my root / file system was no longer listed (neither was swap). fstab now only lists two of my data partitions - is this normal?