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Thread: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

  1. #11
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Quaxo76 View Post
    I don't think I have the skills needed to fix it by hand, or the free time to acquire them...
    I am expert so you do not have to be.
    The process is:
    I tell you what command to run
    You post the results
    Repeat 10 times
    Fixed.
    ASRock P67 Extreme6, Intel i5 2500K, 8GB RAM, nVidia 6600GT, 4x1TB RAID1+0

  2. #12
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Heh... I like that plan... But about 40 minutes ago I sort of got excited about that testdisk output, and I allowed it to write the table... I still don't know if I should have done so or not. By the way, now the partitioning seems consistent. But the disc is still unbootable, because Grub was destroyed. At boot I get the GRUB2 shell (with the "grub>" prompt). Is there a quick way to reinstall it? My /boot folder is in /dev/sda2... And I confirmed that I can mount that partition and access the files in there. Once I can boot the system again, I can check if the other partitions are OK...

    Cristian

  3. #13
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    Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Quaxo76 View Post
    Heh... I like that plan... But about 40 minutes ago I sort of got excited about that testdisk output, and I allowed it to write the table... I still don't know if I should have done so or not.
    Well I hope you got away with it but it is not the safest method.
    By the way, now the partitioning seems consistent. But the disc is still unbootable, because Grub was destroyed. At boot I get the GRUB2 shell (with the "grub>" prompt). Is there a quick way to reinstall it? My /boot folder is in /dev/sda2... And I confirmed that I can mount that partition and access the files in there. Once I can boot the system again, I can check if the other partitions are OK...
    [edit] Follow this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...y_LiveCD_Files

    Why not post
    sudo fdisk -lu
    so we can visually check the partition boundaries.
    Last edited by YesWeCan; September 24th, 2011 at 08:30 PM.
    ASRock P67 Extreme6, Intel i5 2500K, 8GB RAM, nVidia 6600GT, 4x1TB RAID1+0

  4. #14
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Quaxo76 View Post
    Heh... I like that plan... But about 40 minutes ago I sort of got excited about that testdisk output, and I allowed it to write the table... I still don't know if I should have done so or not. By the way, now the partitioning seems consistent. But the disc is still unbootable, because Grub was destroyed.
    I recommend you boot using an emergency disk and run the Boot Info Script. This will create a file called RESULTS.txt with a wealth of partition and boot loader diagnostic information. Post that file here. With that information in hand, it should be possible to offer recovery advice.
    If I've suggested a solution to a problem and you're not the original poster, do not try my solution! Problems can seem similar but be different, and a good solution to one problem can make another worse. Post a new thread with your problem details.

  5. #15
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    @YesWeCan: I reinstalled GRUB using the command you gave me before the edit, and it worked - GRUB is there and seems to work.
    The system still doesn't start though. During boot, I get the following messages:
    Code:
    Problem mounting /VirtualBoxVDI
    Press S to skip or M to mount manually
    then I press M (because it's just a data partition) and I get
    Code:
    The disk drive for /home is not ready yet or not present.
    Continue to wait; or press S to skip mounting or M for manual recovery
    I pressed M again, thinking that it would boot anyway but with an empty home folder, but it gives errors about being unable to configure certain files and to create certain folders; and I end up with the Ubuntu background, the mouse pointer, and nothing else.

    I can run a terminal with Ctrl+alt+t, and I browsed the files, and I noticed that the mounts are all wrong... i.e. in the folder /XPlane, where it should mount the XPlane partition, it mounted the "Music" partition; and in the folder /Dati it mounted the root partition of an old system I keep around for emergencies.

    Here is the output of fdisk -lu:
    Code:
    Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x9bca9bca
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1   *        2048    91411824    45704888+   7  HPFS/NTFS
    /dev/sda2        94928024   129092767    17082372   83  Linux
    /dev/sda3       129437696   190996479    30779392   83  Linux
    /dev/sda4       190996785   976784129   392893672+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
    Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    /dev/sda5       190996848   194900559     1951856   82  Linux swap / Solaris
    /dev/sda6       194900643   276816010    40957684   83  Linux
    Partition 6 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    /dev/sda7       276816078   308142757    15663340   83  Linux
    Partition 7 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    /dev/sda8       308142828   369607451    30732312   83  Linux
    Partition 8 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    /dev/sda9       369607518   459282277    44837380   83  Linux
    Partition 9 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    /dev/sda10      459282348   542049163    41383408   83  Linux
    Partition 10 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    /dev/sda11      542049165   748982428   103466632   83  Linux
    Partition 11 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    /dev/sda12      947476480   976773119    14648320   83  Linux
    
    Disk /dev/sdb: 4012 MB, 4012900352 bytes
    120 heads, 55 sectors/track, 1187 cylinders, total 7837696 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x00000000
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sdb1              32     7837695     3918832    b  W95 FAT32
    When I try to mount the /home partition (sda8 ), I get an error saying "Stale NFS file handle".
    When I try to mount sda7, I get this:
    Code:
    mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda7, missing codepage or helper program, or other error
    Cristian
    Last edited by Quaxo76; September 25th, 2011 at 09:52 AM. Reason: Added a detail

  6. #16
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Quaxo76 View Post

    When I try to mount the /home partition (sda8 ), I get an error saying "Stale NFS file handle".
    I should add that it is an ext3 partition, not a NFS. If I try to manually mount it as ext3, I get the same error that sda7 gives.

    Cristian

  7. #17
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    I was able to "resurrect" an old "experimental" Linux partition (sda12). Now, that one boots. It seems that I can access most of the partitions except sda7 and sda8.
    Of course, those are the ones where the most important data is.
    And of course, I had a total backup on an external drive, but it was stolen from my office a few weeks ago, and of course I hadn't replaced it yet.

    Cristian

  8. #18
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Quaxo76 View Post
    I was able to "resurrect" an old "experimental" Linux partition (sda12). Now, that one boots. It seems that I can access most of the partitions except sda7 and sda8.
    Of course, those are the ones where the most important data is.
    And of course, I had a total backup on an external drive, but it was stolen from my office a few weeks ago, and of course I hadn't replaced it yet.

    Cristian
    I'll take a look at it this afternoon.
    ASRock P67 Extreme6, Intel i5 2500K, 8GB RAM, nVidia 6600GT, 4x1TB RAID1+0

  9. #19
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Code:
    BEFORE                                                                                
    Device        Boot     Start                End        Sectors           GB          Blocks        Id        System                      gap from prev
    /dev/sda1       *          2048         94928016        94925969        48.6        47462984+        7        HPFS/NTFS                          2047
    /dev/sda2              94928024        129092767        34164744        17.5        17082372        83        Linux        ubuntu OS?               7
    /dev/sda3             129437694        976773119       847335426       433.8       423667713         5        Extended                         344926
    /dev/sda5             190996848        194900579         3903732         2           1951866        82        Linux        swap              61559153
    /dev/sda6             194900643        276816014        81915372        41.9        40957686        83        Linux        ?                       63
    /dev/sda7             276817920        308142079        31324160        16          15662080        83        Linux        [VecchioRoot]         1905
    /dev/sda8             308144128        369606655        61462528        31.5        30731264        83        Linux        [Home]                2048
    /dev/sda9             369607518        459282284        89674767        45.9        44837383+       83        Linux        [VirtualBoxVDI]        862
    /dev/sda10            459282348        542049164        82766817        42.4        41383408+       83        Linux        [Musica]                63
    /dev/sda11            369607518        459282284        89674767        45.9        44837383+       83        Linux                
    /dev/sda12            459282348        542049164        82766817        42.4        41383408+       83        Linux                
    /dev/sda13            369607518        459282284        89674767        45.9        44837383+       83        Linux                
    /dev/sda14            459282348        542049164        82766817        42.4        41383408+       83        Linux                
                                                                                    
    AFTER                                                                                
    Device        Boot     Start                End        Sectors           GB          Blocks        Id        System                      gap from prev
    /dev/sda1       *          2048         91411824        91409777        46.8        45704888+        7        HPFS/NTFS                          2047
    /dev/sda2              94928024        129092767        34164744        17.5        17082372        83        Linux        ubuntu OS?         3516199
    /dev/sda3             129437696        190996479        61558784        31.5        30779392        83        Linux        ?                   344928
    /dev/sda4             190996785        976784129       785787345       402.3       392893672+        f        Extended                            305
    /dev/sda5             190996848        194900559         3903712         2           1951856        82        Linux        swap                    62
    /dev/sda6             194900643        276816010        81915368        41.9        40957684        83        Linux        ?                       83
    /dev/sda7             276816078        308142757        31326680        16          15663340        83        Linux        [VecchioRoot]           67
    /dev/sda8             308142828        369607451        61464624        31.5        30732312        83        Linux        [Home]                  70
    /dev/sda9             369607518        459282277        89674760        45.9        44837380        83        Linux        [VirtualBoxVDI]         66
    /dev/sda10            459282348        542049163        82766816        42.4        41383408        83        Linux        [Musica]                70
    /dev/sda11            542049165        748982428       206933264       105.9       103466632        83        Linux        [Appoggio]               1
    /dev/sda12            947476480        976773119        29296640        15          14648320        83        Linux        ubuntu OS        198494051
    A lot has been changed. The notable exception is sda2 which I presume is your main Ubuntu OS. So the reason it is not booting is that it cannot mount /home and /VirualboxVDI. All other partitions have had their sizes changed. The NTFS has been shrunk a lot. sda3 has appeared out of nowhere and is the same size as sda8. A suspicious sign is that the starting sectors of sda7 & sda8 have changed and this may account for why they cannot be accessed.

    First, some more info needed. Please mount sda2 and show the fstab contents
    sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
    cat /mnt/etc/fstab
    sudo umount /mnt


    Then show the output of
    sudo blkid
    Last edited by YesWeCan; September 25th, 2011 at 03:22 PM.
    ASRock P67 Extreme6, Intel i5 2500K, 8GB RAM, nVidia 6600GT, 4x1TB RAID1+0

  10. #20
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    Re: Partition table messed up - hundreds of "ghost" partitions

    Code:
    cristian@cristian-laptop:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
    
    
    
    cristian@cristian-laptop:~$ cat /mnt/etc/fstab
    
    # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
    #
    # Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
    # for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
    # devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
    #
    # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
    proc                                       /proc        proc  nodev,noexec,nosuid  0  0  
    # / was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
    UUID=67c95e1b-d39b-42af-972c-777ad1df53f1  /            ext4  errors=remount-ro    0  1  
    # /home was on /dev/sdb13 during installation
    UUID=cdd507e5-77ce-4acf-8373-097a1bb74eee  /home        ext4  defaults             0  2  
    # swap was on /dev/sdb5 during installation
    UUID=cb5c309c-6a23-458e-bf41-229127bc260e  none         swap  sw                   0  0  
    /dev/sda7                                  /VirtualBoxVDI  ext3  defaults             0  0 
    /dev/sda12				/Dati	ext4	defaults	0	0
    /dev/sda10				/XPlane	ext3	defaults	0	0
    /dev/sda6				/Musica	ext3	defaults	0	0
    
    
    
    cristian@cristian-laptop:~$ sudo umount /mnt
    
    
    
    cristian@cristian-laptop:~$ sudo blkid
    
    /dev/sda1: UUID="1BC30EAA31150B1E" TYPE="ntfs" 
    /dev/sda2: UUID="67c95e1b-d39b-42af-972c-777ad1df53f1" TYPE="ext4" 
    /dev/sda3: UUID="9d3d9054-1332-45af-b3d8-5fa4669f35f9" TYPE="ext4" 
    /dev/sda5: UUID="cb5c309c-6a23-458e-bf41-229127bc260e" TYPE="swap" 
    /dev/sda6: UUID="5f8a414f-37d8-4b4a-a3ac-186d3de737c1" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" 
    /dev/sda7: LABEL="VecchioRoot" UUID="fdc98e9a-0d4d-41fe-bc2d-436e1a4fd9e6" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" 
    /dev/sda8: LABEL="Home" UUID="ab9b0a2b-0c46-4f86-a5cb-448ec40a74ba" TYPE="ext4" 
    /dev/sda9: LABEL="VirtualBoxVDI" UUID="05e65efa-3dc8-4207-a5f8-3f6a79be5cb9" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" 
    /dev/sda10: LABEL="Musica" UUID="ebe89e5f-2777-48ac-ab36-c3a8e8462153" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" 
    /dev/sda11: LABEL="Appoggio" UUID="520e87f0-76c4-48ab-a2b3-9dd6594b7bc3" TYPE="ext4" 
    /dev/sda12: UUID="729d163f-7515-428b-9eec-fe9ff65d7a61" TYPE="ext4" 
    
    cristian@cristian-laptop:~$
    I should add that (as I posted on another thread) when I try to access the disc with Gparted, it says "unallocated" - as if it was unpartitioned. Accessing it with Disk Utility does show the partitions.
    I read somewhere that this can happen when there is an overlap, or when a partition exceeds the disk's boundaries.

    Is it possible that all those start/end points were changed by testdisk because they weren't aligned with cylinder boundaries?

    Cristian

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