Having problems

[kabads]

My machine dual boots with win 7. I accidentally clicked on the windows recovery, which is an app that came with the acer laptop. I didn't choose any of the options but chose exit instead. However, grub seems to have borked at this. I now get

error: no such partition
grub rescue>

when I try ls with this, I get all the sda1 etc. partitions that come with windows.

What is the best strategy for fixing this (obviously, I'd rather not install linux mint or windows).

I've run the boot info script to collect information (using a boot medium).

http://pastebin.com/ZB2DfJ4W

What to do next?
TIA
Adam

[wayne128]

After a quick look at your data
there is no ext root partition??
sda4 is most likely your Linux root, but it is now with ntfs and boot.ini??

just checking: did you install Mint using mint4win or directly into the partition?

also, can you still select windows OS and run after selecting it?

/dev/sda1 2,048 23,070,719 23,068,672 27 Hidden NTFS (Recovery Environment)
/dev/sda2 * 23,070,720 499,124,223 476,053,504 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 499,126,270 970,983,423 471,857,154 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 930,365,440 970,983,423 40,617,984 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 970,983,424 976,769,023 5,785,600 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS

=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
in partition 72 for .

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows Vista
Boot files: /BOOTMGR /BOOT/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows Vista
Boot files: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________________________________

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

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

Not a very good sign.
Anyway, just check via the following steps

1. boot from Linux Live DVD.
2. on terminal, type a few commands to check
3. sudo os-prober
4. parted -l

lets see what you have.

[kabads]

I ought to add that I've also managed to boot this machine with a usb stick (running a live usb version of linux mint) and so I'm happy to take any advice on how to fix it using this method, if that is easier.

[kabads]

mint@mint ~ $ sudo os-prober
/dev/sda1:Windows Recovery Environment (loader):Windows:chain
/dev/sda2:Windows Vista (loader):Windows1:chain
/dev/sda4:Microsoft Windows XP Embedded:Windows2:chain

mint@mint ~ $ parted -l

nothing returns on this last command.

[wayne128]

when you install Mint or Linux os, did you use mint4win (wubi)? or install direct into the partition?
can you recall that you had installed into sda4?

Now your sda4 is NTFS.. may be wiped by the Windows recovery action.
Now, can you select Windows OS and run from grub menu?

[kabads]

After a quick look at your data
there is no ext root partition??
sda4 is most likely your Linux root, but it is now with ntfs and boot.ini??

just checking: did you install Mint using mint4win or directly into the partition?

also, can you still select windows OS and run after selecting it?

I installed linux mint using a live usb version of it (installed with unetboot, as far as I can remember). I'm guessing that this recovery thing has relabelled my partition as a fat/ntfs variant instead of ext. Is that possible? If so, what is the best way of telling grub what this thing is?

In my live usb environment, I can mount and look at windows files, but not the linux partitions.

I don't get the chance to choose which OS to boot in to - after BIOS I get the error: no such partition problem.

[wayne128]

I installed linux mint using a live usb version of it (installed with unetboot, as far as I can remember). I'm guessing that this recovery thing has relabelled my partition as a fat/ntfs variant instead of ext. Is that possible? If so, what is the best way of telling grub what this thing is?

In my live usb environment, I can mount and look at windows files, but not the linux partitions.

I don't get the chance to choose which OS to boot in to - after BIOS I get the error: no such partition problem.

most likely the sda4 was Linux root partition but now no longer...grub also bad...

first thing I believe you should do, recover windows os first, so that you do not need to reinstall.

now what you do is install lilo, it will replace MBR and take over grub, at the same time make your windows bootable


1. Boot the machine using the Live USB/CD. Assuming you have internet access.
2. Open a terminal, then type or copy and paste the code below to the terminal, follow by hitting enter key

3. Install lilo

Code: Select all

 sudo apt-get install lilo

4. Fix the MBR using lilo using the command:

Code: Select all

    sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

reboot and see if you can boot Windows.

[kabads]

Yay! Thought I'd never say this, but I'm in windows.The machine didn't present me with any choices, just went straight to windows.

Any way of getting lilo to recognise my linux mint partitions?

TIA
Adam

[wayne128]

Yay! Thought I'd never say this, but I'm in windows.The machine didn't present me with any choices, just went straight to windows.

Any way of getting lilo to recognise my linux mint partitions?

TIA
Adam

Expected, since there is no Linux OS ( from sudo os-prober and fdisk data) around for lilo to pick up.
I think Mint partition is gone,

however, you can check further by running from windows os, check all the drive partitions, you can use its own partition editor, to see what is the sda4 about...

[kabads]

OK - so probably the quickest thing to do is to reinstall linux again? Windows doesn't seem to see this sda4 - I'll have a look at it with gparted.

Thanks for getting me this far.

Adam

[wayne128]

Look like it
anyway last command parted -l might need to use

sudo parted -l

or sudo parted -l print

then post the terminal output
and use gparted to check to see any 'unallocated space'.

if you do not have much data in old Mint partition, it is really easier to just reinstall.

I usually store data in data partition and copy to backup on USB drive plus file server, so if my OS partition get wiped out for whatever reason I have little lost in term of data, OS can be installed fast since I keep clones in USB drive

good luck

[kabads]

I'm getting this and I'm certain that 4 used to be my old linux partition.

Code: Select all

mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Hitachi HTS54505 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  11.8GB  11.8GB  primary   ntfs            diag
 2      11.8GB  256GB   244GB   primary   ntfs            boot
 3      256GB   497GB   242GB   extended
 5      476GB   497GB   20.8GB  logical   linux-swap(v1)
 4      497GB   500GB   2962MB  primary   ntfs


Model: Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1999MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      16.4kB  1999MB  1999MB  primary  fat16        boot, lba


[wayne128]

Lets see...

3 256GB 497GB 242GB extended
5 476GB 497GB 20.8GB logical linux-swap(v1)
4 497GB 500GB 2962MB primary ntfs

sda3 is extended container, same, 242G, very large

sda5 is swap, 20.8G, suspicious? did you do that ??? 20.8G is way too high


sda4 is primary, and 2.9G.... this sound funny.. and because it is ntfs , it remind me of those partition used by some manufacturer to house some tools..

you probably cannot squeeze Mint into 3G partition...


then where is the rest of 242G-21G-3G???
they are hidden or become unallocated? try use gparted to present in graphic form
but from parted it seems location between 256G and 476G is 'missing' or become unallocated..

may be you have a hope... have you used testdisk? a bit complicated to use. but it might recover the 'lost partition' somewhere from 256G to 476G..

but if you do not have much data to recover, and do not want to try testdisk , perhaps, reinstall Mint is much faster.. afterall it is just 10-30 minutes depending on your hardware.

[kabads]

Many thanks - I'll just go with installing Linux mint again. I may have problems looking at finding space on the current disk for new partitions, but hey, that's for another thread.