I screwed up my LILO/HD/partitions - Help!

[MallarJ2@aol.com]

I'm in urgent need of some help in recovering my system.  I've made (I think) a serious error with LILO and now I can't get my partition mounted.

* I run a dual-boot system with Win2k and Potato

* /dev/hda is my Win2k drive
* /dev/hdb is my Linux drive
    * /dev/hdb1 is my Linux root partition
    * /dev/hdb2 is my Linux swap partition

I have my Win2k NTloader configured as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=c:\bootsect.219
[operating systems]
c:\bootsect.219="Linux 2.2.19"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect


So, I boot my system off of /dev/hda (Win2k), which loads the boot sector for /dev/hdb and boots into Linux.

Now the problem.  I wanted to get rid of the Win2k partition altogether and use it for another backup/data drive.  I thought I could just make /dev/hdb bootable via lilo, reformat my /dev/hda drive, and things would be cool.  Not so.

I updated my lilo.conf to boot from /dev/hdb and mount root as /dev/hdb1 and did a lilo -t and lilo to test and install it.  No errors.

Now, I can't boot up my Linux partitions at all.  I put my CD Rom where /dev/hda used to be so my BIOS would keep the same drive locations, and tried to boot the system.  The PC boots, but it never loads my Linux partition, it just displays a blinking cursor at me.  No lilo prompt, nothing.

I then put my Win2k drive back into /dev/hda's slot and tried to boot using the NT loader, this is a bit better, I can boot up Win2k just fine, but when I tried to access the Linux partition, it displays "LIL-" and just locks up.  I have a feeling I know the problem here, I forgot to copy the boot sector from the Linux partition back onto my c:\directory as c:\bootsect.219.

I put my CDROM back into /dev/hda's slot and loaded up the Potato CD's (I don't have boot floppy, the disk fails during reads now - it's old).  I tried in vain to mount the Linux partitions but got nowhere.  Here's some things I did (in the shell) and the results:

mount /dev/hdb1 /target
    Gives me the "wrong fs, bad option, bad superblock, or too many file systems" error

mount -t ext2 /dev/hdb1 /target
    Same error

mount -t ext2 /dev/hdb  /target
    Same error

cfdisk /dev/hdb
    Shows my partition table as:

        /dev/hdb1   Boot    Primary     Linux ext2
        /dev/hdb2       Primary     Linux swap

    Dumping the table in detail "p" command:
    
            -------START-------         ---------END--------
        Flags   Head    Sec Cyl ID  Head    Sec cyl
    1   0x80    1   1   0   0x83    254 63  1023
    2   0x00    254 63  1023    0x82    254 63  1023
    3   0x00    0   0   0   0   0   0   0
    4   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
    
fdisk /dev/hdb
    Showed me this (I forget which command generated it [not quite verbatim, but close]):

    Number of cylinders set to 3649
    Nothing is wrong, but it's greater than 1024
    This can cause problems with LILO

    The "v" command responds:
        62 unallocated sectors

    The "p" command displays:

                Start   End Blocks      ID
    /dev/hdb1   Boot    1   3585    28796481    83
    /dev/hdb2       3586    3469    514080      82


I'm afraid to do much more in fear of wiping out my /dev/hdb drive.  I don't really care about the /dev/hda drive, other than I can use it to boot up and get online to send this e-mail.

I don't know what else to try.  I *really* need to keep the data on /dev/hdb if at all possible.  I know, I know, I need a backup.  I've been trying for weeks to get a successful backup and haven't yet found anything that works.  

Right now, the immediate need is to get my Linux partition mount.

The next thing to figure out is how to switch the drives so /dev/hdb becomes /dev/hda.  If we can kill two birds with one stone, all the better.

Please, any assistance you can offer be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jay