Recovering deleted partitions...

["Vikas B N" <vikas_bn@infosys.com>]

Hello All,

 Thanks for the response to my earlier post.
 I have downloaded and used gpart as suggested
 by Michael and Anita. 

 The output of gpart is as follows:

--------------------------------

** Error: invalid extended ptbl found at sector(20804175).

Begin scan...
Possible partition(DOS FAT), size(31mb), offset(0mb)
Possible partition(Windows NT/W2K FS), size(5020mb), offset(31mb)
Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(5106mb), offset(5051mb)
Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(9585mb), offset(10158mb)
Possible extended partition at offset(19743mb)
   Possible partition(Linux swap), size(415mb), offset(19743mb)
   Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(2094mb), offset(20159mb)
   Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(10009mb), offset(22254mb)
   Possible partition(DOS FAT), size(6942mb), offset(32263mb)
End scan.

Checking partitions...

* Warning: more than 3 primary partitions: 5.
Partition(Primary DOS with 16 bit FAT (<= 32MB)): primary 
Partition(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX): primary 
Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): primary 
Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): primary 
Partition(Linux swap or Solaris/x86): invalid primary 
   Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): logical 
   Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): orphaned logical 
   Partition(DOS or Windows 95 with 32 bit FAT, LBA): orphaned logical 
Ok.

Guessed primary partition table:
Primary partition(1)
   type: 004(0x04)(Primary DOS with 16 bit FAT (<= 32MB))
   size: 31mb #s(64197) s(63-64259)
   chs:  (0/1/1)-(3/254/63)d (0/1/1)-(3/254/63)r

Primary partition(2)
   type: 007(0x07)(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX)
   size: 5020mb #s(10281592) s(64260-10345851)
   chs:  (4/0/1)-(643/254/55)d (4/0/1)-(643/254/55)r

Primary partition(3)
   type: 131(0x83)(Linux ext2 filesystem)
   size: 5106mb #s(10458312) s(10345860-20804171)
   chs:  (644/0/1)-(1023/254/63)d (644/0/1)-(1294/254/60)r

Primary partition(4)
   type: 131(0x83)(Linux ext2 filesystem)
   size: 9585mb #s(19631360) s(20804238-40435597)
   chs:  (1023/254/63)-(1023/254/63)d (1295/1/1)-(2516/254/56)r

-----------------------------------------

 Now, I am very happy with this. But, there is only one issue.
 Gpart has recognized my original partition table *almost* correctly.

 My grouse is with this part of the scan - 
----
 Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(9585mb), offset(10158mb)
----

 this was the partition that I deleted using fdisk. And it was
 certainly a logical partition inside the extended partition.

 So, I am left wondering what to do? Is it safe to let gpart 
 write this to the partition table?

 Btw, the output of fdisk -l /dev/hda is -

----------------------------------------

omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/hda: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1             1         4     32098+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/hda2             5       644   5140800    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3   *       645      1295   5229157+  83  Linux
/dev/hda4          1296      4998  29744347+   f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5          2518      2570    425691   82  Linux swap

------------------------------------------


-vikas