Re: Strange: Linux boots off a deleted partition [Was Re: Please help: Accidentally wiped off the whole hard disk!!!]
On 5/15/05, Marty <martyb@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Deboo ^ wrote:
> > I did a trial on a smaller hard disk. Installed knoppix on it,
> > rebooted from the hdd to test it. Rebooted again from the Live CD and
> > (after taking down the Linux partition info) deleted the partitions
> > and created just one partition, and changed the type to bf (Solaris)
> > -- the same thing which happened with the other hard disk.
> >
> > Now I tried booting off the hard disk just to check and it booted
> > without problems. Strange because when I check with fdisk, this is
> > what I see:
> >
> > deboo@knoppix:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/hdc
> >
> > Disk /dev/hdc: 3227 MB, 3227148288 bytes
> > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 392 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/hdc1 1 392 3148708+ bf Unknown
> >
> >
> > There was one Linx partition and a Swap partition which I deleted.
> >
> > Can someone explain this behavior? If this hard disk boots alright
> > then why doesn't the other hard drive boot when the same thing
> > (accidentally) happened to it?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Deboo
>
> The most obvious explanation is that the swap partition on your other
> drive started at the first cylinder, but life is usually not that simple.
>
> Beyond that is guesswork, but in your first post you mentioned something
> about having two drives when you thought only one was installed. You may
> still not understand some problem in your original coinfiguration, making
> adequate duplication of the original problem difficult at best.
>
> It's not clear what you are trying to accomplish. In another post you
> claim to have the necessary partition table parameters to fix your
> problem.
>
> --
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Well, I just wanted to do a trial run of what I was to do on the drive
in question so I installed knoppix on this smaller drive, booted it to
test it is working, then booting off the knoppix CD again, I deleted
the partitions (the same thing that accidentally happened on the drive
in question). I created a single solaris partition and rebooted to
test the smaller hdd. But even after doing this twice, it still boots
without any problem and right now I'm accessng the list thru the hdd
knoppx install which should not work (theoretically).
There's no data to be worried about on this smaller drve but since on
this drive, even after repartitioning twice, it's booting without a
bit of any errors, I am not confident to proceed with setting the
original partitions on the drive in question (even when I have the
exact partition info). If I had a spare drive of a similar size or
more (40 GB), I would have backed it up with dd but since I do not
have, I tried this method and would have gone ahead with the 40GB
drive if this smaller drive hadn't created problems. It's "not
deleting" the partition is a worry ... an unpredictable thing which
doesn't assure me that I would get back my partions on the 40GB drive
if even if I put in the exact info.
I was already wared about such a thing and that's why I did this small
trial. But now I am stuck what to do to get the data back ... other
than by getting a newer hard drive ...which would be hard on the
pocket for me.
Regards,
Deboo
P.S.: If you read the last few posts by me in that other post, you'll
know why I did this. Sorry if I have confused anyone.
--
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