Re: Lost FC6 Partition (was Re: This is just amazing...not)

I tried going thru steps in an earlier reply from a link given to archive by 
gonzalo76 on this topic. Had problems with the
grub> root(hd0,x) commands.
Finally went to the Fedora12 DVD kindly sent awhile back by a kind forum 
member. The install went extremely smoothly.
I lost home directory files, but will add from back-up. Of importance to me, 
the FORTRAN compiler is there and working
on files imported from a USB. I think that this LINUX system is up and 
working (and the winXP boots fine) and thank those
who offered help on this. Best wishes to all- always a great group of folks 
generous with your time- best wishes,Marshall
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick Stevens" <[email protected]>
To: "Getting started with Red Hat Linux" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 7:17 AM
Subject: Re: Lost FC6 Partition (was Re: This is just amazing...not)


> On 09/06/2010 10:45 PM, Karl Pearson wrote:
>> On Mon, September 6, 2010 9:53 am, blann wrote:
>>> Aloha Karl,
>>>    Below some answers I may have failed to make in text ( and thanks for
>>> your
>>> input):
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Karl Pearson"<[email protected]>
>>> To: "Getting started with Red Hat Linux"<[email protected]>
>>> Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2010 11:00 AM
>>> Subject: Re: This is just amazing...
>>>
>>>
>>>> Please forgive my top-post, but also forgive my response:
>>>>
>>>> If you are going to "If I may change the subject" to us, please 
>>>> actually
>>>> CHANGE THE SUBJECT (line above).
>>>>
>>>> This is called Hijacking A Thread, and isn't very good manners.
>>>>
>>>> Now to your email (see below):
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, September 3, 2010 2:58 pm, blann wrote:
>>>>> If I may change the subject and, as usual ask for help (and thanks for
>>>>> past
>>>>> responses):
>>>>>   Many moons back I must have damaged my MBR (winXP,FC6). A helpful
>>>>> member
>>>>> sent a cd with ubuntu , and now there is a boot choice(grub) between
>>>>> that
>>>>> OS
>>>>> and  XP.
>>>>
>>>> fdisk /mbr will 'fix' a broken master boot record so you can boot into
>>>> WinXP again, though why anyone would without being coerced to, I don't
>>>> know.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I am trying to see if I can restore the grub loader to get into my old
>>>>> FC
>>>>> installation which is likely
>>>>> still on my HD. I have tried my disk1 from  FC6 to do a reinstall, it
>>>>> seems to go thru motions,
>>>>> but a revised grub loader does not come up- even tho I get a message
>>>>> during
>>>>> install
>>>>> that boot loader is being installed- and an installation complete msg.
>>>>
>>>> When you installed Ubuntu (Linux Mint is much better IMHO), do you
>>>> remember being asked if you wanted to put it side-by-side with BOTH
>>>> WinXP
>>>> and FC?
>>> I DO NOT RECALL_ MY OLD MEMORY IS BAD<  BUT AT STARTUP A GRUB
>>> LOADER APPEARS<  IT CONTAINS UBUNTU,WINXP, UBUNTU RESCUE, AND
>>> A COUPLE OF MEMORY CHECK OPTIONS. SO THE 'LIVE UBUNTU' SEEMS MOUNTED
>>> WITH WINXP OPTION. The HD organization coming up shows a /dev/hdb with
>>> hdb1
>>> ext3(102mb),
>>> and hdb2 LVM PV (117138 mb)- and /dev/sda with sda1-3 and 5-7
>>> partitions,ntfs,ext3,extended,ntfs,
>>> ext3,swap partitions. I need now after some years to go back and review 
>>> my
>>> partitions to ID.
>>
>> If you are seeing Grub, then you aren't booting from a Live CD, which you
>> would have to do to use the disk tools necessary to see what partitions
>> can be found.
>>
>> I suspect, sadly, that your FC6 partition was over-written by the Ubuntu
>> install.
>>
>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there a way to repair or replace what I am assuming is a damaged
>>>>> mbr/grub
>>>>> loader due to having
>>>>> turned off a hung up XP with AC button?
>>>>
>>>> as I wrote above: fdisk /mbr
>>> FDISK sounds like what I may have used years ago to repartition; is it 
>>> on
>>> disk 1 of my FC6
>>> install?
>>
>> I doubt it. FC6 wasn't a live CD. You can use fdisk from any version of
>> Linux to see the partition table, however, and that may be what you need
>> to do.
>>
>> Just run Ubuntu and run fdisk as root (sudo fdisk should work). If you
>> have more than one hard disk in the PC, you will want to run it against
>> each disk to see what partitions.
>>
>> FC6 defaulted to ext3, I believe (that may have been FC8???). Rick will
>> know for sure, as well as a few others on this list. It's been a while
>> since I happened on an FC6 install to check.
>>
>> In any case, I would recommend that if you are going to use a multiple-OS
>> PC, that you get a new hard disk for each OS, unless you know you'll be
>> using one very sparingly. If that's the case, just run that OS in
>> VirtualBox and be done with it. That's how I run XP at work and home. I
>> think I boot them up about once a week, or less.
>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I have, via generosity of an active member of the group, an FC12 set 
>>>>> of
>>>>> install disks; have hesitated
>>>>> running this for fear I would overwrite /home directory, whereas the 
>>>>> FC
>>>>> Bible advises that simple
>>>>> re-install of FC6 should not do this.
>>>>>    Any comments greatly appreciated! Thanks- Marshall
>>
>> You can always download new ISOs from any distributions downloads page,
>> and burn them to DVDs or CDs and take them for a test drive. I use CentOS
>> and FC9 on my servers, and Linux Mint (a derivative of Ubuntu, without 
>> all
>> the restrictions) for my desktops and laptop.
>>
>> Karl
>>
>>>>
>>>> Any install of FC will overwrite the home directory, unless 
>>>> specifically
>>>> told not to. What I do in these cases is boot to a "live CD" such as
>>>> Mint
>>>> or another Knoppix-like release, then mount the Linux partition, and
>>>> copy
>>>> /home/ME to a USB-attached external device, such as a disk or flash
>>>> drive
>>>> that's big enough to hold the data. With some distributions, you could
>>>> even burn your home directory to a DVD. I also recommend not worrying
>>>> about copying anything other than Documents, etc. Settings are pretty
>>>> easy
>>>> to recreate, actually, and you get to use the functionality of the new
>>>> OS
>>>> better that way, too.
>>>> BETWEEN COMPUTER IN SD AND SOME USB"S I LIKELY HAVE HOME
>>> DIRECTORY BACKED UP- SO MAYBE I'LL GAMBLE.
>>>
>>> Thanks again for your help on this- best wishes,Marshall
>
> It was I who sent a bunch of CDs to you, Blann.  And you sent me return
> postage.  Not at all necessary, but kudos to you!
>
> Anyway, FC6 defaults to ext2 filesystems and, if you used logical volumes, 
> LVM1.  A live CD of a more current system may not see your
> items because of that (FC8 and later went to ext3 and LVM2).
>
> If you have a CD of FC6, try booting that in rescue mode and see if it
> spots your FC6 installation.  If it does, let it mount it (it'll be
> mounted at /mnt/sysimage).  You can then "chroot /mnt/sysimage" and
> try to reinstall grub to your MBR at that point.  Note that this will
> screw up your existing MBR, so back that up before doing this.  To
> back up the MBR, put some removable, writable media in your machine
> somewhere and copy the first block of your boot drive to it using dd:
>
> dd if=/dev/sda of=/path/to/removable/media/mbr.bak bs=512 count=1
>
> If you can't find appropriate bootable FC6 media, (rummaging through my
> stock of CDs and HD archives of ISO images), I have copies of every
> Fedora release.  To be honest, several I only have DVD images of some
> of them, but I can make copies and shoot them to you as I did before.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> - Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, C2 Hosting          [email protected] -
> - AIM/Skype: therps2        ICQ: 22643734            Yahoo: origrps2 -
> -                                                                    -
> -   Trying to make digital files uncopyable is like trying to make   -
> -                    water not wet. -- Bruce Schneier                -
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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