disk access

[joeclem111]

Hi, I have had a disaster and cannot boot up my hard drive. I know it is the menu.lst file in /boot/grub and I can fix it IF I can access the disk. How can I get on the partition and become root? I have tried to use the install CD using install and then upgrade, which would allow a grub re-install but it will not work as the menu.lst is corrupted. Just need to get on with edit permission and all will be well.

[oz]

Just need to get on with edit permission and all will be well.

Boot your machine with the Parted Magic LiveCD or some other similar utility disk, then use the file manager to navigate to the file that you want to edit, right-click it, and choose "open with" along with the editor that you want to use, then make your changes and save the file. Reboot your machine and see if the edit gave the expected result.

[joeclem111]

Hello and Thanks. I used pmagic and got 2 of the 3 back. Still got things to resolve but, unfortunately, it is the main one I cannot access. I have done the editing but when I try to boot I get a kernel panic. It does not respond to the UUID I have. It is the correct UUID (I have a print out and have checked and re-checkedit). Is there a way to discover the UUID of the disk? My config is a 160GB SATA disk with Mandriva 2010 32 bit on the front and the 64 bit version on the back partition. The other is an IDE 80GB disk with Mandriva 2007 (my old stuff) on it. The crash was caused by an installation of Mandriva 2011 on a third disk and it put the grub file in the MBR of the 2010 disk. I tried to recover with the 2010 install CD and it asked if I wanted to upgrade 2011, so the 2010 32 bit thinks it is 2011. I can access the 64 bit and the 2007. Any ideas as to how I might get it to boot? Thanks so much for the help so far.