Dual boot problem + Unmountable drive

[linuxfreak87]

Hello,

Im another one of those who is into dual-booting. For my case, Windows and OpenSuse 10.2. And as usual, what to expect? Problems of course.. sheesh. I hope there is a remedy for this problem. Here goes..

2 hard disks:
1st hard disk: 2 partitions, i.e. C and D drive for Windows only [sda1 and sda5]
2nd hard disk: 12 partitions, only 1 of em is for Windows[sdb12], the rest is for Linux [sdb1 – sdb 11]

Okay,

I played around with the menu.lst and etc. when GRUB wasn't working as expected. I could boot into OpenSuse but not to Windows.

I used Knoppix to check whether all my drives is accessible or not, and to my horror, this is what I am faced with when trying to mount sda1 (Windows partition on 1st hard disk)

Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

I googled around for solutions and tried out some. Here's what I found:

1. dmesg | tail:

FAT: invalid media value (0xa5)
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdb11, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
FAT: invalid media value (0xa5)
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.

2. fsck /dev/sda1

fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
Currently, only 1 or 2 FATs are supported, not 6.

3. Initial /etc/fstab file:

/dev/sdb1 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/sdb3 /boot ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb11 /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb9 /local ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb8 /opt ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb10 /srv ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb5 /tmp ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb6 /usr ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb7 /var ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sdb2 swap swap defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto noauto,user,sync 0 0
/dev/sda5 /windows/D ntfs ro,users,gid=users,umask=0002,nls=utf8 0 0
/dev/sdb12 /windows/E ntfs ro,users,gid=users,umask=0002,nls=utf8 0 0

As noticed, the initial fstab file did not include the 'C' partition, thus I added it in manually:
/dev/sda1 /windows/C ntfs ro,users,gid=users,umask=0002,nls=utf8 0 0

But, result is still the same. Partition still can't be mounted.

4. From GParted:

For sda1, its type is listed as 'unknown', where I presume the correct type should be 'ntfs' as it was initially 'ntfs' type.

Thus, here is what I have tried. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[gogalthorp]

Why do you have a separate partition for each and every root directory entry??? This is not normal.

Post fdisk -l

[linuxfreak87]

fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5099 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 5100 14592 76252522+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 5100 14592 76252491 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 131 1052226 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 132 393 2104515 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 394 524 1052257+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 525 19457 152079322+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 525 786 2104483+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 787 1439 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 1440 1962 4200966 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 1963 2485 4200966 83 Linux
/dev/sdb9 2486 3008 4200966 83 Linux
/dev/sdb10 3009 3661 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sdb11 3662 11494 62918541 83 Linux
/dev/sdb12 11495 19457 63962766 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 524 MB, 524288000 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 2000 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 1999 511728 b W95 FAT32

PS: You mean those 11 linux partitions? I was actually told it is a norm for a Linux OS to have these partitions. Im still a noob thou' haha..

[gogalthorp]

No it is not normal. A normal Suse install has a swap, root and home partition in special situations you may have one or two more to store data off the root to allow for reinstall of the OS and protect the data.

What command did you use to try and mount the NTFS partition?

[linuxfreak87]

Interesting.. Hmm.. That means the conventional linux installation comprises mostly of only 5 partitions? Hmm.. something new learnt.

For the mount part, I was on Knoppix(run through live cd) as the partition (sda1 and sda5) cannot be seen from OpenSuse.

What I did was just right-click on the sda1 icon on the Desktop, and the above error message appeared. Im sure it will appear the same if I did 'mount ....' through terminal though'.

[gogalthorp]

No only 3 in the case of Suse default install. Swap, root and home.

It is optional that home is on a separate partition from root but is the default in Suse. This makes it simple to protect your personal data and settings since all user accounts are on /home.

Other distro's may only default to two ( the min needed) swap and root in which case the home folder is on root. If you format root you lose your personal data. In Suse you can reforamt root and save the personal data by not formating home. All Linuxes require a swap. Swap is normally 2 times memory. But for desktop usage 1 gig is more then you need. All is optional.

I have a forth partition which I mount as /vm. This contains my WinXP virtual machine data for VMware Server. I simply told VMware to save its stuff in the /vm directory. This directory just happens ( by my design) to live on a different partition. So when I reinstall/upgrade Linux I tell the install to only reformat / (root) all other partitions are left alone and mounted on the new file system where they always have been. In my case I reinstall the NVIDIA driver and VMware server and I'm back in buisness with a new OS.

What you have done is overkill. There are some directories that are relatively static so most likely you devoted too much space to them. There are others that can very largely depending on the apps installed and logs generated. These may have been shorted. There may be situations where what you have done makes sense on very locked down systems remotely administrated. But only after a lot of thought and planning.

It sounds like your sda drive is borked. Have you run a low level scan on it. You can get scan programs from your disk mfg. I use Sipnrite but it is not free.

[linuxfreak87]

Ohh ok.. Im definitely learning something. Thanks a lot.

Ok, back to the 'unmountable' problem. How could I do a low-level scan on it? What would be my options, as Im on Linux and that is a Windows harddisk. The only accessible way is through Knoppix. Do they offer any such tools on a unmountable drive?

I thought of another way thou. How about reinstalling the mbr of sda1? Will it solve all the problems and allow me to boot Windows normally?

[Lostfarmer]

From the live Knoppix try running testdisk.
Go to TestDisk - CGSecurity to read the How-To use.

How about reinstalling the mbr of sda1?

With your error, likely would not help. It looks like the VBR (Volume Boot Record) is bad, there is a primary and a backup one and testdisk can compare them, and if they are different will ask if you want to use the backup.

Do you have a MS's XP cd ? You might try booting into the Recovery Console and see if it has problems.

[linuxfreak87]

Whoa.. Mission Accomplished!

The TestDisk solution worked! All I did was ran the Testdisk utility from Knoppix's live cd.

It showed that there were repeating partitions if Im not wrong. So, I did what the Step-by-Step manual taught. The last step was that showed that the boot sector was bad. Thus, I chose the 'Backup BS' option. Restarted my PC and the partition became mountable.

After that, I tried to boot normally from GRUB, and surprisingly everyone worked smoothly. I was able to boot into OpenSuse and Windows!

Thanks to 'Lostfarmer' and 'gogalthorp' for the help,
You guys rock!

[Lostfarmer]

Another satisfied customer to linux forums.

Thanks for the post back.