[usamamuneeb]

My fstab is destroyed. I have done it actually with my own hands. hda1 and hda3 are never mounted. I do it manually. How do I make my fstab as good as new? What is a UUID? Can I remove the UUID attribute from the fstab to make the mount successful because the trouble was because of deleting / creating partitions?

[daark.child]

You can remove the uuid stuff if you wish and use the actual device names. This article and this one may help you create a working fstab.

[ozar]

Once you get a working fstab, it's a good idea to make backup copies of that and certain other configuration files, and then store them elsewhere so that if you should need them in the future, they are handy. I actually keep copies of my own config files on a flash drive, and copies on paper.

Let us know how it goes.

[Agent-X]

Last time I messed with UUIDs was when I had to override udev.