Partition table damaged, pc doesnt boot from hard disk

[sansonspain]

Hello,

I'm a newbie. I have caused untold damage!

Caused by
Used fdisk to delete the windows partition, in my dual boot
Then I could no longer log in to ubuntu, the partition table was some how courpt and I couldnt remount
I then decided to use the windows partitioner from windows setup, as I thought it is so stupid, to reformat the partition where I had ubuntu. I wanted reinstall ubuntu, and I know that during the setup I could straighten out the mess I'd made.

Windows has now installed two 8mb one cylinder partitions on my HD.
When I start the PC I get a !disk error occurred Press Crlt Alt Del to restart! This happens everytime. HD boot sequence is buggered, i guess.

I can boot from other devices. USB + CD.
How when I use the windows disk to boot up I can see the 2 8mb partition, which it wont let me delete. How can I delete this via linux?

Also when I try to install ubuntu from the usb drive, it stalls just after the Preparing to install part. The next screen is when you set the partition table, swap drive etc.
When I quit I get the following error !Process Glib WARNING getpuuid_r() failed due to unknown id!

The usb_liveCD does however mount my hard disk partitions and luckily I have managed to back everything up to an external.

Please help me tackle this thanks

results from df
/var/log# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
aufs 766804 68140 698664 9% /
none 760892 244 760648 1% /dev
/dev/sdb1 3911856 712128 3199728 19% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 676480 676480 0 100% /rofs
none 766804 112 766692 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 766804 84 766720 1% /tmp
none 766804 92 766712 1% /var/run
none 766804 4 766800 1% /var/lock
/dev/sr0 620356 620356 0 100% /media/XP_PRO_SP2
/dev/sda1 53986400 52152820 1833580 97% /media/964408F54408DA3F

Here is the /var/log/installer/dm file log

[sansonspain]

Window manager warning: Type mismatch: Expected `int' got `bool' for key /apps/metacity/general/num_workspaces
Window manager warning: 0 stored in GConf key /apps/metacity/general/num_workspaces is out of range 1 to 36
 (panel:2623): DEBUG: Looking at Module: /usr/lib/indicators/4/libsession.so
 (panel:2623): DEBUG: Loading Module: /usr/lib/indicators/4/libsession.so
 (panel:2623): DEBUG: Signal: Entry Added
 (panel:2623): DEBUG: Looking at Module: /usr/lib/indicators/4/libapplication.so
 (panel:2623): DEBUG: Loading Module: /usr/lib/indicators/4/libapplication.so
 (panel:2623): DEBUG: Looking at Module: /usr/lib/indicators/4/libsoundmenu.so
 (panel:2623): DEBUG: Loading Module: /usr/lib/indicators/4/libsoundmenu.so
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: At start-up attempting to set the image to audio-volume-muted-panel

(panel:2623): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: Unable to get property proxy for org.ayatana.indicator.sound on /org/ayatana/indicator/sound/menu: Could not get owner of name 'org.ayatana.indicator.sound': no such name
** (panel:2623): DEBUG: Signal: Entry Added

(panel:2623): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: Error getting properties on a new menuitem: Error getting properties for ID

(panel:2623): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING  Error getting properties on a new menuitem: Error getting properties for ID

(panel:2623): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING  Error getting properties on a new menuitem: Error getting properties for ID

(panel:2623): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING  Error getting properties on a new menuitem: Error getting properties for ID

(panel:2623): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: Error getting properties on a new menuitem: Error getting properties for ID
(panel:2623): Indicator-Application-DEBUG: Connected to Application Indicator Service.
(panel:2623): Indicator-Application-DEBUG: Setup proxy signals
(panel:2623): Indicator-Application-DEBUG: Connect to them.
(panel:2623): Indicator-Application-DEBUG: Request current apps
** Message: applet now removed from the notification area
** Message: applet now embedded in the notification area
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: about to connect to the signals
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: indicator-sound: new_volume_slider_widget
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: VolumeWidget::volume_widget_init
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: volume_widget_set_twin_item initial level = 0.000000
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: volume_widget_parent_changed
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: scrub-widget::property_update for prop enabled
Unable to find a synaptics device.
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: scrub-widget::property_update for prop visible
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: signal caught - sink availability update with  value: 1
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: scrub-widget::property_update for prop x-canonical-ido-volume-level
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: volume-widget - update level with value 50.117493
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: signal caught - sink mute update with mute value: 0
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: scrub-widget::property_update for prop enabled
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: scrub-widget::property_update for prop visible
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: signal caught - sink availability update with  value: 1
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: scrub-widget::property_update for prop x-canonical-ido-volume-level
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: volume-widget - update level with value 50.117493
(panel:2623): Indicator-Sound-DEBUG: signal caught - sink mute update with mute value: 0
** (nm-applet:2624): DEBUG: old state indicates that this was not a disconnect 0
** Message: Caught signal 15, shutting down...
gnome-settings-daemon: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
 ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log

[oz]

Partition table damaged, pc doesnt boot from hard disk

Hello and welcome to the forums!

TestDisk can recover partition tables if you don't do too much damage before it has a chance to bring them back.

TestDisk - CGSecurity

You can find good documentation for using it on their website.


I'd recommend running it from the Parted Magic LiveCD:

Parted Magic LiveCD

[sansonspain]

Ok I have fixed the problem with not being able to boot from the hard disk.

I have installed WindowsXP, but I-m still stalling on the ubuntu installation.
Any suggestions?

[funkster1]

Ok I have fixed the problem with not being able to boot from the hard disk.

I have installed WindowsXP, but I-m still stalling on the ubuntu installation.
Any suggestions?

IF your Ubuntu installation is still good, use the LiveCD to reinstall Grub2. Following guide from the Ubuntu Wiki will get you through it:

Recover Grub 2 via LiveCD

    *

      First, grab a copy of the latest Ubuntu LiveCD and boot it.
    * Open a terminal and type 

$ sudo fdisk -l

    * Now, you need to remember which device listed is your linux distribution, for reference, /dev/sda1 will be used. Now we need to mount the filesystem to /mnt 

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

    * If you have /boot on a separate partition, that need's to be mounted aswell. For reference, /dev/sda2 will be used. 

$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot

    * If you have /var on a separate partition, that need's to be mounted aswell. For reference, /dev/sda3 will be used. 

$ sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/var Make sure you don't mix these up, pay attention to the output of FDISK

    * Now mount the rest of your devices and some other things needed in the chroot 

$ sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
$ sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
$ sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys

    * Now chroot into your system 

$ sudo chroot /mnt

You should be chroot'd into your system as root, you can now run commands as root, without the need for sudo.

    *

      Now you need to edit the /etc/default/grub file to fit your system 

$ nano /etc/default/grub

    *

      When that is done you need to run update-grub to create the configuration file. If you have a separate /boot partition you need to mount it first! 

$ update-grub

    *

      To install GRUB 2 to the MBR, next you need to run grub-install /dev/sda 

$ grub-install /dev/sda

    *

      If you encounter any errors, try grub-install --recheck /dev/sda 

$ grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

    * Press Ctrl+D to exit out of the chroot.
    * Once you exit back to your regular console, undo all the mounting, first the /dev and others 

$ sudo umount /mnt/dev
$ sudo umount /mnt/sys
$ sudo umount /mnt/proc

    * Now you can unmount the root system. (But if you have a separate boot partition which you mounted earlier, you have to unmount this first, or you will get a "device busy" error message.) 

$ sudo umount /mnt

    * And you should be free to restart your system right into GRUB 2 and then into your system installation. 

If you had alternate OS entries, update-grub might say "Cannot find list of partitions!". Ignore it and continue - once you can boot into your linux installation, do so and then rerun update-grub and grub-install /dev/sda as root.

Restore GRUB2 - Recovering from a Windows XP / Vista / 7 Reinstallation

Fire up a terminal from the Live CD for Ubuntu 10.04.
$ sudo fdisk -l (Note the partition number on which Linux resides)
$ sudo mount /dev/sdaX /mnt (Replace X with the partition number housing Linux)
$ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
$ sudo update-grub
$ sudo reboot

That should get you booting again.

Hth,

Raphael