Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
Just to let you know, that i used Testdisk last night. It worked a treat. I am in the process of retrieving my data. I have managed to get back at least 65%. Have almost filled up a 240gb on a 300gb disk. I am most grateful to all of you for your help. 2010/1/25 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com will testdisk let me do a search file type at a time? so for example i can search for mp.3 files in one search, .doc in the next and so on? 2010/1/25 Rob Beard r...@esdelle.co.uk Quoting javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: The original hard drive was 400gb and the new one im installing is the 300gb...i could try and use that! Ahh, problem is, it won't fit on the 300GB drive. dd will copy everything on the drive regardless of if there is data there or not. You'd need a 400GB or larger hard drive, ideally possibly larger unless it's an identical model drive (I've found in the past that some drives from different manufacturers despite being listed as the same size, they can be slightly different in capacity). If you're really stuck you could possibly use gzip to create a backup image of the drive to your 300GB drive... dd if=/dev/sda | gzip -9 /media/harddrive/backup.img.gz where /media/harddrive is the location of where the 300GB drive is mounted, if you mount it from Gnome then it's likely to be mounted on a folder in /media To be honest though if you can afford it, you could well be worth getting another drive to back it up on to just in case. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
The only problem is i dont think the hard drive is mounted, even though fdisk -l does show it as /dev/sda.!! 2010/1/24 Matthew Daubney m...@daubers.co.uk On 24/01/10 22:48, javadayaz wrote: yes it does give me this: Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2ab32ab3 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System Disk /dev/sdb: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x03e803e7 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 11120 8996368+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb211211369 292+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb31370499829149942+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000f27c1 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 112451431 83 Linux When i boot the hard drive..it goes through the loading bar, but then drops me into some sort of shell. a black screen. hope this makes sense! and thank you for responding. Boot from a livecd, DON'T BOOT FROM THE HD UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE THIS RECOVERY STUFF! Have a look at a program called testdisk (sudo apt-get install testdisk) , it runs from a terminal (sudo testdisk) but does have a terminal based gui to lead you through recovering stuff. I've used it several times to recover lost partitions. It can take a while to run though. But seriously, everytime you try and boot from the HDD and it fails you risk damaging what remains of the data. So boot from a CD to do this. Hope that helps. -Matt Daubney -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
2010/1/25 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: The only problem is i dont think the hard drive is mounted, even though fdisk -l does show it as /dev/sda.!! It won't be mounted correctly, since it's lost the details of the partition table (i.e. the list of partitions on the drive). Do what Matthew Daubney suggested - use a liveCD and install TestDisk. IIRC you can point TestDisk just at the drive (/dev/sda), it doesn't need to be mounted. Trying to mount it might cause further damage. Neil. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
javadayaz wrote: The only problem is i dont think the hard drive is mounted, even though fdisk -l does show it as /dev/sda.!! you might find IRC is a better way to discuss this and get it sorted out more interactively than on a mailing list on a different computer, or on a live CD on the dead one, go to this web page http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=ubuntu-uk and tell us about your situation there. Alan. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
It also might be worth checking out your local LUG - If you take your system down to their next meeting their might well be someone who can help you -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
On 25/01/10 08:56, javadayaz wrote: The only problem is i dont think the hard drive is mounted, even though fdisk -l does show it as /dev/sda.!! You do not want to mount it! The output of your fdisk -l command shows that there are no partitions on /dev/sda so you can't mount it anyway. I'm not sure of the applications you'll need, but follow the advice of previous posters: Boot from a LIVE CD and then install the system tools you need to try and repair the disk. You *might* just need to re-create the partition table for that drive. My first suggestion would be to download the System Rescue CD and try some of the tools on that: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page (I tend to keep a recent copy of this tool lying around at all times). HTH Alan -- The Open Learning Centre http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
I will try the live CD instruction as most of you have pointed me in that direction. 2010/1/25 Alan Lord (News) alansli...@gmail.com On 25/01/10 08:56, javadayaz wrote: The only problem is i dont think the hard drive is mounted, even though fdisk -l does show it as /dev/sda.!! You do not want to mount it! The output of your fdisk -l command shows that there are no partitions on /dev/sda so you can't mount it anyway. I'm not sure of the applications you'll need, but follow the advice of previous posters: Boot from a LIVE CD and then install the system tools you need to try and repair the disk. You *might* just need to re-create the partition table for that drive. My first suggestion would be to download the System Rescue CD and try some of the tools on that: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page (I tend to keep a recent copy of this tool lying around at all times). HTH Alan -- The Open Learning Centre http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
Quoting Alan Lord (News) alansli...@gmail.com: On 25/01/10 08:56, javadayaz wrote: The only problem is i dont think the hard drive is mounted, even though fdisk -l does show it as /dev/sda.!! You do not want to mount it! The output of your fdisk -l command shows that there are no partitions on /dev/sda so you can't mount it anyway. I'm not sure of the applications you'll need, but follow the advice of previous posters: Boot from a LIVE CD and then install the system tools you need to try and repair the disk. You *might* just need to re-create the partition table for that drive. My first suggestion would be to download the System Rescue CD and try some of the tools on that: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page (I tend to keep a recent copy of this tool lying around at all times). If it was me, and the data was important, then I'd be looking at doing a copy of the drive too just in case, maybe using dd to a file on an external hard drive. Better safe than sorry I say :-) Having done something similar a couple of times in the past I would also suggest maybe re-creating the partition table, although I think you're going to need some more assistance than can be provided on just the mailing list. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
Can you please point towards an article regarding re creating the partition table? 2010/1/25 Rob Beard r...@esdelle.co.uk Quoting Alan Lord (News) alansli...@gmail.com: On 25/01/10 08:56, javadayaz wrote: The only problem is i dont think the hard drive is mounted, even though fdisk -l does show it as /dev/sda.!! You do not want to mount it! The output of your fdisk -l command shows that there are no partitions on /dev/sda so you can't mount it anyway. I'm not sure of the applications you'll need, but follow the advice of previous posters: Boot from a LIVE CD and then install the system tools you need to try and repair the disk. You *might* just need to re-create the partition table for that drive. My first suggestion would be to download the System Rescue CD and try some of the tools on that: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page (I tend to keep a recent copy of this tool lying around at all times). If it was me, and the data was important, then I'd be looking at doing a copy of the drive too just in case, maybe using dd to a file on an external hard drive. Better safe than sorry I say :-) Having done something similar a couple of times in the past I would also suggest maybe re-creating the partition table, although I think you're going to need some more assistance than can be provided on just the mailing list. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
Quoting javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: Can you please point towards an article regarding re creating the partition table? Have a look at this: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk It's the TestDisk site. I'm unable to provide much more at the moment as I'm at work using restricted internet access. There is a guide on there for recovering deleted NTFS partitions, not exactly what you need, but it's a start. IIRC you should find testdisk on the Ubuntu Live CD. I'd also recommend as suggested elsewhere, go into the Ubuntu-UK IRC chat room and ask for advice in there, someone might be able to talk you through recovering your partition using testdisk on there (it's been a good couple of years since I used it so my memory is very hazy). Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 10:06 AM, javadayaz javada...@gmail.com wrote: Can you please point towards an article regarding re creating the partition table? I'd strongly recommend getting another drive of the same size or larger and dd'ing the broken drive. Then you can work on a copy if the drive without touching the original data. Working with a borked drive is dangerous in that in trying to recover the data, it's very easy to make matters worse Get another drive before proceeding and install in the machine.then sudo dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb bs=4k conv=noerror,sync (where hda in the example is the original broken disk and hdb is the new blank disk). You can then work with a copy of the disk without worries... Good luck Paul -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
The original hard drive was 400gb and the new one im installing is the 300gb...i could try and use that! 2010/1/25 Paul Roach roa...@roachy.net On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 10:06 AM, javadayaz javada...@gmail.com wrote: Can you please point towards an article regarding re creating the partition table? I'd strongly recommend getting another drive of the same size or larger and dd'ing the broken drive. Then you can work on a copy if the drive without touching the original data. Working with a borked drive is dangerous in that in trying to recover the data, it's very easy to make matters worse Get another drive before proceeding and install in the machine.then sudo dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb bs=4k conv=noerror,sync (where hda in the example is the original broken disk and hdb is the new blank disk). You can then work with a copy of the disk without worries... Good luck Paul -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
will testdisk let me do a search file type at a time? so for example i can search for mp.3 files in one search, .doc in the next and so on? 2010/1/25 Rob Beard r...@esdelle.co.uk Quoting javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: The original hard drive was 400gb and the new one im installing is the 300gb...i could try and use that! Ahh, problem is, it won't fit on the 300GB drive. dd will copy everything on the drive regardless of if there is data there or not. You'd need a 400GB or larger hard drive, ideally possibly larger unless it's an identical model drive (I've found in the past that some drives from different manufacturers despite being listed as the same size, they can be slightly different in capacity). If you're really stuck you could possibly use gzip to create a backup image of the drive to your 300GB drive... dd if=/dev/sda | gzip -9 /media/harddrive/backup.img.gz where /media/harddrive is the location of where the 300GB drive is mounted, if you mount it from Gnome then it's likely to be mounted on a folder in /media To be honest though if you can afford it, you could well be worth getting another drive to back it up on to just in case. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
2010/1/24 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: Hi, Please help. In the process of installing another hd to my system..I have formatted my hd. Even the ubuntu was installed on a separate hd, I am unable to start my pc. It just keeps going into maintenence mode. On top of all this I have lost 400gb of media including pics. Vids and other files. I don't know what to do!!! Most importantly - do *nothing* with the machine. Each time something writes data to the HDD it will greatly reduce the amount of data you can recover. In the past I've used http://www.sysresccd.org/ - testdisk is extremely useful for recovering files in situations like this. Others may have experience with other software, and you can await their advice - just in the meantime *don't* use that drive (preferably don't use that PC, unless using a LiveCD like the above). Matthew -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
How do I mount the hard drive which is being displayed as a mass storage device...it won't let me mount it On 24 Jan 2010 18:08, Matthew Wild mwi...@gmail.com wrote: 2010/1/24 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: Hi, Please help. In the process of installing another hd to my system..I have formatted my h... Most importantly - do *nothing* with the machine. Each time something writes data to the HDD it will greatly reduce the amount of data you can recover. In the past I've used http://www.sysresccd.org/ - testdisk is extremely useful for recovering files in situations like this. Others may have experience with other software, and you can await their advice - just in the meantime *don't* use that drive (preferably don't use that PC, unless using a LiveCD like the above). Matthew -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
im sorry to copy and paste here...fdisk gives me this Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2ab32ab3 does this mean that the above hard drive is still assigned the sda label? 2010/1/24 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com How do I mount the hard drive which is being displayed as a mass storage device...it won't let me mount it On 24 Jan 2010 18:08, Matthew Wild mwi...@gmail.com wrote: 2010/1/24 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: Hi, Please help. In the process of installing another hd to my system..I have formatted my h... Most importantly - do *nothing* with the machine. Each time something writes data to the HDD it will greatly reduce the amount of data you can recover. In the past I've used http://www.sysresccd.org/ - testdisk is extremely useful for recovering files in situations like this. Others may have experience with other software, and you can await their advice - just in the meantime *don't* use that drive (preferably don't use that PC, unless using a LiveCD like the above). Matthew -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
You're more likely to get help if you post in the Ubuntu support forumshttp://ubuntuforums.org/. This is a mailing list. 2010/1/24 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com im sorry to copy and paste here...fdisk gives me this Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2ab32ab3 does this mean that the above hard drive is still assigned the sda label? 2010/1/24 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com How do I mount the hard drive which is being displayed as a mass storage device...it won't let me mount it On 24 Jan 2010 18:08, Matthew Wild mwi...@gmail.com wrote: 2010/1/24 javadayaz javada...@gmail.com: Hi, Please help. In the process of installing another hd to my system..I have formatted my h... Most importantly - do *nothing* with the machine. Each time something writes data to the HDD it will greatly reduce the amount of data you can recover. In the past I've used http://www.sysresccd.org/ - testdisk is extremely useful for recovering files in situations like this. Others may have experience with other software, and you can await their advice - just in the meantime *don't* use that drive (preferably don't use that PC, unless using a LiveCD like the above). Matthew -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
javadayaz wrote: im sorry to copy and paste here...fdisk gives me this Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2ab32ab3 does this mean that the above hard drive is still assigned the sda label? Yes the hard drive is still assigned to sda, but by what you have posted, it looks like there aren't any partitions on the drive. Is there any output you've missed off the output of fdisk? Running... sudo fdisk -l on my laptop gives me this... Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0001bd39 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1243219535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sda22433 30337 224146912+ 83 Linux /dev/sda3 30338 30401 514080 82 Linux swap / Solaris If you run sudo fdisk -l do you get any similar output listing /dev/sda1, and possibly /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda5? What happens when you try and boot the machine, are you able to boot anything from the hard drive? Also is there any chance you have another hard drive kicking around (such as an external drive for instance) which bigger than the drive you're having problems with? Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
yes it does give me this: Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2ab32ab3 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System Disk /dev/sdb: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x03e803e7 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 11120 8996368+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb211211369 292+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb31370499829149942+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000f27c1 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 112451431 83 Linux When i boot the hard drive..it goes through the loading bar, but then drops me into some sort of shell. a black screen. hope this makes sense! and thank you for responding. 2010/1/24 Rob Beard r...@esdelle.co.uk javadayaz wrote: im sorry to copy and paste here...fdisk gives me this Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2ab32ab3 does this mean that the above hard drive is still assigned the sda label? Yes the hard drive is still assigned to sda, but by what you have posted, it looks like there aren't any partitions on the drive. Is there any output you've missed off the output of fdisk? Running... sudo fdisk -l on my laptop gives me this... Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0001bd39 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1243219535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sda22433 30337 224146912+ 83 Linux /dev/sda3 30338 30401 514080 82 Linux swap / Solaris If you run sudo fdisk -l do you get any similar output listing /dev/sda1, and possibly /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda5? What happens when you try and boot the machine, are you able to boot anything from the hard drive? Also is there any chance you have another hard drive kicking around (such as an external drive for instance) which bigger than the drive you're having problems with? Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Regards Javad -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help.I've lost my partitions
On 24/01/10 22:48, javadayaz wrote: yes it does give me this: Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2ab32ab3 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System Disk /dev/sdb: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x03e803e7 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 11120 8996368+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb211211369 292+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb31370499829149942+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000f27c1 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 112451431 83 Linux When i boot the hard drive..it goes through the loading bar, but then drops me into some sort of shell. a black screen. hope this makes sense! and thank you for responding. Boot from a livecd, DON'T BOOT FROM THE HD UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE THIS RECOVERY STUFF! Have a look at a program called testdisk (sudo apt-get install testdisk) , it runs from a terminal (sudo testdisk) but does have a terminal based gui to lead you through recovering stuff. I've used it several times to recover lost partitions. It can take a while to run though. But seriously, everytime you try and boot from the HDD and it fails you risk damaging what remains of the data. So boot from a CD to do this. Hope that helps. -Matt Daubney -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
