[Techtalk] Partitioning issues.

[Rudy L. Zijlstra]

Staci wrote:

>On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Travis Casey wrote:
>  
>
>>>Is there a way to do it without tools?
>>>      
>>>
>>Could you run an "fdisk -l -u" on the drive and post the results to the
>>list? With that information, someone might be able to give you better
>>instructions...
>>    
>>
>
>bash-2.05a# fdisk -l -u
>
>Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 3649 cylinders
>Units = sectors of 1 * 512 bytes
>
>   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
>/dev/hda1   *        63  10249469   5124703+   b  Win95 FAT32
>/dev/hda2      10249470  16402364   3076447+  83  Linux
>/dev/hda3      16402365  16659404    128520   82  Linux swap
>/dev/hda4      16659405  58621184  20980890    c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
>
>Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 826 cylinders
>Units = sectors of 1 * 512 bytes
>
>   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
>/dev/hdb1            63   7807589   3903763+  83  Linux
>/dev/hdb2       7807590  13269689   2731050   83  Linux
>
>
>
>There it is.  See?  It knows it's there, I relabeled it fat32(lba), it should work right? :(
>sl
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>  
>
Uh oh, now i'm on slippery ground ;-)

If i remember correctly FAT32 (thats the partition you <gugh> 
mishandled? <guch> right? has two File Allocation Tables, a master and a 
copy:
1 at the start, and one at block xxx, which is dependent on the 
partition size. By making it into an extended you added a secondary 
partition table at block 1 of the extended partition, and the logical 
ones then live behind that.
So the secondary partition table overwrote the start of the first (or 
active or master) FAT. Which is why you no longer can mount it normally. 
It should be possible though to recover, using the secondary FAT table.

If you google on <DOS secondary FAT table> you will find several entries 
that may be of help. Sorry for not having time to further search.

Good Luck,

Rudy