Speechless!!!!!

sabashuali · 21-07-2008, 12:18 AM

Hi all

I have gone to new heights with my Linux trashing! I am absolutly stunned beyond words.....

Testing away, I installed Kubuntu Hardy Heron on a laptop. All went really well, installation, setting up wireless, multimedia, you name it.
On and off, I worked on this installation for roughly two to three hours.
Then I decided to restart the laptop.

On boot I got the message - "This is not a bootable disk..... yadi yadi ya"
WTF? I already restarted the laptop once after installation. I was working on the bloody thing for ages! OK, no sweat, I will rescue the system using the almighty 'rescue a broken system' option.
CD in, go through the motion - Stage Fail!!! Cannot go into rescue mode.
WTF????? OK, so lets pretend I am starting again. I will just re-install the base system. All my settings are already on my /home partition...
CD in, go through the motion, get to the partitioner - NOTHING ON THE DISK!!!!!! THE DISK IS WIPED CLEAN!!!!! There is not a

thing on the

disk!!!!! 40GB of virgin, unadulterated, disk space!!!!

Tell me you have seen anything like this before!!!!!!

Common! Crown me the KING!!!!!!

Anti-Trend · 21-07-2008, 03:16 AM

Definitely never seen that before. If it makes you feel any better though, *ubuntu won't even boot on my laptop, let alone install. Debian works fine though. Not that I'm complaining...

donkey42 · 21-07-2008, 04:25 PM

yep, saba, being there done that, but, still no bl00dy t-shirt

what you need is the Gparted LiveCD use testdisk on the CD to restore your data, it would also be a good idea to set the disk label (to destroy any corruption) after restoring data & backing it up

Edit: i think you have a corrupt partition table

Edit: the same thing happened to me, but, i personally chose to DBAN the HDD, so, nothing could survive obviously after restoring & backing up

Addis · 21-07-2008, 04:41 PM

Sounds like your partition table's been destroyed. Most likely all your data is there but a corrupt partition table renders the whole disk useless unless you have a backup.

donkey42 · 21-07-2008, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Addis

Sounds like your partition table's been destroyed. Most likely all your data is there but a corrupt partition table renders the whole disk useless

i think is now, i know

Quote:

Originally Posted by Addis

unless you have a backup.

unless you use some data recovery software

sabashuali · 21-07-2008, 04:52 PM

Right, not giving up and having funny dreams all night, I traced my steps and then remembered that after transferring some files to the installtion from a USB disk I wanted to format the USB drive. As I am so lazy I was looking for a program which will do this for me (rather than typing a very short sentence....

) and found Kmformat. No, never heard of it before.... so I installed and as I could not find an entry in the KMenu, I tried to launch it from the shell - $kmformat /dev/sda to see what would happen. As you probably spotted (good children...) sda is not exactly the right dev to call when you are using SCSI laptop HDD. It should have been be sdb! But in my defence the shell did return a 'command not found'. My only quam with Kubuntu is that if the partition table got corrupted during my work I should have known about it, right? If not, when the hell could this have ahppened?
I am not giving up and tonight Kubuntu WILL be installed and IT WILL

WORK!!!

Thanks guys, I do feel a bit better....I thought it was a very articulated rant!

Addis · 21-07-2008, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by donkey42

i think is now, i knowunless you use some data recovery software

In my experience partition recovery programs are hit and miss at best. Standard undelete programs wont work since it the partition doesn't actually exist anymore. It's just looking at unformatted space.

saba: I don't see what could have happened if you're definitely sure the shell didn't find the program. If it did and it formatted the drive, then only the program can notify you, not Kubuntu itself since it's just a distribution.

Good luck with it.

donkey42 · 21-07-2008, 05:18 PM

you said yourself

Quote:

Originally Posted by Addis

Most likely all your data is there but a corrupt partition table renders the whole disk useless

surely it's worth trying to recover the data, rather than saying

it, my data is gone for good

Quote:

Originally Posted by Addis

In my experience partition recovery programs are hit and miss at best. Standard undelete programs wont work since it the partition doesn't actually exist anymore. It's just looking at unformatted space.

true, as all my partition were not restored, but, it's still worth trying

BTW: strangely enough i was using hardy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Addis

Good luck with it.

yeah, good luck saba

Quote:

Originally Posted by saba

IT WILL

WORK!!!

keep telling yourself that, you never know, you may convince yourself

sabashuali · 21-07-2008, 06:30 PM

Cool, installation done and all seem to be going OK.
Luckily there was nothing worth saving so no harm done....

Thanks all for your interest.... and support.

21-07-2008, 12:18 AM	#1 (permalink) Top
sabashuali Ani Ma'amin Join Date: May 2005 Age: 40 Male Posts: 1,417 Times Helpful: 67 My Mood: Breezy Status: Online My Computer	Speechless!!!!! Hi all I have gone to new heights with my Linux trashing! I am absolutly stunned beyond words..... Testing away, I installed Kubuntu Hardy Heron on a laptop. All went really well, installation, setting up wireless, multimedia, you name it. On and off, I worked on this installation for roughly two to three hours. Then I decided to restart the laptop. On boot I got the message - "This is not a bootable disk..... yadi yadi ya" WTF? I already restarted the laptop once after installation. I was working on the bloody thing for ages! OK, no sweat, I will rescue the system using the almighty 'rescue a broken system' option. CD in, go through the motion - Stage Fail!!! Cannot go into rescue mode. WTF????? OK, so lets pretend I am starting again. I will just re-install the base system. All my settings are already on my /home partition... CD in, go through the motion, get to the partitioner - NOTHING ON THE DISK!!!!!! THE DISK IS WIPED CLEAN!!!!! There is not a thing on the disk!!!!! 40GB of virgin, unadulterated, disk space!!!! Tell me you have seen anything like this before!!!!!! Common! Crown me the KING!!!!!! __________________ This is not a PC friendly user!!! I want to use Linux because it is better. Cost and packages are added bonuses! Help with digital video? Help My Mini City to grow Hit or Miss

21-07-2008, 03:16 AM	#2 (permalink) Top
Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek Join Date: Oct 2003 Age: 27 Male Posts: 4,806 Times Helpful: 522 Status: Offline My Computer	Definitely never seen that before. If it makes you feel any better though, *ubuntu won't even boot on my laptop, let alone install. Debian works fine though. Not that I'm complaining... __________________ See My Desktop \| Try Linux \| Install Linux \| Visit My Server \| Support Hardware Forums \| Easily rip DVDs in Linux

21-07-2008, 04:25 PM	#3 (permalink) Top
donkey42 Paranoid Geeky Geek Join Date: Mar 2006 Age: 34 Male Posts: 5,746 Times Helpful: 306 My Mood: Paranoid Status: Offline My Computer	yep, saba, being there done that, but, still no bl00dy t-shirt what you need is the Gparted LiveCD use testdisk on the CD to restore your data, it would also be a good idea to set the disk label (to destroy any corruption) after restoring data & backing it up Edit: i think you have a corrupt partition table Edit: the same thing happened to me, but, i personally chose to DBAN the HDD, so, nothing could survive obviously after restoring & backing up __________________ GRUB manual \| Google Linux \| Distrowatch \| Linux Chix \| Kubuntu \| My Mini City Last edited by donkey42; 21-07-2008 at 04:43 PM. Reason: edit

21-07-2008, 04:41 PM	#4 (permalink) Top
Addis The King Join Date: Jan 2004 Age: 18 Male Posts: 5,254 Times Helpful: 402 My Mood: Drunk Status: Offline My Computer	Sounds like your partition table's been destroyed. Most likely all your data is there but a corrupt partition table renders the whole disk useless unless you have a backup. __________________ Never trust a program you don't have the source code for. My website \| Powerful Desktop Linux \| Linux for human beings \| Linux for power users \| Linux for ricers

21-07-2008, 04:52 PM	#6 (permalink) Top
sabashuali Ani Ma'amin Join Date: May 2005 Age: 40 Male Posts: 1,417 Times Helpful: 67 My Mood: Breezy Status: Online My Computer	Right, not giving up and having funny dreams all night, I traced my steps and then remembered that after transferring some files to the installtion from a USB disk I wanted to format the USB drive. As I am so lazy I was looking for a program which will do this for me (rather than typing a very short sentence.... ) and found Kmformat. No, never heard of it before.... so I installed and as I could not find an entry in the KMenu, I tried to launch it from the shell - $kmformat /dev/sda to see what would happen. As you probably spotted (good children...) sda is not exactly the right dev to call when you are using SCSI laptop HDD. It should have been be sdb! But in my defence the shell did return a 'command not found'. My only quam with Kubuntu is that if the partition table got corrupted during my work I should have known about it, right? If not, when the hell could this have ahppened? I am not giving up and tonight Kubuntu WILL be installed and IT WILL WORK!!! Thanks guys, I do feel a bit better....I thought it was a very articulated rant! __________________ This is not a PC friendly user!!! I want to use Linux because it is better. Cost and packages are added bonuses! Help with digital video? Help My Mini City to grow Hit or Miss

21-07-2008, 06:30 PM	#9 (permalink) Top
sabashuali Ani Ma'amin Join Date: May 2005 Age: 40 Male Posts: 1,417 Times Helpful: 67 My Mood: Breezy Status: Online My Computer	Cool, installation done and all seem to be going OK. Luckily there was nothing worth saving so no harm done.... Thanks all for your interest.... and support. __________________ This is not a PC friendly user!!! I want to use Linux because it is better. Cost and packages are added bonuses! Help with digital video? Help My Mini City to grow Hit or Miss

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