[ale] Partition table wet (not completely hosed)

[Todd B SanMillan]

On Sat, 6 Apr 1996, No one in particular wrote:

> > Did you try using dos fdisk /mbr and then re-installing lilo?  
> >
> No, if I rewrite the partition table (using dos fdisk /mbr), won't that 
> destroy my linux partions, forcing me to reinstall *everything*?  This is
> exactly what I'm trying to avoid.  

Having just dealt with a similar problem, I want to clarify some stuff. 
Fdisk /mbr doesn't rewrite the partition tables, just inserts the 
neccesary boot sequence for dos.  But from what you have said so far, 
that's not the problem, the problem is a corrupt partition table. In my 
case the disk *was* osed, so I just re-installed.  But that is what you 
are trying to avoid :)  Refresh my memory, can you boot DOS? And can you 
boot Linux from floppy?  If so, I have heard that you could copy one of 
the working part. tables over the corrupt one, but I haven't done it and 
don't remember what was suggested to accomplish this.  Sorry.  You might 
try asking a wider audinence that ale, since no one seems to have the 
answer here.  You could try a search on the comp.os.linux groups for this 
subject, I know I have seen it discussed before. Sorry I don't have a 
better answer and good luck.  Post the answer here when you find it and 
I'll save it this time, in case I ever run into that problem.

> 
> Ideally, what I'd like to do is (in whatever order works):
>   1.  Explain to linux fdisk that I have a 1651 cylinder drive
>   2.  *Repair* the partition table, saving my existing data, rather than
>       creating a new partition table from scratch, thus forcing me to 
>       reinstall all my linux stuff.
> 
> It seems that I should be able to do this from the extra functionality 
> portion of linux fdisk.  Anyone having experience with rebuilding a
> partition table in this manner (or having any other suggestions), please
> help me out.
> 
> Thanks for your help thus far,
> wes
>