Linux Format forums

TheWizardofOdds · LXF regular Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:37 pm Posts: 180

I recently tried to upgrade to 12.04 using a Ubuntu User disk. During the upgrade I lost broadband connection (another issue entirely) the PC froze and I had to reboot. When I rebooted I found that I couldn't access 11.10 from the Grub Menu. It's there, but when I click on it the next screen says 11.10 with the purple screen and just freezes. Nothing.

When I put in the disk again and try to install I have three options. Two come with warnings stating that I'll lose all files and docs etc with 12.04 LTS and XP. I can boot XP but there is no sign of 12.04 which was aborted due to the broadband issue? The other is another partitioning menu. It goes like this:

/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs ; this is XP
/dev/sda5 ext3 this is Linux
/dev/sda6 swap ?
/dev/sda7 swap?

Device for boot loader installation;

/dev/sda 360 GB ATA
sda1 XP
sda5 12.04 LTS

When I try to click install it says 'no root file system is defined please select from partitioning menu'.

I cant make head nor tail of this, any ideas?

The Grub Menu is:

Ubuntu with Linux 3.0.0 generic
" " " recovery mode
Previous Linux versions
Memory test
Windows XP

The only one I've had success with is XP. Nothing happens when I try the others.

Is there anything I can do to try and recover 11.10? Or will I just have to install 12.04 afresh and lose everything?

I can't believe this has happened from an aborted installation.

Normally when I boot up and it goes to the Grub menu I have 10 secs to choose which OS I want to use but now it just stays on the Grub.

A long winded and confusing post, I know!

Any suggestions would be appreciated. What I was going to do was upgrade to the LTS and wipe Windows, have a clean slate so to speak. Damn.

Rolling Eyes

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 2:38 pm Post subject:

sounds like your boot is screwed up, but your /home folder is probably intact.
Best bet is to boot from a liveCD and copy off the contents of the /home folder to another disk.
Once you have your data safe, then try a recovery disk such as Parted Magic.
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TheWizardofOdds · LXF regular Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:37 pm Posts: 180

TheWizardofOdds · LXF regular Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:37 pm Posts: 180

I've now got Parted Magic but need some help trying to recover 11.10.

In the PM Desktop I select Partition Editor, and the partition appears thus:
Size Mount Point
/dev/sda1 ntfs 10 GiB media/sda1
sda2 extended 324GiB -
sda5 ext3 312Gib media/sda5

sda2 and sda5 have padlock icons before them.
...Hmmm.
When I select Device and then Attempt Data Rescue I get the following:

An error occurred while creating the read only view, either the file system can not be mounted or there are inconsistencies or errors in the file system.

Data found with inconsistencies:

#1 NTFS
#2 ext 2/3/4 ReiserFS or XFS

It would appear that its sda5 ext3 that I'm after. In the Editor there are options to Delete/Resize-Move/Copy. When I select NTFS I am able to do any of these options but when I select sda5 ext3 (11.10) they are blanked out. It is also only Windows that I can access for the boot menu. Does that mean that my 11.10 is kaputt?

If any of the above means anything to someone please help me out!

Laughing

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:37 am Post subject:

looks like the filesystem is trashed.
You need to run a filesystem check using fsck.

The best thing is to make a copy and try recovery on that.
This months magazine has instructions on doing just that.
This link shows recovery with ddrescue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqq9A01geeA
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