Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

[pablo173]

I have a Win7/Lucid dual-boot machine (a Dell 537S) which boots using Grub. Today, while I was running Win 7 (silly me!) a popup window offered to update my Dell Rescue Partition. I clicked "OK" and supposedly the update took place, followed by an automatic reboot. But upon trying to reboot, I got a text message saying, "No bootable partition found". Seems like the ##$$@@&&*** Dell software f***ed up my partition table, and I cannot boot either Windows or Lucid. I am sending this using my Kubuntu 9.10 Live distribution disk. Anybody had this experience and knows how to fix it?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Never ran Win7 but a lot of folks have overwritten their dualboot MBR and lost access to both.

Here is the ubuntu docs on the subject: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...re-replacement

It points to several other websites and the MS bcdedit.exe tool for repairing boot partitions for Windows. (7 ??)

There is a Linux guru going by the handle of Nixie. Here's her site: http://www.youtube.com/user/NixiePix...7C60F699A5C44D

She has a video which may offer some help. It is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl8mfpZuDiM

You may have to use the Super Grub Disk LiveCD to restore your MBR. The 9677.iso is the latest.
EDIT: I checked out SuperGrubDisk2 to see what improvements they've made since I used it a year ago to recover a bad grub. It has gone into reverse!

# Does not fix GRUB
# Does not fix GRUB2
# Boots into many systems and GRUB2 ones!
# Can’t regenerate grub menues

Rescatux:

* Fixes GRUB
* Fixes GRUB2
* It cannot boot on other systems (only Rescatux itself)
* Can’t regenerate grub menues

Booting into a Kubuntu LiveCD offers more capability than SuperGrub2 does now, as shown below.
/EDIT

Or, you can try this:

Here assuming the Ubuntu partition is sda7,and /boot partition is sda6 (if you have a separate /boot partition).
Boot up ubuntu from the livecd,open terminal and run:

sudo -i
mount /dev/sda7 /mnt
mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/boot #skip this one if not have a separate /boot partition
grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

from http://ubuntuguide.net/how-to-restor...ws-xpvistawin7

[claydoh]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Yes, GreyGeek has some great links for you.
So you shouldn't have to worry too much as your MBR is the only thing that seems to be affected, so restoring Grub should bring things back.

I am guessing that the rescue partition tool has to write something to the MBR so that (in a Windows-only world) you can reboot to that and recover Windows.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Not that his will help you now, but in case others are reading this thread:

Make a backup copy of your Master Boot Record and partition table

Once your install(s) and/or dual boot are working the way you want:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Type sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=mbrsave.bin bs=512 count=1
3. Type sudo chown YOURUSERNAME:YOURPRIMARYGROUPNAME mbrsave.bin
4. Copy this file to a safe location not on your computer. i.e. usbdisk, email it to your gmail address, floppy disc, cdrom, whatever.

Repeat the above whenever you make a change to your partition table or update your bootmanager (grub).


To restore a trashed MBR and partition table:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Type sudo dd if=/PATHTOSAVEDFILE/mbrsave.bin of=/dev/sda


To restore a trashed MBR but NOT the partition table:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Type sudo dd if=/PATHTOSAVEDFILE/mbrsave.bin of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1


To restore a trashed partition table but NOT the MBR:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Type sudo dd if=/PATHTOSAVEDFILE/mbrsave.bin of=/dev/sda bs=1 count=64 skip=446 seek=446

<edit to change Default to Primary>

[GreyGeek]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

The developers may have improved ms-sys!

It now includes the option to create a Win7 MBR.

Usage:
ms-sys [options] [device]
Options:
-1, --fat12 Write a FAT12 floppy boot record to device
-2, --fat32nt Write a FAT32 partition NT boot record to device
-3, --fat32 Write a FAT32 partition DOS boot record to device
-4, --fat32free Write a FAT32 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
-5, --fat16free Write a FAT16 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
-6, --fat16 Write a FAT16 partition DOS boot record to device
-l, --wipelabel Reset partition disk label in boot record
-p, --partition Write partition info (hidden sectors, heads and drive id)
to boot record
-H, --heads Manually set number of heads if partition info is written
-7, --mbr7 Write a Windows 7 MBR to device
-i, --mbrvista Write a Windows Vista MBR to device
-m, --mbr Write a Windows 2000/XP/2003 MBR to device
-9, --mbr95b Write a Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME MBR to device
-d, --mbrdos Write a DOS/Windows NT MBR to device
-s, --mbrsyslinux Write a public domain syslinux MBR to device
-z, --mbrzero Write an empty (zeroed) MBR to device
-f, --force Force writing of boot record
-h, --help Display this help and exit
-v, --version Show program version
-w, --write Write automatically selected boot record to device

Default Inspect current boot record

Warning: Writing the wrong kind of boot record to a device might
destroy partition information or file system!

[ardvark71]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

3. Type sudo chown YOURUSERNAME:YOURDEFAULTGROUPNAME mbrsave.bin

Hi...

What would be my default group name? Would it be the name listed after the @ symbol? For example, my sole account in my copy of Kubuntu is "aaron@aaron-laptop." This is the name that comes up in the terminal.

Thanks!

Regards...

[toad]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Nope, that is your host name, the name of your computer entered when you installed Kubuntu.

Type in the command "groups" to see which groups you as user belong to. Bet is "users" will be among them - users is a sort of catch-all-but-root group and often used in directory access management and is the one you should go for.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Your user name is "aaron"
Your primary group name is ALSO "aaron".
You are a member of several groups, which can be shown by using the "group" command, but Kubuntu creates a group with the same name as your name because your account is the admin account, and if you add other users to your installation and want to give one of them permissions equal to your own you'd merely add them to the "aaron" group.

[ardvark71]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Hi guys...

Thank you very much for your help but there is still a lot I have to learn with the command line. What is the complete command as just typing in "group" or "groups" doesn't give me what I think I should be seeing....

aaron@aaron-laptop:~$ group
No command 'group' found, did you mean:
Command 'groupd' from package 'cman' (main)
Command 'groups' from package 'coreutils' (main)
group: command not found
aaron@aaron-laptop:~$ groups
aaron adm dialout cdrom plugdev lpadmin admin sambashare
aaron@aaron-laptop:~$

It's obvious I know what I'm doing.

Regards...

[oshunluvr]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

try groups

the first one in the list is your primary group. As GG said - unless you have changed it, the default primary group for Kubuntu is the same as you user name.

I wrote my post that way because not everyone uses the default settings for everything.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

.....
aaron@aaron-laptop:~$ groups
aaron adm dialout cdrom plugdev lpadmin admin sambashare
.....

You are "aaron". When you opened a Konsole and issued the "groups" command it told you that YOU are a member of the adm, dialout, cdrom, plugdev, lpadmin, admin and the sambashare goup.

This URL gives a description of the groups command, and some of the groups. it will give you a general idea of how groups is part of the Linux security system, and why it's security model far exceeds that of any version of Windows. Let me caution you, however, that you do not employ any of these commands from a command line, or even from a GUI, unless advised to do so by an experienced Linux user. Most newbies should, IMO, stay away from the CLI and stick with the GUI admin tools. Later, as your experience AND READINGS grow, you can experiment with the CLI.

To hasten your study of Kubuntu and the CLI allow me to suggest that you install the same version of Kubuntu that you are using as a guest OS in VirtualBox. Update it to the same level that your working installation is at (KDE 4.5.1 with all apps installed -?). Take a snapshot of your clean guest OS. Then, when you want to experiment or teach yourself the command line, do it in the guest OS and spare your working system. If you bork your guest OS just recover using the snapshot and try again.

[pablo173]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Thanks to all who replied. After a night's sleep I tried:

Here assuming the Ubuntu partition is sda7,and /boot partition is sda6 (if you have a separate /boot partition).
Boot up ubuntu from the livecd,open terminal and run:

sudo -i
mount /dev/sda7 /mnt
mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/boot #skip this one if not have a separate /boot partition
grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
from http://ubuntuguide.net/how-to-restor...ws-xpvistawin7

Worked like a charm!
Thanks, Grey Geek!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Glad to be of help!

Now that you've got your grub back in shape I'd do what Oshunluvr recommended in his posting.

[ardvark71]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Most newbies should, IMO, stay away from the CLI and stick with the GUI admin tools. Later, as your experience AND READINGS grow, you can experiment with the CLI.

Hi GreyGeek and Oshunluvr...

Thank you guys so much for your help and instruction.

Your advice above, GreyGeek, is well taken.

Regards...

[pablo173]

Re: Dell Backup Software Trashes Partition Table

Taking your advice, GreyGeek, and making a binary copy of my MBR. Small problem: when I do

sudo chown -v pabloablo mbrsave.bin

chown reports the ownership changed, but

ls -l

reports it still belongs to root:root

Huh?