Ubuntu
ubiquity package

how to restore a Partition which does not start on physical sector boundary.

Asked by Gabor Vas

This is a laptop with stucked CTRL key, kubuntu12.04 and win7 dual boot, grub 1.99 So I tried to do something about win7. win7 recovery messed my partitions up, even i haven't chose any option to do, just wanted to exit.
Now my linux data partition looks messed up hard.
Is there anyway to restore data from sda4 which appears? Or can I reflag it? Partition editor says it's unallocated.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x47367329

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 31459327 15728640 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2 * 31459328 31664127 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 31664128 285570377 126953125 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 285571070 625141759 169785345 5 Extended
Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5 617058304 625141759 4041728 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo sfdisk -d
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 2048, size= 31457280, Id=27
/dev/sda2 : start= 31459328, size= 204800, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda3 : start= 31664128, size=253906250, Id= 7
/dev/sda4 : start=285571070, size=339570690, Id= 5
/dev/sda5 : start=617058304, size= 8083456, Id=82

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Gabor Vas (cognac-gamma) said : 		#1

testdisk /list
TestDisk 6.11, Data Recovery Utility, April 2009
Christophe GRENIER <email address hidden>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Please wait...
Disk /dev/sr0 - 3479 MB / 3318 MiB - CHS 1699094 1 1, sector size=2048

Disk /dev/sr0 - 3479 MB / 3318 MiB - CHS 1699094 1 1
     Partition Start End Size in sectors
Invalid NTFS or EXFAT boot
 1 * hid. HPFS/NTFS 64 6796375 6796312
 1 * hid. HPFS/NTFS 64 6796375 6796312

Warning: Bad ending sector (CHS and LBA don't match)

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Thomas Krüger (thkrueger) said : 		#2

There is obviously an extended partition of 165GB missing between block 285571070 and 617058303. There is a chance of getting some data back. But ut should be rather hard to recover the complete partition with all metadata.

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Gabor Vas (cognac-gamma) said : 		#3

I managed to find all my files with testdisk, it offers me to save it to /home/Documents while i'm on live cd, so i just need to find out how to do that, any advice appreciated, i'll post it here if i find it out.
Isn't it a security issue that a win7 dvd can ruin grub?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

If you install Windows after Ubuntu it will blindly write to the MBR. This is normal as th Windows installer is garbage

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Gabor Vas (cognac-gamma) said : 		#5

Dear actionparsnip,

i had both OS installed properly, just that I placed that bloody win7 dvd in (I didn't chose any option just told it to exit and reboot), ruined grub re-falgging partitions as you can see above. Now testdisk is running for 2 days copying files (very slowly but successfully), I'm unsure how to cancel that job as I wish not to lose files (metadata has no importance for me, I'll reinstall the whole computer).

Can you help with this problem?

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