heather1113 Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 OK, where to start.......this could be a long post. I had a dual boot of Windows ME and Mandrake 9.1 for a couple of weeks now just because there were a couple progs I was missing out on but Win ME was crashing all the time so I decided to do a clean install on one of my windows partitions (I have two) and install WindowsXP (I bought it before I saw the light :wink: ). So everything went fine in the install I had it just format the one partition to NTFS (leaving the Linux partitions and the fat32 one alone) and install on it. No problems except that I had to reinstall the Mandrake bootloader no big deal I knew how to fix that (putting Mandrake disc one in and reboot...hit F1...rescue...and reinstall bootloader to MBR) that went fine as well, no errors that I could see. Windows boots fine but when I try to boot into Linux (even when I use the boot floppy) I get this as it boots up: Activating Swap partitions: swapon: /dev/hda7 Invalid Argument Finding module dependencies [ok] Starting Raid devices: checking filesystems fsck:ext3/dev8: This superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck -b 8139 <device> :Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hda8 failed to check file system. Do you want to repair the errors? (Y/N) (beware you can lose data) So I hit Y and it says Couldn't find ext2 superblock, trying back up blocks... This superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck -b 8139 <device> fsck.ext3:Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hda8 [failed] ***An error occured during the file system check. ***Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot ***when you leave the shell Give root password for maintanence. (or type control-D for normal start up I typed in my root password but I didn't know what to do next (there wasn't anymore prompting just a number and the blinking cursor after it)So I hit Ctrl D and reboot into Windows to post this. I hope this can be fixed I'd rather not have to reinstall but I have the next four days off so I have the time. I'm not sure if this problen was caused by Windows or reinstalling the boot loader or possibly neither. Thank you very much in advance as this problem boggles my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 I just had the exact same experience when I was putting gentoo into my experimental partitions on wednesday night. I hosed my system! Lost my /home directory as well! I have reinstalled and rebuilt, but it happened when I was using the gentoo partition manager. If you can get in with the floppy, do so and get a fresh backup. There is something wrong with the reported start point in the partition, hence a bad super block. Somehow, your existing partitions are different. Unfortunately, my recovery method was not any fun! I am sure someone else has an idea on what could be done without a clean slate! :shock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather1113 Posted August 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 I'm going to go ahead and reinstall. Good thing I made a backup. Thanks for the help. It's good to know that this has happened to someone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 Do you remember whats on which partitions? It looks like hda7 was swap. You might have a lot of salvageable stuff , course deepends how much work youve done on Mandy :D Post you partitions maybe ... Try running the rescue disk and mount under /mnt then choose go to console From here type chroot /mnt then try the lsparts ... Im getting some sleep now (4AM) but up soon but maybe someone in your timezone will fix it first :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Scrimpshire Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 I may be stating the obvious, but could it be that you installed WinXP on a partition that Linux thought (in /etc/fstab) is supposed to be an ext3 filesystem and that is what is causing your problem? Maybe having a look at your /etc/fstab and see what Linux thinks the partitions are? Ok, maybe this was a totally stupid post. Disregard if it is. :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather1113 Posted August 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 I ended up just reinstalling so it's fixed now. When I was going through the reinstallation and it got to the partitioning part I discovered that my home partition was labeled as a swap and the second windows (fat32) partition was labeled as home. So it seems I was a little quick to reinstall since this probably could have been fixed :x I just couldn't stand having to stay in Windows any longer. Thank you for the help anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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