Arch Linux

rasat

Forum Fellow

From: Finland

Registered: 2002-12-27

Posts: 2,301

Website

MBR cleanup

My external HDD's MBR got messed up when following the below link. Tried to find forum solutions but in vain.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/US … tion_Media

What I did:
# dd bs=4M if=/root/Download/archlinux-2013.03.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdb

# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda

grub-install gets error (Attempting to install GRUB to a disk with multiple partition labels.)

I tried to fix, doesn't help and still all partitions are named: ARCH_201303

# dd count=1 bs=512 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb

How to delete/reset everyting including the volume lables: ARCH_201303

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Markku

cfr

Member

From: Cymru

Registered: 2011-11-27

Posts: 7,168

Re: MBR cleanup

So you were trying to overwrite the external drive, right? That's what that command does.

So you've restored the drive to full capacity. Now you just need to create a new partition map, partition the drive as desired, create new file systems etc. I'm not sure in what sense it is "messed up".

Also, what does the grub-install on /dev/sda, which is apparently a different drive, have to do with it?

[Given the number of your posts and your forum status, I figure I'm missing something here...]

Last edited by cfr (2013-03-06 01:57:35)

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WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: MBR cleanup

Yeah, I am pretty lost here... I am not following what the dd to sdb has to do with installing grub on sda... more details?

rasat

Forum Fellow

From: Finland

Registered: 2002-12-27

Posts: 2,301

Website

Re: MBR cleanup

So you've restored the drive to full capacity. Now you just need to create a new partition map, partition the drive as desired, create new file systems etc. I'm not sure in what sense it is "messed up".

I installed Arch in one external USB Hard Disk device using the wiki instructions. Later I noticed that it was not needed to install the archlinux-2013.03.01-dual.iso in MBR, instead I could have used a CD installation. The iso didn´t work, so eventually I used the CD.

I restored the drive to full capacity (# dd count=1 bs=512 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb), added 9 new partitions, and installed the Arch. All went fine except the final grub-install. It gives similar error as in below thread:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=157975

Not to get stucked, I installed Lilo. I prefer Grub.

First "messed up", grub cannot be installed. The other mess, all 9 partitions in the external USB Hard Dirive (sdb) are named "ARCH_201303". In Dolphin the partitions cannot be differentiated, all have the same label. My internal HDD (sda), Dolphin shows the volume capacity. How to erase the "ARCH_201303" tag?

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Markku

rayjgu3

Member

From: Chicago IL usa

Registered: 2004-07-04

Posts: 695

Re: MBR cleanup

to change label

e2label /dev/sdX# usbstroage
or
tune2fs -L usbstroage /dev/sdX#

as for grub issue, I tried grub2 (since legacy is no longer in repositories) I fought for about 5min then tried syslinux. havent looked back.