Rebuilding partition table without data loss

eirik · 2010-07-20 17:38:39

Is it possible to safely rebuild the partition table without losing all data on a drive? I've got a 2TB unit that I partitioned off 200GB for use with Windows, but when I ran Windows 7's installer it managed to somehow mess things up; GParted is unable to format or delete the partition, so I was thinking the partition table may have been messed up, although I could of course be wrong.

karol · 2010-07-20 17:43:26

I think it would be easier to use the backup of said table.

eirik · 2010-07-20 17:59:05

I'm sure it'd be, if I was clever enough to backup my partition tables. I'll make sure to do so from now on.

Are my options at this moment basically to wipe everything or wait until I expand with another 2TB drive so I can offload the current one? I guess it'll have to wait in that case.

Dieter@be · 2010-07-30 09:40:45

a partition table is basically just a list of entries like "start-stop-type", where type is often even ignored (on Linux). So just recreate the entries and you're good.

kazacy · 2010-07-30 12:05:24

First of all excuse me for my English, it's not my first language.
For the op you can use a live distribution pc like rip linux
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robo … linux/rip/
or sysresccd
http://sysresccd.org/Main_Page
burn a cd or make a bootable usb stick.In these distros you have a very usefull package named testdisk. With testdisk you can recreate the old partition table. It's a very usefull program and pretty self explanatory once you will start him.
Good luck...... you will need it.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-20 17:38:39

Rebuilding partition table without data loss

#2 2010-07-20 17:43:26

Re: Rebuilding partition table without data loss

#3 2010-07-20 17:59:05

Re: Rebuilding partition table without data loss

#4 2010-07-30 09:40:45

Re: Rebuilding partition table without data loss

#5 2010-07-30 12:05:24

Re: Rebuilding partition table without data loss

Board footer