[COLUG] HD Partition Problem

[Brian Miller]

On Sun, 2008-03-23 at 07:50 -0400, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
> >
> > >From the 'fdisk' report, that third partition is Win 95,
> >
> > >    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> > > /dev/sdb1               1         262     2104483+  82  Linux swap /
> > > Solaris /dev/sdb2   *         263        2873    20972857+  83  Linux
> > > /dev/sdb3            2874       30401   221118660    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> > > /dev/sdb5            2874        5484    20972826   83  Linux
> > > /dev/sdb6            5485       30401   200145771   83  Linux
> > >
> > > the problem is with dev/sdb3.  What should the fstab line to mount the
> > > partition read?  Or alternately, how do I reformat the partition for
> > > ext3?   The current partition is a hold over from a MS Win machine.
> > >
Based on the output of fdisk, /dev/sbd3 is NOT a mountable partition.
It is an extended partition (the W95 Ext'd system title is somewhat
misleading, but does not indicate that is is formatted with vfat), which
contains both /dev/sbd5 and /dev/sdb6  (which are logical partitions
inside of the extended partition).  Note how the starting cylinder of
sdb3 and sdb5 are the same (2874)?  And how the ending cylinder of sdb3
and sdb6 are the same (30401)?

Here's a section from "man fdisk":

A DOS type partition table can describe an unlimited number  of  parti‐
tions.  In  sector  0 there is room for the description of 4 partitions
(called `primary'). One of these may be an extended partition; this  is
a  box  holding  logical partitions, with descriptors found in a linked
list of sectors, each preceding the corresponding  logical  partitions.
The  four primary partitions, present or not, get numbers 1-4.  Logical
partitions start numbering from 5.


If the data you want isn't on sdb5 or sdb6, it is already gone.