Robert Nichols wrote:
Could it be that the partition table has become corrupt (e.g. overwritten)?
What is strange is that I don't recall any episode that might have corrupted the partition table. I run smartd on this machine; and according to "sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb" everything seems fine with this drive, no errors reported. (I'm a bit wary of running "smartctl -t" as I'm not in the same country as the machine at the moment.)
It might be instructive to see what is actually in that sector. Try:
dd if=/dev/sdb count=1 | od -tx1z
Thanks, I give the output below.
I guess I must have run "mkdosfs /dev/sdb" at some point rather than "mkdosfs /dev/sdb1", as I usually try to install Windows on the first partition.
This would have been about a year ago; It's surprising it's been running fine ever since. I hope there isn't a power outage in the next week, before I get home ...
Is there a safe way of recovering the partition table? I have a vague idea that copies are kept at various places on the disk?
------------------------------------ 0000000 eb 58 90 6d 6b 64 6f 73 66 73 00 00 02 04 01 00 >.X.mkdosfs......< 0000020 02 00 02 00 60 f8 18 00 20 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 >....`... .@.....< 0000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 29 9d 29 d6 4b 20 20 20 20 20 >......).).K < 0000060 20 20 20 20 20 20 46 41 54 31 36 20 20 20 0e 1f > FAT16 ..< 0000100 be 5b 7c ac 22 c0 74 0b 56 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 >.[|.".t.V.......< 0000120 5e eb f0 32 e4 cd 16 cd 19 eb fa fc 31 c0 8e d0 >^..2........1...< 0000140 bc b4 7b 8e c0 b9 08 00 89 e7 f3 a5 8e d8 bb 78 >..{............x< 0000160 00 0f b4 37 0f a0 56 88 16 a5 4b 20 d2 78 15 b1 >...7..V...K .x..< 0000200 06 89 3f 89 47 02 64 f3 a5 8a 0e 18 7c 88 4d f8 >..?.G.d.....|.M.< 0000220 cd 13 eb 27 f6 45 f0 7f 75 08 66 8b 45 f8 66 a3 >...'.E..u.f.E.f.< 0000240 1c 7c b4 08 cd 13 72 13 20 e4 75 0f c1 ea 08 42 >.|....r. .u....B< 0000260 89 16 1a 7c 83 e1 3f 89 0e 18 7c fb bb aa 55 b4 >...|..?...|...U.< 0000300 41 8a 16 a5 4b cd 13 72 10 81 fb 55 aa 75 0a f6 >A...K..r...U.u..< 0000320 c1 01 74 05 c6 06 ff 7c 00 66 a1 f8 7d bb 00 7e >..t....|.f..}..~< 0000340 e8 10 00 66 81 3e 24 7e e8 51 a3 7d 0f 85 c3 00 >...f.>$~.Q.}....< 0000360 e9 3d 02 bd 01 00 66 03 06 1c 7c 66 31 d2 eb 4f >.=....f...|f1..O< 0000400 55 e8 d5 00 66 0f b7 fd b9 10 00 66 52 66 50 06 >U...f......fRfP.< 0000420 53 57 6a 10 89 e6 66 60 8a 16 a5 4b 1e 16 1f b4 >SWj...f`...K....< 0000440 42 cd 13 1f 66 61 8d 64 10 72 10 5d 66 01 f8 29 >B...fa.d.r.]f..)< 0000460 fd c1 e7 09 01 fb 21 ed 75 c6 c3 66 60 31 c0 8a >......!.u..f`1..< 0000500 16 a5 4b cd 13 66 61 e2 c2 c6 06 ff 7c 4f 5d 66 >..K..fa.....|O]f< 0000520 52 66 50 55 53 66 0f b7 36 18 7c 66 0f b7 3e 1a >RfPUSf..6.|f..>.< 0000540 7c 66 f7 f6 31 c9 87 ca 66 f7 f7 e8 6b 00 29 ce >|f..1...f...k.).< 0000560 39 f5 76 02 89 f5 c0 e4 06 41 08 e1 88 c5 88 d6 >9.v......A......< 0000600 8a 16 a5 4b 95 b4 02 bd 10 00 66 60 cd 13 66 61 >...K......f`..fa< 0000620 72 17 66 0f b6 c8 c1 e0 09 5b 01 c3 5d 66 58 66 >r.f......[..]fXf< 0000640 5a 66 01 c8 29 cd 75 a7 c3 4d 75 de 95 d1 2e fc >Zf..).u..Mu.....< 0000660 7d 75 df 31 f6 8e d6 bc b0 7b 8e de 66 8f 06 78 >}u.1.....{..f..x< 0000700 00 be e4 7d ac 20 c0 74 09 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 >...}. .t........< 0000720 eb f2 98 cd 16 cd 19 eb fe 3b 2e fc 7d 76 04 8b >.........;..}v..< 0000740 2e fc 7d c3 42 6f 6f 74 20 65 72 72 6f 72 0d 0a >..}.Boot error..< 0000760 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 00 00 00 7f 00 55 aa >........U.....U.< 0001000 ------------------------------------