James Pearson wrote:
here is the response to "sudo fdisk /dev/sdb"
Disk /dev/sdb: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
This doesn't look like a partition table Probably you selected the wrong device.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 ? 188019 188051 253319 e4 SpeedStor Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb2 ? 62656 186401 993984023 98 Unknown Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb3 ? 105611 225119 959953209 7d Unknown Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb4 ? 347 865 4161536 0 Empty Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order
Could it be that the partition table has become corrupt (e.g. overwritten)?
But everything seems to be working perfectly; is that possible if the partition table is corrupt?
If this has been the case, then you need to find a tool that can attempt to recover the partition table - see http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/recovering.html
Thanks, I'll study that.