grub rescue

[tweev]

So I have killed my machine. Reinstalls were always (relatively hassle free) and I think I got a little complacent and didn't back up properly and really screwed this one.

My 11.10 died a couple days back. I somehow did a typo (I think) and installed TeXLive on my root folder - anyway, it totally filled up my root and then my computer wouldn't boot up at all.

So, I have a windows, home, root,boot, swap partitions on my harddrive (500 gig - vostro 3400). I tried to do a fresh install and reformat the root and boot - everything seemed to be going great. Then there was a 144 error (or something - I didn't think it was a big deal and I would just try again) but I lost all of my partitions and am now getting a grub rescue when I boot up.

Is all I can do is whip the entire hard drive and start from scratch? Sucks, I think I lost some nice videos of my 1 year old. STUPID complacency. Crap.

Thanks all.

[dibl]

Unless you accidentally reformatted the partition that you use for /home, your data should not have been damaged by anything that happened on the other partitions. You may indeed need to reinstall the OS (sounds like that was needed before this last little accident).

Can you boot a live CD, mount the partition that you used for /home, and take a look at it?

BTW, there is no need for a separate /boot partition unless you are using one of the more exotic filesystems that won't boot (XFS, JFS, BTRFS). But there's no harm done if you want to keep it.

[tweev]

Unless you accidentally reformatted the partition that you use for /home, your data should not have been damaged by anything that happened on the other partitions. You may indeed need to reinstall the OS (sounds like that was needed before this last little accident).

Can you boot a live CD, mount the partition that you used for /home, and take a look at it?

BTW, there is no need for a separate /boot partition unless you are using one of the more exotic filesystems that won't boot (XFS, JFS, BTRFS). But there's no harm done if you want to keep it.

Thanks to you I tried it again. Before when i booted up with the USB in the computer would instantly shut down. This time, I was able to get to my home folder. Thanks. At least now I can wait until I get my external hard drive and make sure all my stuff is properly backed up - I can even see my windows partition. Whew (saved from stupidity - thanks again)

This is why I like having an additional home directory (than again, if I didn't perhaps I would not have filled up my root partition) That still stumps me a little.

Any advice on a fresh install? should I just back up the home, and reformat, the boot and root and give 'er a go again? What do you think?

[tweev]

Hmmm... well it looks like a few fairly key folders were corrupted somehow. It's just work though, not cute baby photos. I suppose that is something.