Trashed MBR

Clayton Stapleton plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
Sun, 12 Aug 2001 10:15:23 -0700


Tried to installed Mandrake 8.0 on a dual boot system with
the following problems:
 
1. It would not recognize a Logitech IFeel optical
   mouse. So went back to a standard 3 button mouse.
 
2. In expert mode when it came to making a boot disk
   it offered only an sda drive to make a floppy boot
   disk. No work around I know of for this since there
   is only an fd0 floppy drive on this system.
 
3. Do to a error on my part the MBR was trashed. The
   follow is from an fdisk of /dev/hda1:
 
 
Command (m for help): p
 
Disk /dev/hda1: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 636 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
 
     Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1p1   ?    120513    235786 925929529+  68  Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(116, 100, 32) logical=(120512, 47, 32)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(288, 101, 46) logical=(235785, 20, 46)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(288, 101, 46) should be (288, 254, 63)
/dev/hda1p2   ?     82801    116350 269488144   79  Unknown
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(357, 32, 43) logical=(82800, 34, 51)    
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(0, 13, 10) logical=(116349, 218, 61)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(0, 13, 10) should be (0, 254, 63)
/dev/hda1p3   ?     33551    120595 699181456   53  OnTrack DM6 Aux3
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(345, 32, 19) logical=(33550, 137, 11)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(324, 77, 19) logical=(120594, 153, 54)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(324, 77, 19) should be (324, 254, 63)
/dev/hda1p4   ?     86812     86813     10668+  49  Unknown
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(87, 1, 0) logical=(86811, 142, 3)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(335, 78, 2) logical=(86812, 225, 45)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(335, 78, 2) should be (335, 254, 63)
 
Partition table entries are not in disk order
 
The following is from an cfdisk of /dev/hda: 
                           Disk Drive: /dev/hda
                          Size: 30020272128 bytes
           Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 3649
 
    Name      Flags   Part Type     FS Type      [Label]  Size (MB)
 ---------------------------------------------
    hda1       Boot    Primary      Win95 FAT32            5239.51
    hda2                  Primary      Linux ext2                   8258.19
    hda3                  Primary      Linux ext2                   8258.19
    hda5                  Logical      Linux ext2                       24.68
    hda6                  Logical      Linux swap                   139.83
    hda7                  Logical      Linux ext2                   8093.68
 
Is there a way to reconstruct the MBR from this info?
If so, would that person or persons please advise.
 
I was lucky, in that SuSE Linux 7.1 is on hda5, hda6 hda7
and I had a boot disk so that it is possible access SuSE.
And that is what makes it possible to send this request
for help.
 
The Mandrake 8.0 has been installed on hda3 and I have
looked at it with SuSE. Now if I can get a boot disk for
it then it will be usable. And still correct the MBR.
 
TIA
Clay Stapleton
Scottsdale, Arizona