by jbzimmerman

Linux MBR Overwritten after Installing Windows

When you boot a Linux based system, the first thing that occurs is initialization of your hardware. After this, the Grub boot loader loads from MBR (Master Boot Record) of hard drive based on its configuration. You might see a boot menu displaying all the operating systems in a list from which you can start the system or the kernel initializing. If you don’t observer any such behavior, the problem is likely to be related to Grub or MBR. In critical situations, you might need to reformat the hard drive and restore lost data from backup. But in case no backup is available or you find it in invalid state, Linux Recovery tools can help rescuing all the data from crashed hard drive.


As an example, after you install Windows in dual-boot with Linux, you might fail to boot into Linux.

Cause

Such kind of behavior might be seen if MBR gets overwritten. This doesn’t allow you to boot into Linux.

Solution

You should try these methods to solve this problem:

• Try booting your system using Linux installation CD. Enter the ‘Linux rescue’ and use this command at boot prompt:

root=/dev/hdXX

where, ‘hdXX’ is the boot partition of your hard disk.

• Boot your system using Live Distro disc and mount the root partition of your hard disk to a temporary boot point. Next, you need to change your root to this point and reinstall Grub. To do so, you need to apply these commands in order:

mkdir /mnt/temp

mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/temp

chroot /mnt/temp

grub-install /dev/had

• If the above measures fail, you should reformat the hard drive to fix all MBR related problems. Next, you should make sure that you have complete backup to restore the lost information in this process. If you fail to do so, you can use third-party Linux Recovery tools. Built with powerful recovery technology, such Linux Recovery applications serve as efficient tools to recover lost data. In addition, they provide you interactive user interface and advanced recovery options for complete results.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a fast and comprehensive recovery tool for lost/deleted data from Linux based drives. It natively supports Ext2, Ext3 and ReiserFS file systems. It provides you advanced features like File Filter, File Mask, Create Image, RAW File Recovery and more. It is compatible with most of the Linux distros like Red Hat, Gentoo, SUSE, SlackWare, Debian etc.

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by Jim Nutt

How to Troubleshoot Linux Error ‘ cannot execute “/etc/init.d/boot’?

Linux boot process is inclusive of several steps. The last steps of this boot procedure in init process, identified by id ’1′. When starting the system, init starts system processes, which have been defined in

/etc/initab file. Init starts several instances of getty that wait for console logins. However, if the process experiences any fault or interruption, it fails and the boot process doesn’t proceed further. Also, you cannot access the data that is stored on your hard disk. You might need to reinstall the system to solve such problems. At times, when no good data backup is available, you will need to use Linux Data Recovery application.

For an instance, consider that you try to start a Linux-based system. The boot

process might fail with the below error message:

“cannot execute “/etc/init.d/boot
cannot execute “/etc/init.d/rc”

You might also encounter a login screen, after which the system might hang up.

Cause

The above error might occur due to file system errors. If one or more of the Linux file system data structures are corrupt, the boot process hangs at the last step of init process.

Solution

To recover from mentioned problem, you need to follow these steps in order:

You need to boot the system first to perform any step. For this, you can use Linux Rescue CD.

Try running fsck to detect and repair file system errors. Make sure that the partition is not mounted.

If applying the above measures doesn’t help, you can boot the system using any of the Linux Live CD

You can then reinstall the system. Doing so deletes data. Thus, to restore it, you should use your backup.

At times, you cannot restore lost data from backup as it is not found to be valid or completely updated. You can use third-party Data Recovery Linux tools for this purpose. These are special purposed data recovery tools for safely recovering lost data from logically crashed Linux drives. Linux Data Recovery software are graphically rich products incorporated with high-end scanning algorithms. The software provide you powerful recovery features.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a comprehensive tool to recover lost data. It supports Ext2, Ext3 and Reiser FS file systems. With advanced options like RAW File Recovery, Disk Imaging, File Filter etc., it is a user-friendly application. This Data Recovery Linux utility is compatible with almost all Linux distributions including SUSE, Red Hat, SlackWare, Turbo Linux, Gentoo etc.

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Recovering a Red Hat Linux System After a Power Outage

Today, the Linux operating system has carved a niche of its own. It has got a dedicated category of users who will happily pay for it if it ever comes with a price tag. The Linux system is secure, reliable, fast, and does not require hardware/software drivers to install them on the system. Having said that, even such a robust operating system can face corruption. Corruption can occur due to various reasons such as power outages, corrupt file system, human errors, damaged operating system, etc. In such cases, you should try performing appropriate corrective measures to sort out the issue. However, if you are unable to do so then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to perform Linux recovery.

Consider a scenario wherein you are working on a Red Hat Linux system. Suddenly, there is a power outage and the system shuts down unexpectedly. When you try to switch on the system, you fail to do so.

Cause:
The cause of this situation is that the Linux system has corrupted because of power outage.

Resolution:
If the problem is because of having a faulty hardware like bad hard drive or memory chip, the file system check may not be sufficient to resolve this problem. This happens particularly when the file system is corrupted. In such cases, the Red Hat boot process will produce an error message and guide you into a shell so that you can perform the file system repair yourself.

When the recovery shell dismounts all the file systems to mount the root file system in a read-only mode, you can perform full checks on it. To do this, you should run the e2fsck utility on the corrupted file system that will be able to resolve all the inconsistencies. Exit the shell and restart the system. The system will function normally now.

However, if you still are unable to recover the system then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to do the needful. Such read-only tools are able to recover the data safely without overwriting the existing data.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a Linux recovery software that enables you to recover data from the corrupted Linux systems. It is supported by various Linux distributions such as Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Caldera, Mandrake, Sorcerer, TurboLinux, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. This Linux data recovery software is able to perform ext2 recovery, ext3 recovery, and ext4 recovery. In addition, it can recover data from FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 file systems as well. This Linux recovery software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.

Jak odzyskać dane – cz. 2 – “Łatwe odzyskiwanie danych, testdisk, photorec”
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