need help with installation: add my old linux system to suse

[SansSouci]

Hello. I'm a fresh user of linux. My opensuse 11.2 crashed yesterday and the partition table was missing. As I have two separate hard disks installed in my computer and the old system was on the first disk, now I'm trying to reinstall suse 11.2 on the second one which is empty and has not been partitioned yet.

When I arrived at the page of partitioning settings, it shows the recommended partitioning plan like this:

/dev/sda1 2.01GB linux_swap Swap Swap
/dev/sda2 20.0GB linux_native Ext4
/dev/sda3 909.5GB linux_native Ext4
dev/sdb1 20.0GB F linux_native Ext4 /
/dev/sdb1 911.5GB F linux_native Ext4 /home

And some extra information when pushing the "import mount points" button:
A previous system with the following mounting points was detected: /etc/fstab found on /dev/sda2
/dev/sda1 swap
/dev/sda2 /
/dev/sda3 /home


So what should I do next? And is it still possible for me to rescue the files under sda3 (the old home directory) after I install the new system on sdb?

Thanks in advance!!

[ken_yap]

Why not reinstall it on sda, using sda1 as swap, sda2 as /, sda3 as /home, but tell it not to format /home?

In fact, why do you say the partition table is not on sda when it all appears to be there. Why not first try to rescue the existing system using the boot CD/DVD?

[SansSouci]

Thanks for your reply. When I tried to rescue the system on sda using the boot DVD, it displayed the partition table was lost and the recovery procedure finally failed. (I'm sorry I can't remember the details now.)

Would you please give some suggestions?

[SansSouci]

And if I follow your suggestions and tell the installation programme not to format /home on sda3, would the original files on sda3 keep intact after installation?

[please_try_again]

When I arrived at the page of partitioning settings, it shows the recommended partitioning plan like this:

/dev/sda1 2.01GB linux_swap Swap Swap
/dev/sda2 20.0GB linux_native Ext4
/dev/sda3 909.5GB linux_native Ext4
dev/sdb1 20.0GB F linux_native Ext4 /
/dev/sdb1 911.5GB F linux_native Ext4 /home

Don't follow this advice if you want to keep your old system on sda.

Are you sure that sdb is empty ?
If it is, select 'create partition setup' and partition sdb as you like. You can use sda1 as swap (but you don't have too). But don't share /home between 2 systems (it's possible but tricky).
Once you have installed this new system, you can mount the other partitions (included your old /home), repair the filesystems if necessary and access the data in you old /home partition. If installing a new sytem on your second HD is all what you want, don't import any partition during installation (except swap).

[please_try_again]

And if I follow your suggestions and tell the installation programme not to format /home on sda3, would the original files on sda3 keep intact after installation?

Yes. Data will be untouched in /home if you don't explicitely format it.

[ken_yap]

And if I follow your suggestions and tell the installation programme not to format /home on sda3, would the original files on sda3 keep intact after installation?

Yes, but triple check that the check box labelled Format is off for /home and double check it again when it shows you the final table. That partition table on sda is right out of the text book. I bet you have 1GB RAM so it gave you 2GB swap. 20GB for / and the rest for /home is the standard layout.

But I would urge you again to attempt a repair. Maybe disconnect sdb to make sure it's getting the right disk. And of course the repair DVD must be the same distro release.

[ken_yap]

One more thing, if you really want to reinstall even with the evidence that your system is still intact on sda, then make sure you import the mount points from the old fstab so that the sizes of the partitions are exactly as they were. Do not create or accept any new schemes for sda and do not format sda3 and you should be ok.

But if it can import fstab, then the partition and contents are there. So do try again to repair sda.

[SansSouci]

I'm back. I just tried the repair programme on suse 11.2 dvd and it showed the following information:

1. partition table of sdb is lost. (I skipped the repair because sdb is the empty hard disk of my computer.)

2. activate sda1(Swap). (Yes)

3. not found packages: /var/lib/rpm/Filemd5s. (I chose "rebuild" and it succeeded)

4. initrd modules missing: the file /etc/sysconfig/kernel contains a list of modules to add to the initial RAM disk by calling mkinitrd. Yast is missing the following modules:

jbd2
mbcache
ext4

(choose repair, failed: Root device (sda2) not found)

5. boot loader error detected. (repair & succeeded)

Then I rebooted my computer. Black screen eventually came out after the loading interface of suse showed up.

[SansSouci]

I'm sorry there's a typo in my first message:

/dev/sdb1 20.0GB F linux_native Ext4 /
/dev/sdb1 911.5GB F linux_native Ext4 /home <- It is actually /dev/sdb2, not /dev/sdb1.