mount advice needed

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I have been meaning to ask for help on the correct mounting procedure for my hard disks. here is fdisl -l followed by mount -l :-


fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 223.6 GiB, 240057409536 bytes, 468862128 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x9c3ef291

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1            2048    206847    204800   100M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848 136518371 136311524    65G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3  *    136519680 468860927 332341248 158.5G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdb: 2.7 TiB, 3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 713BDCEB-C906-4D1A-A0D4-1E9F04687D2F

Device          Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1          40       2087       2048    1M BIOS boot
/dev/sdb2        6144 5843795967 5843789824  2.7T Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb3  5843795968 5860533134   16737167    8G Linux swap


Disk /dev/sdc: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000c2aca

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1          63 1953520064 1953520002 931.5G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


Disk /dev/sdd: 2.7 TiB, 3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 3375C5C4-FC6D-4E32-BD92-74717BDB4ED9

Device        Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdd1      2048       4095       2048    1M BIOS boot
/dev/sdd2      4096   83906559   83902464   40G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdd3  83906560 5860532223 5776625664  2.7T Microsoft basic data


Disk /dev/sde: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000a6c96

Device     Boot    Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sde1           2048   62910463   62908416    30G 83 Linux
/dev/sde2       62910464   63199633     289170 141.2M 83 Linux
/dev/sde3       63205376   73277439   10072064   4.8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sde4       73482240 1953523711 1880041472 896.5G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdf: 1.8 TiB, 2000398933504 bytes, 3907029167 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0000254b

Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdf1           206848 1953515519 1953308672 931.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdf2       1953515520 2268624895  315109376 150.3G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdf3       2268624896 3907024895 1638400000 781.3G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT



mount -l
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,size=8187756k,nr_inodes=2046939,mode=755)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,mode=755)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/unified type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/rdma type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,rdma)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids)
/dev/sda3 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=37,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=421)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
/dev/sdc1 on /windows/d type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,gid=100,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-15,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro,user)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
/dev/sda2 on /windows/c type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,user)
/dev/sdd3 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
/dev/sde4 on /home/ghep/sdf4 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,data=ordered,user)
/dev/sdd2 on /home/ghep/sde2 type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
/dev/sdb2 on /home/ghep/3tera type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,stripe=32752,data=ordered,user)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=1640000k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=100)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=100)
/dev/fuse on /run/user/1000/doc type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=100)
tracefs on /sys/kernel/debug/tracing type tracefs (rw,relatime)

here is the contents of fstab :-


UUID=4b15c929-360b-4229-9fe4-cd405a36dece  swap              swap     defaults                     0  0
UUID=58e613d4-192c-4703-87c9-419bdd3c171a  swap              swap     defaults                     0  0
UUID=52b5f14e-a62e-463d-aab7-eb62cf9177c2  /                 ext4     acl,user_xattr               1  1
UUID=0ad9e2f1-f40a-4fac-b312-3ccdd6e6125f  /home             ext4     defaults                     1  2
UUID=af5d1c65-05b4-411d-86b2-80e458040d39  /home/ghep/3tera  ext4     user,acl                     1  2
UUID=d58ee000-9a7c-4ce8-ae73-594f03b8988f  /home/ghep/sdf4   ext4     user,acl                     1  2
UUID=7ABEA351BEA3052B                      /windows/c        ntfs-3g  user,users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8  0  0
UUID=494D-9D75                             /windows/d        vfat     user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=437,users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true  0  0
;UUID=B68E3A118E39CA9F                     /home/ghep/sdf3   ntfs-3g  rw,user,users,gid=1000,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8,nofail  0  0
;UUID=5070D6D670D6C1C0                     /home/ghep/sdf1   ntfs-3g  user,users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8,nofail  0  0
;UUID=929CD9259CD9051F                     /home/ghep/sdf2   ntfs-3g  user,users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8,nofail  0  0
UUID=b3fff537-0282-4fda-a62e-70daa620e5bc  /home/ghep/sde2   ext4     data=ordered,acl,user_xattr  0  2
## UUID=64D5-2BF4       /windows/E           vfat       users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true,nofail 0 0

sda is a Sandisk solid state drive from which I boot and it contains a Windows partition (sda2) and the root partition (sda3) Then I get confused because I’ve mounted sdd3 on home and then sdb2 on home/ghep/3tera They are the 3TB partitions.
sdb2 is reported as “Microsoft basic data” but I am sure I formatted it as ext4 and in fstab it’s listed as ext4.
sdc is mounted on /windows/d :
sdd1&2 are old installations I no longer mount or boot from while sdd3 is mounted as /home:
sde1,2&3 are old installations no longer mounted or used, whereas sde4 contains the home folders of that installation.
sdf is a slimline Seagate USB harddisk which Seagate sent me as replacement for a broken 2TB hard disk to which they had transferred all the files that they had recovered.
Any suggestions would be welcome thank you.

2

I’m not sure what you are looking for.

The “Microsoft Basic Data” is often used as equivalent to “unspecified”.

You could try:

parted  /dev/sdb print

and that should tell you about the file systems actually found.

You could also change the partition type using “gdisk” if you want the partition to be identified as a linux file system.

3

I was looking to see if my mounts are OK because I always thought they were a bit messy. But it seems that they are OK if no one has spotted an obvious error.
Thanks.
However that command ‘parted’ gave the following response :-

parted /dev/sdb print
Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sdb appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 4294967296
blocks) or continue with the current setting? 
Fix/Ignore? ignore                                                        
Model: ATA ST33000651AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 3001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                 Flags
 1      20.5kB  1069kB  1049kB                  BIOS boot partition  bios_grub
 2      3146kB  2992GB  2992GB  ext4                                 msftdata
 3      2992GB  3001GB  8569MB  linux-swap(v1)  Linux swap           swap

my question is where can it find ‘an extra 4294967296 blocks’ ?

4

There is unallocated space between partition 1 and partition 2. I’m guessing that the message refers to that.

5

yes I had noticed that but it’s only about 2MB I think. and not 4294967296 blocks!

6

Agreed. Something is wrong somewhere.

All of the large disks that I have seen, show as:

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

Yours shows as 512/512. That is weird. I doubt that Seagate makes such disks.

There’s possibly something amiss about the label (the GPT partition table) that is confusing “parted”.

7

Well spotted, yet every disk except one shows that structure. Only sdd differs.

8

Show dump of the first several blocks (containing partition table):

hexdump -C -n 2048 /dev/sdb
9

wow, that’s good one never heard of or used that command,


hexdump -C -n 2048 /dev/sdb
00000000  33 c0 fa 8e d8 8e d0 bc  00 7c 89 e6 06 57 8e c0  |3........|...W..|
00000010  fb fc bf 00 06 b9 00 01  f3 a5 ea 1f 06 00 00 52  |...............R|
00000020  52 b4 41 bb aa 55 31 c9  30 f6 f9 cd 13 72 13 81  |R.A..U1.0....r..|
00000030  fb 55 aa 75 0d d1 e9 73  09 66 c7 06 58 07 b4 42  |.U.u...s.f..X..B|
00000040  eb 13 5a b4 08 cd 13 83  e1 3f 89 e5 51 0f b6 c6  |..Z......?..Q...|
00000050  40 f7 e1 52 50 66 31 c0  66 99 40 bb 00 7c 53 e8  |@..RPf1.f.@..|S.|
00000060  e8 00 8b 4e 56 8b 46 5a  50 51 f7 e1 c1 e8 09 91  |...NV.FZPQ......|
00000070  41 66 8b 46 4e 66 8b 56  52 53 e8 cd 00 e8 c1 00  |Af.FNf.VRS......|
00000080  e2 f8 31 f6 5f 59 58 66  8b 15 66 0b 55 04 66 0b  |..1._YXf..f.U.f.|
00000090  55 08 66 0b 55 0c 74 0c  f6 45 30 04 74 06 21 f6  |U.f.U.t..E0.t.!.|
000000a0  75 19 89 fe 01 c7 e2 df  21 f6 75 2e e8 e7 00 4d  |u.......!.u....M|
000000b0  69 73 73 69 6e 67 20 4f  53 0d 0a e8 d8 00 4d 75  |issing OS.....Mu|
000000c0  6c 74 69 70 6c 65 20 61  63 74 69 76 65 20 70 61  |ltiple active pa|
000000d0  72 74 69 74 69 6f 6e 73  0d 0a 91 bf be 07 57 66  |rtitions......Wf|
000000e0  31 c0 b0 80 66 ab b0 ed  66 ab 66 8b 44 20 66 8b  |1...f...f.f.D f.|
000000f0  54 24 e8 40 00 66 8b 44  28 66 8b 54 2c 66 2b 44  |T$.@.f.D(f.T,f+D|
00000100  20 66 1b 54 24 e8 39 00  e8 2a 00 66 0f b7 c1 66  | f.T$.9..*.f...f|
00000110  ab f3 a4 5e 66 8b 44 34  66 8b 54 38 5b e8 2a 00  |...^f.D4f.T8.*.|
00000120  81 7f fe 55 aa 75 85 89  ec 5a 5f 07 66 b8 21 47  |...U.u...Z_.f.!G|
00000130  50 54 fa ff e4 66 21 d2  74 04 66 83 c8 ff 66 ab  |PT...f!.t.f...f.|
00000140  c3 66 83 c0 01 66 83 d2  00 c3 66 60 66 52 66 50  |.f...f....f`fRfP|
00000150  06 53 6a 01 6a 10 89 e6  66 f7 76 fa c0 e4 06 88  |.Sj.j...f.v.....|
00000160  e1 88 c5 92 f6 76 fe 88  c6 08 e1 41 b8 01 02 8a  |.....v.....A....|
00000170  56 00 cd 13 8d 64 10 66  61 72 04 80 c7 02 c3 e8  |V....d.far......|
00000180  14 00 44 69 73 6b 20 65  72 72 6f 72 20 6f 6e 20  |..Disk error on |
00000190  62 6f 6f 74 0d 0a 5e ac  b4 0e 8a 3e 62 04 b3 07  |boot..^....>b...|
000001a0  cd 10 3c 0a 75 f1 cd 18  f4 eb fd 00 00 00 00 00  |..<.u...........|
000001b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  a2 eb a2 eb 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001c0  01 00 ee fe ff ff 01 00  00 00 ff ff ff ff 00 00  |................|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200  45 46 49 20 50 41 52 54  00 00 01 00 5c 00 00 00  |EFI PART....\...|
00000210  f7 f5 0d 31 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |...1............|
00000220  af a3 50 5d 00 00 00 00  22 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |..P]....".......|
00000230  8e a3 50 5d 00 00 00 00  eb dc 3b 71 06 c9 1a 4d  |..P]......;q...M|
00000240  a0 d4 1e 9f 04 68 7d 2f  02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.....h}/........|
00000250  80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00  93 7e 6d 3f 00 00 00 00  |.........~m?....|
00000260  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000400  48 61 68 21 49 64 6f 6e  74 4e 65 65 64 45 46 49  |Hah!IdontNeedEFI|
00000410  16 63 95 46 d6 54 48 49  a9 08 dd 03 0e 7c ce f5  |.c.F.THI.....|..|
00000420  28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  27 08 00 00 00 00 00 00  |(.......'.......|
00000430  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  42 00 49 00 4f 00 53 00  |........B.I.O.S.|
00000440  20 00 62 00 6f 00 6f 00  74 00 20 00 70 00 61 00  | .b.o.o.t. .p.a.|
00000450  72 00 74 00 69 00 74 00  69 00 6f 00 6e 00 00 00  |r.t.i.t.i.o.n...|
00000460  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000480  a2 a0 d0 eb e5 b9 33 44  87 c0 68 b6 b7 26 99 c7  |......3D..h..&..|
00000490  17 2d 9e d2 54 82 82 48  b5 51 c0 80 cb 21 d2 b2  |.-..T..H.Q...!..|
000004a0  00 18 00 00 00 00 00 00  ff 3f 51 5c 01 00 00 00  |.........?Q\....|
000004b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000500  6d fd 57 06 ab a4 c4 43  84 e5 09 33 c8 4b 4f 4f  |m.W....C...3.KOO|
00000510  e0 d8 1c f2 54 ea 07 47  b8 a2 a1 ac 75 7f f1 64  |....T..G....u..d|
00000520  00 40 51 5c 01 00 00 00  8e a3 50 5d 01 00 00 00  |.@Q\......P]....|
00000530  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  4c 00 69 00 6e 00 75 00  |........L.i.n.u.|
00000540  78 00 20 00 73 00 77 00  61 00 70 00 00 00 00 00  |x. .s.w.a.p.....|
00000550  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000800

interesting comments there!

10

GPT format has two copies of partition table - one at the beginning of disk, another at the end of disk. Both copies include addresses (block numbers) of other copy. In your case first copy of partition table claims that second copy is locate at block 0x5d50a3af == 1565565871. This is exactly 4294967296 blocks less than actual last block number ( 5860533167) which explain error message.

Now 4294967296 is 0x100000000, so it sounds like partition table was edited by 32 bit application that lost high bits. OTOH partition entries themselves are correct; as example:

00000500  6d fd 57 06 ab a4 c4 43  84 e5 09 33 c8 4b 4f 4f  |m.W....C...3.KOO|
00000510  e0 d8 1c f2 54 ea 07 47  b8 a2 a1 ac 75 7f f1 64  |....T..G....u..d|
00000520  00 40 51 5c 01 00 00 00  8e a3 50 5d 01 00 00 00  |.@Q\......P]....|

Last block on this partition is 0x15d50a38e == 5860533134 which is exactly 33 blocks less than total disk size; and GPT table consumes usually 33 blocks (1 block header and 32 blocks partitions array).

So yes, partition table is corrupted. It should be safe to rewrite alternate GPT (there is enough space). But I would not trust parted (it is too high level and hides too much), and use gdisk that offers option to fix it. Of course, preserving 33 sectors from 1565565871 downward before attempting to fix makes sense as well :slight_smile:

11

Thanks, but I must admit it’s over my head and I’m not sure what I should do. It is a disk with no OS and contains all my data files music, photos and Documents so it would be a disaster if I lost it so I’m a bit frightened about making a mistake. Maybe that American president who said “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” should be given priority.

12

???
I would make an exra backup beside the normal backup and why worry then?

13

I’ve had a look at the gdisk options and I am a bit worried about using gdisk -x -s because I’m afraid it will ask me for numbers I don’t understand, here is the output of


gdisk -l /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
4294967296 blocks!
Try reducing the partition table size by 17179869184 entries.
(Use the 's' item on the experts' menu.)
Disk /dev/sdb: 5860533168 sectors, 2.7 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 713BDCEB-C906-4D1A-A0D4-1E9F04687D2F
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1565565838
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 4062 sectors (2.0 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40            2087   1024.0 KiB  EF02  BIOS boot partition
   2            6144      5843795967   2.7 TiB     0700  
   3      5843795968      5860533134   8.0 GiB     8200  Linux swap

As you can see it suggests using gdisk -x -s
What’s confusing is the output talks about blocks, entries and sectors
It says reduce the partition table size by 17179869184 entries and then ‘Partition table holds up to 128 entries’ What am I missing?

14

You’re right I’ll try and find the space to do it.

15

It’s misleading. It simply compares last usable block in main partition header and assumes everything after it should be backup partition table. Could you show

gdisk /dev/sdb
v
q

It compares main and backup partition tables and does some more sanity checks.

16 

gdisk /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
4294967296 blocks!
Try reducing the partition table size by 17179869184 entries.
(Use the 's' item on the experts' menu.)

Command (? for help): v

Problem: The secondary header's self-pointer indicates that it doesn't reside
at the end of the disk. If you've added a disk to a RAID array, use the 'e'
option on the experts' menu to adjust the secondary header's and partition
table's locations.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
4294967296 blocks!
Try reducing the partition table size by 17179869184 entries.
(Use the 's' item on the experts' menu.)

Identified 2 problems!

Command (? for help): q
17

So you actually have backup partition table in the middle of file system and it was not even overwritten so far. You can use gdisk to move backup to end of disk where it should have been. To test it:

gdisk /dev/sdb
x
e
v
q

This enters expert menu, changes main and backup partition headers to indicate backup partition table is now at the end of disk and verifies result (in particular, that backup actually fits in available space). It will not write anything to disk.

18

While work is done on repairing this situation, I want to draw attention to the fact that after this is repaired, you should realy contemplate on how this could be created. That is, I hope you want to avoid breaking your disk partitioning again in the future.

I can think of one way to get what you got and that is copying (the so called “cloning”) of a smaller disk to this larger disk. And after that is done doing some new partitioning.

19

thanks, here’s the result :-


gdisk /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
4294967296 blocks!
Try reducing the partition table size by 17179869184 entries.
(Use the 's' item on the experts' menu.)

Command (? for help): x

Expert command (? for help): v

Problem: The secondary header's self-pointer indicates that it doesn't reside
at the end of the disk. If you've added a disk to a RAID array, use the 'e'
option on the experts' menu to adjust the secondary header's and partition
table's locations.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
4294967296 blocks!
Try reducing the partition table size by 17179869184 entries.
(Use the 's' item on the experts' menu.)

Identified 2 problems!

Expert command (? for help): q

I spent last night trying to reduce the space occupied on sbd2 so I could back it up somewhere else and it really opened up a can of worms because apparently I moved a lot of stuff there as a backup and then failed to delete them after I resolved whatever problem I had then. So I’m slowly but surely eliminating the double copies as I find them, I’m getting close but not there yet.

20

You did not do what I asked.