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I recently had trouble with the MBR/partition table on my laptop. I managed to rebuild the partition table using testdisk, and install GRUB to get it booting properly again (I'm using a dual-boot with Windows 7). However, I can no longer run gparted properly as I get the error Can't have a partition outside the disk!.

fdisk -l output looks like this:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x188f12a9

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         154     1228800    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2             154       13446   106775171    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3           13447       28745   122880000   83  Linux
/dev/sda4           28745       30402    13317664+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           28745       29127     3069944   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6           29127       30402    10240000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

So the disk has 30401 cylinders, but sda6 ends at cylinder 30402; presumably that's where the problem is.

When I run testdisk it has the 6th partition ending at cylinder 30401, but writing it to the partition table does not make any difference.

Is there an easy way to fix this?

I've read elsewhere that I could fix this by manually editing the partition table, but I'd like really specific instructions as I don't really know much about this area!

jwaddell
  • 263

2 Answers2

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Use fdisk. Put it into sector mode with the u command, then p to print the table, d to delete the partition, and then n to recreate it. When you recreate it, use the same starting sector, but an ending sector that actually fits within the disk. When you are done and have double checked ( p again ), save and quit with w.

psusi
  • 38,031
1

Download and install Boot Repair, an automated recovery tool that usually solves these kind of problems.

Tom Brossman
  • 13,297
Julien Chau
  • 1,350