@tedrogers
after formatting you get that result with "wit analyze". I think that /dev/sdb was the right one. And a test with analyse should give you much info before formatting.
If analyze find something it looks like:
Code:
ANALYZE /dev/sdb2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂHD SECTORSÂÂWBFS SECTORSÂÂ DISCSÂÂÂÂÂÂ (all values in hex)
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ WBFSÂÂÂÂ totalÂÂsecÂÂtotalÂÂÂÂsecÂÂmax inode
NAMEÂÂÂÂmagic vrsÂÂÂÂ num sizeÂÂ numÂÂÂÂsizeÂÂnum sizeÂÂADDITIONAL INFORMATION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADER:ÂÂÂÂokÂÂ1ÂÂba70449ÂÂ200ÂÂba70ÂÂ200000ÂÂ d6 2600ÂÂWBFS header scanning
INODE-TIM: okÂÂ1ÂÂba70449ÂÂ200ÂÂba70ÂÂ200000ÂÂ d6 2600ÂÂ2010-03-12 12:11:38 n=214
DISCS:ÂÂÂÂÂÂ-ÂÂ0ÂÂba70449ÂÂ200ÂÂba70ÂÂ200000ÂÂ d6 2600ÂÂ17 disc header found
CALCÂÂ512:ÂÂ-ÂÂ1ÂÂba70449ÂÂ200ÂÂba70ÂÂ200000ÂÂ d6 2600ÂÂcalculation of init function
CALC 1024:ÂÂ-ÂÂ1ÂÂ5d38224ÂÂ400ÂÂba70ÂÂ200000ÂÂ cc 2800ÂÂ " but sector-size=1024
CALC 2048:ÂÂ-ÂÂ1ÂÂ2e9c112ÂÂ800ÂÂba70ÂÂ200000ÂÂ cc 2800ÂÂ " but sector-size=2048
CALC 4096:ÂÂ-ÂÂ1ÂÂ174e089 1000ÂÂba70ÂÂ200000ÂÂ a9 3000ÂÂ " but sector-size=4096
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The docu explains the lines:
Code:
...
The columns (all numbers are printed in hex):
ÂÂÂÂNAME
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂShort name of the analyze mode.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- HEADER:ÂÂResult of header analyzing (first 12 bytes).
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- INODE-*: Result of INODE-INFO searching.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- INODE-TIM: The newest INODE found.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- INODE-CNT: The inodes with the largest equal-inodes-count.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- INODE-1ST: The first inodes found if not already printed.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- DISCS:ÂÂ Result of searching discs in the WBFS management area.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- CALC #:ÂÂCalculation of the INIT function.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- OLD #:ÂÂ Calculation of the INIT function with the old buggy algorithm.
ÂÂÂÂWBFS magic:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"ok" if a WBFS magic was found.
ÂÂÂÂWBFS vrs:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂWBFS version.
ÂÂÂÂHD SECTORS total num:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂTotal number of HS sectors of the file/partition.
ÂÂÂÂHD SECTORS sec size:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe harddisk sector size of the file/partition.
ÂÂÂÂWBFS SECTORS total num:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂTotal number of WBFS sectors. The maximum if 0x10000 = 65536.
ÂÂÂÂWBFS SECTORS sec size:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe WBFS sector size of the file/partition.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
ÂÂÂÂDISCS max num:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂMaximal possible discs.
ÂÂÂÂDISCS inode size:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe disc info size for a single disc.
ÂÂÂÂADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAdditiional informaton.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- INODE: most current date and number of equal inodes infos found.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ- DISCS: number of discs found in the management area of WEBFS.
The output can also be used to setup parameters for the INIT command.
And for /dev/sdb you have
- HEADER because of formatting
- CALC-* as example calculations
And because of formatting /dev/sdb you has lost your disk partition table and no access to partiton /dev/sdb1.
Solution:
backup the first 50 MB of your drive with "dd if=/dev/sdb of=backup-file bs=1m count=50"
you can restore it with "dd if=backup-file of=/dev/sdb bs=1m"
then use fdisk to create a new partition table (don't format) and then try to recover (analyze first) /dev/sdb1. Perhaps there are tools that will repair you partition table.
EDIT
I'm not perfect. So think about what I said before executing it.
@Wiimm
Hi Wiimm, and thanks so much for being patient with me.
I thought hard about what you suggest and I have studied your posts and compared with my results several times, and I am beginning to understand (it's complex), but I am still having trouble.
The command to backup "dd if=/dev/sdb of=backup-file bs=1m count=50" does not work. I tried in Windows 7 and the command "dd is not recognised".
So I looked it up and found it was a Linux backup application, so I tried it in Ubuntu.
The command still did not work and for the command "dd if=/dev/sdb of=backup-file bs=1m count=50" it returned the error "dd: invalid number `1m'"...so I looked in the manual for "dd" and found that bs= BYTES. So I wonder if you meant "bs=1" and not "bs=1m"? Is the "m" a mistake?
To test, as a backup cannot do any harm, the command "dd if=/dev/sdb of=backup-file bs=1 count=50" (no "m") worked fine...I think. Can you confirm success?
It did this:
Code:
50+0 records in
50+0 records out
50 bytes (50 B) copied, 0.0206131 s, 2.4 kB/s
This produced a file of 50 bytes and not 50MB....so it can't be right?
If I wanted a 50MB backup, then shouldn't the command be:
Code:
dd if=/dev/sdb of=backup-file bs=1 count=52428800
*Notice the count was changed from count=50*
This did produce a file of 50MB so I assume this is this now correct? Agreed?
When doing fdisk, it produced this output:
Code:
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xb5b0b14a.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)
WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ sectors (command 'u').
The worrying thing here is the part in RED and bold below. What does this mean?
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)
Finally, how would I go about making a new partition table with fdisk?
Would I use option O from the HELP in fdisk?
CODEoÂÂ create a new empty DOS partition table
Saturday dude. 
JM 
