Messed up big time....

[KSoD]

So I finally gone and done it. I had to mess around with my settings and now I cant boot back into Ubuntu.

Had to go back to Windows sadly in order to get access to the machine. But basically I know I removed the mount points for all the drives. Why? I dont know. But I can get to the login screen but nothing else.

So I figure I will be reinstalling Ubuntu in a matter of hours just cause I cant stand to be back in Windows. Just gotta download it first. Upset too, I had it perfect. Ugh gotta learn not to play.

 

[MyGodAL3X]

Can't you just boot on a live CD and mount all your drives again?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Just play it safe next time.

I had to reinstall Ubuntu a number of times when I was playing with stuff. It's not an odd occurrence.

But what Jayce and I was talking about via email, was just use Clonezilla and make an image after the fresh install. That way, you can just re-image the drive if your ever get lost.

 

[KSoD]

Can't you just boot on a live CD and mount all your drives again?

Actually I did this. But I cant get my Swap partition to activate properly.

Just play it safe next time.

I had to reinstall Ubuntu a number of times when I was playing with stuff. It's not an odd occurrence.

But what Jayce and I was talking about via email, was just use Clonezilla and make an image after the fresh install. That way, you can just re-image the drive if your ever get lost.

That is no fun. You dont learn by playing it safe. I was able to just use the Live CD, Terminal and some quick thinking to get the Ubuntu install back up. I am back in it right now. I am thinking about doing CloneZilla just in case, but really if I can get the Swap mounted properly, then I have no issues as all.

*Edit*

Just like that, got it fixed. Even have the swap fixed now. So yeah while I may have messed up, with a bit of patience and some searching, I was able to figure out how I could use the LiveCD and fix the fstab issue I had created. Sure enough after this final reboot, I am back and operational just as I was an hour ago. So an hour of time and BAM fixed.

I still have to figure out how to mount my drives properly. I did try it within fstab as Jayce suggested previously, it didnt work right. The drives disappeared from my Home screen and couldnt be selected. But once they were removed from the fstab, I could use them again.

All in all an hour of work and I learned something new.

 

[Jayce]

"blkid" and fstab can be your best friend or a total headache. I never touch what's already there and only add what I need to add. As long as the syntax for each entry is correct, along with the mount point existing of course, you shouldn't have any issues. You can't really mount UUID=000111222333444555 to /media/storage if /media/storage doesn't exist.

 

[KSoD]

My issue was a bit more complex I think. Due to the fact that I put labels on my drive. I also remapped the Documents and Pictures folder to the newly labeled /media/Documents and /media/Pictures partitions. So when I mounted the drives, by UUID no less, I was not able to access them anymore (They didnt even appear in my folder) nor was the Documents or Pictures folder in the shortcut area.

I am sure if I undo the drive mapping, then redo the mounting, it should sort the issue. But honestly the reboots were my own fault and I had only 1 reboot in a months time. So remounting the drives manually isnt a big deal if i dont have to redo all that work.

 

[Jayce]

Even still, mounting the drives like that shouldn't cause any issues... at least I don't think by looking at it... I never broke up my partitions any further than /home alone simply because I didn't want to run into size issues, where Documents would have a ton of extra space yet Music was maxed, etc.

Speaking of which, I need to start putting money aside for a larger array. My 2x1TB /home is within a few gig of being maxed. Time for some 2x2TB, me thinks. Or should I be crazy and do a RAID 5 with 4x2TB? Think I might buy a lottery ticket tonight...

 

[MindoverMaster]

Think I might buy a lottery ticket tonight...

Either that or try selling something on eBay and hope to get a large bid.

 

[Nitestick]

Mak, I recommend always backing up your /etc directory for all it's config goodness, that way should issues like a destroyed fstab come up you can just fire up a live CD and copy it back.

 

[KSoD]

Thanks for the tip Nitestick. I will do that right now.