Update Master Boot Record (MBR) replacing the System disk

Some times ago, I've written an article explaining how to restore MBR with grub. It works only if there is no disk change.

Almost the same procedure can be used if the System disk change.

Restore lost partition with fdisk

Unfortunately, there is various situations where partition can "vanish" (bad manipulation, unwanted application behaviour, issue while using a partition manager ...).
Some years ago, I've started using a very simple rule:

Save the result of fdisk -l into a text file after each disk/partition management

Install VMware-server 2.0.2 under kernel 2.6.31, 2.6.32 or 2.6.33

The free VMware-server has not evolved since end October of 2009 (v2.0.2), although fortunately Linux kernel keeps evolving.
Such a way, there is a gap between VMware-server modules source code and awaited kernel source code.

Check a File System

To check a file system you can use the fsck command.
For detailed information checking GNU/Linux ext2/ext3/ext4 file system, you should use e2fsck.

Check badblocks on a device

If error occurs, strange behaviour or if SMART error are reported (Cf. instructions to get report), you should check file System (see next post), including bad blocks.