[linux-lvm] Can't access LVM volume group after changing a non-LVM partition

[Òscar Álvarez Vilaplana]

Hi,

When I try to access my lvm group (for example, running vgdisplay) I
get the following error:
  Couldn't find device with uuid '5VBBLW-70Dj-fwjf-Xvzc-7VZr-icQa-l9XQ2N'.
  Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group data.
  Couldn't find device with uuid '5VBBLW-70Dj-fwjf-Xvzc-7VZr-icQa-l9XQ2N'.
  Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group data.
  Volume group "data" doesn't exist

It happened just right after I deleted a /dev/hda6 (a *non-lvm*
partition) and created two partitions in the space that the deleted
partition was occupying (/dev/hda6 and /dev/hda8) (my idea was to
shrink /dev/hda6, and that did work).

Here's what the partition table looked before and after the change:

before:
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        1459    11719386   8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda2            1460        3891    19535040   83  Linux
/dev/hda3            3892       14593    85963815    5  Extended
/dev/hda5            3892        5107     9767488+  8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda6            5108       14225    73240303+  83  Linux
/dev/hda7           14226       14471     1975963+  8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda8           14472       14593      979933+  82  Linux swap

after:
/dev/hda1   *           1        1459    11719386   8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda2            1460        3891    19535040   83  Linux
/dev/hda3            3892       14593    85963815    5  Extended
/dev/hda5            3892        5107     9767488+  8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda6           11796       14225    19518943+  8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda7           14226       14471     1975963+  8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda8            5108       11795    53721328+  83  Linux


I looked up (in /etc/lvm) the uuid lvm was complaining about and found
out it corresponds to /dev/hda7. This seems odd, /dev/hda7 should not
have been affected by the partition deleting & creation... its start
and end cylinder remained the same throughout the process and there
was no partition overlapping.

I thought maybe changing the uuid for /dev/hda7 in the /etc/lvm files,
but I couldn't find how to get the correct uuid for /dev/hda7.

What course of action do you suggest? Is it possible to get the data back?

Thanks a lot,
Oscar.