I was following http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_resi...xt3_partitions and when i reboot and run:

root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# fsck -n /dev/sda7
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda7

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

so i ran e2fsck with all the block numbers that you need (forget exactly what tool i used to find where the superblocks are hidden) no dice

then i ran testdisk and had it look for the superblock, no results

anyone have any ideas?

fdisk -l for reference:

root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 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: 0x97646c29

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          64      512000   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              64       38912   312046593    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5              64         326     2104320   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6   *         327        2938    20972544   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            2938       38912   288968672+  83  Linux

To be honest it looks like I lost it... Next step if that happens is to dump the partition to an image file and hope i can find or write some software to parse through the data looking for known file headers, i think.