So I tried creating a new partition on Fedora 17 using fdisk as follows:

Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (2048-823215039, default 2048):
Using default value 2048
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-9039, default 9039): +15G

Once this was done,instead of formatting the partition I created, I ran the partprobe command to write the changes to the partition table. On rebooting the computer, it drops to the debug shell and gives me the error as follows:

dracut warning:unable to process initqueue
dracut warning:/dev/disk/by-uuid/vg_mymachine does not exist

dropping to debug shell
dracut:/#

While trying to run fsck on the said partition from the debug shell, it says "etc/fstab not found" and inside /etc I see a fstab.empty file.

Is it now possible to retrieve what I have from the computer? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Edit: I've also tried the following steps for additional troubleshooting:

1. I tried to boot using the Fedora disk and tried the rescue mode - says no Linux partition detected.

2. I tried to create an fstab file by combining the entries from blkid and the /etc/mtab file and using the UUIDs from the mtab file - It didn't work. As soon as I rebooted the machine, it promptly dropped me in to the debug shell and the fstab file which i created wansn't there anymore in /etc (part of this solution)