Topic: recover from hd crash

[isaac]

i'm not e real linux expert so please bear with me:

after some problems with my isp i had to reboot my e-smith (sme 6.01) server a few times after which the server reported a corrupted filesystem (i may have swiched off the power by accident). the automated recovery of the filesystem failes after 45% of the recovery procedure and e-smith wants me to try the disk recovery manualy with fsck but i'm not familiar enough to do complete this task properly.

for now i would be glad enough to recover some files from a samba share on the corrupted disk so i have tried some more oportunistic procedures (since i do not have not have a spare linux system):

1: i reinstalled e-smith on a new disk and connected the corrupted disk as a second slave. this brought me in exactly the same position as before since e-smith reports the corrupted filesystem on the second disk and forces me to repair the system manualy with fsck. it looks asif e-smith tries to boot form the corrupted disk, but a assume it just tries to mount it.

2: i moved the corrupted disk to a windows machine   and tried to repair the disk with partition macic pro 7. However this program generates an access violation error when checking the disk

3: i burned a kanotix (knoppix) bootcd and started it on the windows pc. now i can view the corrupted disk but i have no (read)access to the information bay directories where i think i put the files i want to recover. i tried adding user admin, but since kanotix runs from cd it wont let me active another user (i assume).

so i'm at a loss on what to do next. i can install another linux system, but for this i'd like to have two questions answered:

a: if i install another distro will i be able to add (connect) my corrupted disk and still be able to boot the system properly (ie skip checking the corrupted disk and/or automatically mounting the disk) so i have time to get familiar with the system and try some other recovery procedures (like e2fsck i think).

b: suppose i succeed to access the corrupted disk will a be able to view (and copy) the sme-user-files as the new system root?

i would be glad with any suggestion.

TIA Isaac

[guest22]

try booting your box in single user mode.

- Boot the box
- Wait for the SME Server splash screen
- Hit CTRL-X
- Hit tab
- Enter the [image name] single

It will get to a prompt from where you can start checking the disk.

[Reinhold]

Isaac,

First do what Mijnheer Wang told you <BigSmile>.
In a still booting system it's always the better way to fix things directly in single user mode.

It seems you will be able to read it (g) so go for http://www.selflinux.org/ to learn ...
or remember that linux ALWAYS has a built-in help- manual...  
type    "man e2fsck"  and you will also learn about ext3 the e-smith filesystem! ("q" will exit)

Using kanotix you DO HAVE a working Linux available (contrary to what you think .-)
however kanotix doesn't really like ext3, prefers grub
and all disks are in read only mode which you have to correct (look for the drive icons on  the left

E-smith doesn't boot from the 2nd disk but the BIOS tries to boot from the same old IDE0:0 disk .-)
...go into the BIOS to boot from the new drive OR switch the new e-smith drive to boot-drive-position.

Linux is quite different from DOS partitioning so "partition macic pro 7" isn't really helpful ...
afair it could only repair the partition <sic> on a drive - which isn't defective as to what you report.
Also note you have several free unix partition-tools on your KANOTIX (parted, qtparted ...).

As said above KANOTIX/KNOPPIX -in cd or rescue mode- always (auto-) mounts drives read/only and you have to "sudo" to become super user.
Look for the KNOPPIX super-user menu panel entry ... or for the KANOTIX su entry... (lower left blue icons).

If you cannot succeed with  Hsing Wangs single user boot I'd recommend to hdinstall KANOTIX on that other drive you seem to have (as 2nd OS?).
Make the KANOTIX drive the boot drive, boot Kanotix and then use the many visual "k" probe tools available there.

Note that e2fsck may KILL parts of your filesystem you want so please be careful when running it about "fixing" options or questions that say "y/n"  

Or if your data is really important and not backed up:
Since you seem more familiar with powerquest progs you could make a complete image-copy of your important HD on your spare with "drive image"
then install KANOTIX on that spare HD (2nd OS),
then remove the important disk and  only play with that copy-drive in the beginning  ... sounds like overkill though .-)

Regards
Reinhold

[isaac]

Since the corrupted disk was stil in the windows pc, i retried the kanotix boot cd. after sarching for he root password for quite some time i found that i did not need it at all when activating the root console. after that i was quit surprised that i could also change the read-write options of the fat/windows disks without password. since that was possible i could copy all the files from all ibay/samba share directories to on of the other disks.

Now that all important files are copied, i'm going to  try more "native linux" ways of recovering the corrupted file system.

I thank you both for all your helpful input  

Isaac