Topic: possible to mount an SME partition in windows?

[spyrule]

Hello,
 
 I have an SME server that is currently not working, but I need to get files off of the hdd, is their a way to mount the hdd from within a windows xp machine to load the files from where the Samba stores we're located?

 ANY help is GREATLY apreciated.

[pfloor]

You can not "mount" anything in Windows.  Windows uses FAT or NTFS and FAT/NTFS doesn't work that way.

Windows doesn't know how to read a disk formatted by SME.

You can try to physically install the hard drive in a Windows box and download some software that allows Windows to read Linux type formatted drives from within windows.

http://www.google.com/search?q=read+linux+drive+in+windows&rls=com.microsoft:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

Gives many results about reading Linux drives from within Windows.  Many free utilities.

Good Luck.

[spyrule]

Yeah,

 I realize it's not native to windows, however I was just wondering if anybody knows of any tools that actually WORK with SME.

 main reason, is I've tried several of these tools, and they all ready partition 0, but not the partition 1 (which when I read it in Ext2ifs it tells me it's a raid partition... when in fact it has never been part of any raid...).

 Obviously, all the data I need is on the second partition, so this is the problem I am looking to gap...

[pfloor]

read it in Ext2ifs it tells me it's a raid partition... when in fact it has never been part of any raid...).

FYI: Any drive installed in SME is automatically installed as a raid device (EVEN if it is a single drive install) for future addition of drives to facilitate the build of a raid1 array unless you specifically chose the no-raid install option.

I didn't think about the RAID situation and I don't know if there are any utilities available to read a RAID partition.

[raem]

spyrule

A better approach may be to build another "test" sme server and mount your "not working" drive, and try to read/transfer the files that way.

This Howto may assist you to do the above.
http://wiki.contribs.org/AddExtraHardDisk

[mmccarn]

The SME 7.2 CD includes a 'rescue mode' boot option that may help.

Or you could download a LiveCD version of Mepis and boot from that to see if it recognizes the SME hdd.
Mepis Downloads: http://www.mepis.org/mirrors

Or perhaps a CentOS 4.4 LiveCD: http://vault.centos.org/4.4/isos/i386/

[spyrule]

So when I run the SME Rescue, I am able to mount the drive and see all the files I need,

 However, I currently do not have a very effective way of copying the data off.

 I DO have a USB Key, but when I plug it in, I am unable to figure out how to mount it (or get to it).

 any help here, and I can stop bugging you guys.

 If you could let me know the commands to mount a fat formatted usb key, that would be fantabulous!

 thank you again in advance,

 Spyrule.

[mmccarn]

Here's everything I know about it: http://wiki.contribs.org/USBDisks

You might get different behavior if you connect the drive before booting up.

Also, if you're not worried about the hardware itself you should be able to re-install SME from the CD and get it to boot back up...

[cactus]

Also, if you're not worried about the hardware itself you should be able to re-install SME from the CD and get it to boot back up...

But bare in mind that re-installing will format your drives... so only do this after removing the drive you would like to recover or after recovering your data to an other disk which is not in you machine when you install SME Server.

[girkers]

Have you tried using Knoppix or Ubuntu live CDs, they may be a bit easier to use. Also have your USB drive plugged in when you boot you computer and the LiveCD may mount it automatically for you.

[byte]

But bare in mind that re-installing will format your drives...

Not if you choose the Upgrade previous SME Server version, you get 2 options if you already have SME Server installed on your h/d either Erase all drives or Upgrade.

[cactus]

Not if you choose the Upgrade previous SME Server version, you get 2 options if you already have SME Server installed on your h/d either Erase all drives or Upgrade.

Ah ok... I never dared...

[mmccarn]

I never dared...

There have been several users who had to 'upgrade' to 7.2 using CD once yum got messed up...

[spyrule]

This problem has now been fixed.

 A co-worker who has 20+ years of *nix experience, helped me through the problems. We we're eventually able to recover the server to the point where we could boot up with no errors, however none of the deamons would start. We would get the login prompt and after typing in the username it would go right back to asking for the username again. So we booted up in single user mode, loaded the NIC, and was able to connect to an outside ftp server, and ftp all the files out.

 I then tried an "upgrade" to the OS, to see if it would fix it, and it didn't.  It still wouldn't load the deamons, so at that point, I simply did a full re-install. However this time I did the "sme noraid" function, so that if problem occur in the future, I can just mount the partition normally without all the previous issues.

 At this point the problem is resolved, but I do recommend for people in the future that if you run the software raid feature, MAKE SURE you have a backup BEFORE you start messing around with updates. LOL.

 Cheers and thanks to everybody for the suggestions,

 Spyrule.

[Gaston94]

Hi,
nice that you get out trouble, but let me point out what I think is a bad choice :

However this time I did the "sme noraid" function, so that if problem occur in the future, I can just mount the partition normally without all the previous issues.

You just get out easy way to have redundancy, should you have two identical disk.

And this was not the point why you were not able to access "partition 1". You stated earlier that

I've tried several of these tools, and they all read partition 0, but not the partition 1 (which when I read it in Ext2ifs it tells me it's a raid partition... when in fact it has never been part of any raid...)

and both partition are part of a raid device (look at the wiki to have deeper info about the disk layout).

The point were the tools got confused is that standard SME install is using LVM for "partition1". Access to data on the volume is not straight forward (and not only under windows).

Googling a little bit I saw that Chrysocome (explore2fs is a nice tool under windows) is now having a tool which can access LVM2 volume :http://www.chrysocome.net/virtualvolumes .

I have never tried it and won't be able in a short future. Nevertheless that should be more or less the tool you were looking at.

Gaston

[spyrule]

I would love to have raid redundancy... stupid thing is, the server I was given, literally only has one single sata connection for the harddrive. So dual drives is not possible in this case, without getting a secondary sata controller card, which I guarantee you, my work will NEVER fund (they are seriously cheap ass).