[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: ext2fs problem

[Shane Allen]

Just for reference, I'm helping out a friend and didn't set up the system; he had actually created the filesystem on /dev/sda; no partition.

I for one, didn't even realize that was possible, but there you have it.

All attempts at data recovery have been unsuccessful, and because of the amount of data and the fact that it was not truly mission critical to anything (just a *huge* investment of time), there are apparently no backups. So... on to rebuilding the site.

> Message: 16
> From: "Cox, Chris" <Chris_Cox at stercomm.com>
> To: "'discuss at ntlug.org'" <discuss at ntlug.org>
> Subject: RE: [NTLUG:Discuss] ext2fs problem
> Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 09:36:53 -0500
> Reply-To: discuss at ntlug.org
> 
> Unmount the drive at /files
> (make sure no one is in it or else this will fail)
> # umount /files
> 
> Then run fsck on the device partition
> # fsck /dev/sda#
> 
> (now /dev/sda is the whole disk, and not a partition,
> so you will likely be doing something like /dev/sda1
> in reality)
> 
> If you want to see your partition table, use fdisk:
> 
> # fdisk /dev/sda
> (type m for help, but the option to view the partition table
> is 'p', use 'q' to quit once you've seen your parition
> table)
> 
> It is likely that you will see a partition at /dev/sda1...
> that's probably what you want to fsck on.
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: discuss-admin at ntlug.org 
> > [mailto:discuss-admin at ntlug.org]On Behalf
> > Of Shane Allen
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 6:26 PM
> > To: discuss at ntlug.org
> > Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] ext2fs problem
> > 
> > 
> > Below is the output of two commands. Where I am stuck 
> > currently is that I am not terribly familiar with the 
> > filesystems... It's not something I've ever spent much time learning.
> > 
> > Do any of you have any sage advice for how I can go about 
> > repairing the drive (array)? Also, if you have a suggestion, 
> > what do you think the chances are that the suggestion will 
> > work, and what do you think the chances are that it will 
> > leave the drive unrecoverable? I don't expect perfect guesses 
> > here, obviously. TIA
> > 
> > [root at enterprise /root]# df -H
> > Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> > /dev/hda1             255M   71M  170M  30% /
> > /dev/hda5             1.0G   12M  972M   2% /home
> > /dev/hda8             255M   19k  241M   1% /tmp
> > /dev/hda9             3.5G  2.2G  1.1G  66% /usr
> > /dev/hda7             510M   72M  411M  15% /var
> > /dev/sda              236G  190G   34G  85% /files
> > 
> > [root at enterprise /root]# fsck /files
> > Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
> > e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
> > fsck.ext2: Input/output error while trying to open /files
> > 
> > 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>
> > 
> > --
> > Shane Allen <shane at tacni.net>