[vox-tech] Disk Failure - Data Retrieval?

[Marc Elliot Hall]

As expected (and reported in my unresponded-to-post to this list on 
09/15/2003), the hard disk I keep my media collection on has failed. 
Since this disk was the first one physically installed in my Mandrake 
box, it was /dev/hda1, all in one large partition. After an unclean 
shutdown, the system would not boot - I got an MBR: 0x?? error (nope, 
didn't write down the last two characters; so I don't know the specific 
cause) on power up. Tried a few more times: no luck, so it wasn't a 
transient error.

Suspecting that the disk was hosed, I then:

* swapped my IDE cables;
* booted from the Mandrake 9.1 CD in rescue mode;
* switched parameters in /etc/fstab to establish my mount points for 
various directories to /dev/hda and /dev/hdb instead of /dev/hdc and 
/dev/hdd, respectively;
* wrote the MBR to /dev/hda (that had previously been /dev/hdc);
* symlinked /etc/lilo.conf to /mnt/etc/lilo.conf;
* ran LILO; and
* rebooted.

So, now I'm back in business.

However, I still don't have my media collection online! Because I have 
the original CDs, I didn't keep backups of this particular disk. 
Unfortunate, but reasonable considering the expense of tape backup 
solutions and my current unemployment :^(

Short of re-ripping my insanely large CD collection, is there an easy 
way to retreive the data from my disk? Based on what I've tried so far, 
it appears that the boot sector and/or partition table of the disk are 
corrupted.

What I've tried so far:

# fsck.ext3 /dev/hdc1
e2fsck 1.32 (09-Nov-2002)
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdc1

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>

# fsck.ext3 /dev/hdc
e2fsck 1.32 (09-Nov-2002)
fsck.ext3: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read 
while trying to open /dev/hdc
Could this be a zero-length partition?

# fdisk -l /dev/hdc

(Nothing except a blank line results. Just to check, I verified another 
disk:)

# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40027029504 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77557 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

    Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1       507    255496+  83  Linux
/dev/hda2           508     77558  38833368    5  Extended
/dev/hda5           508      1319    409216+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda6          1320     20102   9466600+  83  Linux
/dev/hda7         20103     50911  15527704+  83  Linux
/dev/hda8         50912     77558  13429720+  83  Linux

(so it's not that I can't use fdisk...)

# sfdisk -l /dev/hdc

Disk /dev/hdc: 158816 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track
read: Input/output error

sfdisk: read error on /dev/hdc - cannot read sector 0
  /dev/hdc: unrecognized partition
No partitions found

Does anyone have any ideas?



-- 
Marc Elliot Hall           www.hallmarc.net/quick_resume.html
P.O. Box 435
Shingle Springs, CA 95682
www.hallmarc.net		                      Hire me!