I recommend using SpinRite 6 available from www.grc.com . I used it a few weeks ago to diagnose an intermittent hard drive and found out that drive is fine, but a few crucial sectors were unreadable. SpinRite did perform in-depth analysis and has restored the drive pretty much completely. Two files I needed to restore by hand.

HTH, Hendrik Schaink


Brad Camroux wrote:
Hi all,

I have a rather severe and urgent problem.  I'm not certain, but I think one of my 
hard drives has crashed (possibly physically, in which case I'm pretty certain that I 
have no hope).  I am unable to boot to my normal screen - the best I can do is the 
root maintenance shell after e2fsck fails.

In this shell, I have managed to discern that it is /dev/hdb that is having trouble.  
Curiously, I am able to get logical output from /dev/hdb3 and /dev/hdb5, while 
/dev/hdb1 and /dev/hdb2 result in severe errors.  I tried running fsck manually with 
no success:

<snip>
Couldn't find ext2 superblock, trying backup blocks
hdb: read_intr: status=0x59
hdb: read_intr: error=0x40 {UncorrectableError}, LBAsect=262147, sector=262147
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:40 (hdb), sector 262147
hdb: read_intr: error=0x40 ... LBAsect=1048591, sector=1048591
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:40 (hdb), sector 1048591
fsck.ext2: Bad magin number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hdb

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 ..., then the superblock 
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
</snip>

I tried this with no luck, getting the same error messages as above with different sectors.  Then I 
tried to reboot, which was unsuccessful, giving me the maintenance root shell.  Tried pressing 
<CTRL>+D for "normal" startup, but that didn't work.

I cannot even boot from CD into something like PHLAK to perform/learn forensics!

Is there anything I can do, or do I just throw the HD out and buy a new one?  (Really 
can't afford this option, but if it's all I can do, then hey....)

Please help... I'm desperate :O(

Thanks in advance,

Brad Camroux


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