Re: Questions for the hard disk recovery gurus
On Sun, Aug 30, 2020, 2:01 AM Philip Rhoades wrote: > Samuel, > > > On 2020-08-30 17:12, Samuel Sieb wrote: > > On 8/30/20 12:07 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote: > >> that it would take weeks! So unless someone can suggest a faster > >> method of fixing the partition (mainly just as an exercise now) or at > >> least just working out what is wrong with it, I guess I will just have > >> to re-create the partition? > > > > Since you have a very recent full backup, I would recommend just > > reformatting the partition. If the damage is that extensive, it's not > > worth trying to fix it. > > > You are probably right - it would be an interesting exercise if it could > be done though . . > It's pretty good. You could file a bug against e2fsprogs in RHBZ. But I think you'll get a faster response just going direct to the linux-ext4 list. Are there any kernel messages at the time of the original problem? Complete dmesg preferred. smartctl -x /dev/ as well. And et them know e2fsprogs version. -- Chris Murphy ___ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
Re: Questions for the hard disk recovery gurus
On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 at 04:08, Philip Rhoades wrote: > People, > > I know this is not strictly a Fedora issue but I only use Fedora so I am > hoping people here can help - maybe we should have a separate mailing > list or forum topic for this sort of hard disk stuff? > > Just after a full backup (fortunately) the 7.2TB /home partition > (/dev/sda5) on my email server somehow got corrupted. Think about possible hardware issues including: overheating, bad cables, failed disk. smartmontools can tell you about problems with the drive and run the drive's built-in tests. Some vendors will issue a warranty return authorization on the strength of linux smartctl results. > After I realised > there was a problem, I unmounted the partition and tried: > >e2fsck -y /dev/sda5 > > but the process hangs after “Clone multiply-claimed blocks?” and the > disk goes quiet - I could still break out with CTRL-C but I can't get > past this point in the attempted fix process. So I thought I would just > produce a list of the affected files and then just delete the inodes or > just restore from backup but when I tried: > >debugfs -R "ncheck 187536544" /dev/sda5 > > it took hours to find nothing but printed screenfulls of: > >ncheck: "Directory block checksum" does not match directory block > while calling ext2_dir_iterate > > and there are 1069 inodes to check! > > I am guessing that if I just try to delete each of the inodes with: > >debugfs -R "clri " /dev/sda5 > > that it would take weeks! So unless someone can suggest a faster method > of fixing the partition (mainly just as an exercise now) or at least > just working out what is wrong with it, I guess I will just have to > re-create the partition? > I wouldn't spend any time on this drive until I had confidence in the hardware. -- George N. White III ___ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
Re: Questions for the hard disk recovery gurus
On Sun, 2020-08-30 at 08:10 -0500, Robert Nichols wrote: > On 8/30/20 3:01 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote: > > Samuel, > > > > > > On 2020-08-30 17:12, Samuel Sieb wrote: > > > On 8/30/20 12:07 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote: > > > > that it would take weeks! So unless someone can suggest a faster > > > > method of fixing the partition (mainly just as an exercise now) or at > > > > least just working out what is wrong with it, I guess I will just have > > > > to re-create the partition? > > > > > > Since you have a very recent full backup, I would recommend just > > > reformatting the partition. If the damage is that extensive, it's not > > > worth trying to fix it. > > > > You are probably right - it would be an interesting exercise if it could be > > done though . . > > There is no point in even trying. "Multiply claimed blocks" is an > unrecoverable situation. Sure, each block can be cloned to give each file its > own copy. The filesystem will now be consistent, but the some files will have > corrupted content. Only one of those files (probably the newest one) claiming > the block will hold its correct data. It's the job of _fsck_ to make the > filesystem consistent, and not necessarily to preserve user data in the > process. Having a consistent filesystem with corrupted file content is > arguably a worse situation than a filesystem with known, detectable > corruption. I always used to tell people that "an empty filesystem is consistent". poc ___ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
Re: Questions for the hard disk recovery gurus
On 8/30/20 3:01 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote: Samuel, On 2020-08-30 17:12, Samuel Sieb wrote: On 8/30/20 12:07 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote: that it would take weeks! So unless someone can suggest a faster method of fixing the partition (mainly just as an exercise now) or at least just working out what is wrong with it, I guess I will just have to re-create the partition? Since you have a very recent full backup, I would recommend just reformatting the partition. If the damage is that extensive, it's not worth trying to fix it. You are probably right - it would be an interesting exercise if it could be done though . . There is no point in even trying. "Multiply claimed blocks" is an unrecoverable situation. Sure, each block can be cloned to give each file its own copy. The filesystem will now be consistent, but the some files will have corrupted content. Only one of those files (probably the newest one) claiming the block will hold its correct data. It's the job of _fsck_ to make the filesystem consistent, and not necessarily to preserve user data in the process. Having a consistent filesystem with corrupted file content is arguably a worse situation than a filesystem with known, detectable corruption. -- Bob Nichols "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address. Do NOT delete it. ___ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
Re: Questions for the hard disk recovery gurus
Samuel, On 2020-08-30 17:12, Samuel Sieb wrote: On 8/30/20 12:07 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote: that it would take weeks! So unless someone can suggest a faster method of fixing the partition (mainly just as an exercise now) or at least just working out what is wrong with it, I guess I will just have to re-create the partition? Since you have a very recent full backup, I would recommend just reformatting the partition. If the damage is that extensive, it's not worth trying to fix it. You are probably right - it would be an interesting exercise if it could be done though . . P. -- Philip Rhoades PO Box 896 Cowra NSW 2794 Australia E-mail: p...@pricom.com.au ___ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
Re: Questions for the hard disk recovery gurus
On 8/30/20 12:07 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote: that it would take weeks! So unless someone can suggest a faster method of fixing the partition (mainly just as an exercise now) or at least just working out what is wrong with it, I guess I will just have to re-create the partition? Since you have a very recent full backup, I would recommend just reformatting the partition. If the damage is that extensive, it's not worth trying to fix it. ___ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
Questions for the hard disk recovery gurus
People, I know this is not strictly a Fedora issue but I only use Fedora so I am hoping people here can help - maybe we should have a separate mailing list or forum topic for this sort of hard disk stuff? Just after a full backup (fortunately) the 7.2TB /home partition (/dev/sda5) on my email server somehow got corrupted. After I realised there was a problem, I unmounted the partition and tried: e2fsck -y /dev/sda5 but the process hangs after “Clone multiply-claimed blocks?” and the disk goes quiet - I could still break out with CTRL-C but I can't get past this point in the attempted fix process. So I thought I would just produce a list of the affected files and then just delete the inodes or just restore from backup but when I tried: debugfs -R "ncheck 187536544" /dev/sda5 it took hours to find nothing but printed screenfulls of: ncheck: "Directory block checksum" does not match directory block while calling ext2_dir_iterate and there are 1069 inodes to check! I am guessing that if I just try to delete each of the inodes with: debugfs -R "clri " /dev/sda5 that it would take weeks! So unless someone can suggest a faster method of fixing the partition (mainly just as an exercise now) or at least just working out what is wrong with it, I guess I will just have to re-create the partition? Thanks, Phil. -- Philip Rhoades PO Box 896 Cowra NSW 2794 Australia E-mail: p...@pricom.com.au ___ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
