Greetings I have a large system with a fair number of resources which has just come home from the hospital (computer) when I had a disk drive fail abruptly. 1.The tech tells me that the hard drive can be accessed. How do I do a low level transfer to another hard drive? (This would mean that I would have empty sectors but there is some information that I would like to get.) 2. The drive was my 'operating system' drive. That meant that here is where I kept my 14 VirtualBox machines. (One was my business record keeping (accounting) and that is the one that I want real bad but its only 16 months of data so it can be redone but its painful!) How do I set up the hard drive so that files can be moved to my RAID array (which should be just fine) - - - or should I? Should I be setting up this drive as it was before but just looking for a way to do backups? As I understand it operating systems on RAID isn't nice - - - or is it? I am looking for something that doesn't crap out so completely. I understand I should have had backups but I wasn't able to get the shared folder stuff working so that I could seamlessly transfer stuff to my main array. That would also be a viable option if someone can tell me how to cudgel VirtualBox into submission. Questions welcomed. TIA Dee
On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 11:57:49AM -0500, o1bigtenor wrote:
Greetings
I have a large system with a fair number of resources which has just come home from the hospital (computer) when I had a disk drive fail abruptly.
1.The tech tells me that the hard drive can be accessed. How do I do a low level transfer to another hard drive? (This would mean that I would have empty sectors but there is some information that I would like to get.)
ddrescue can be handy for taking an image of a slightly defective disk to somewhere else, so that you can then experiment on the copy to recover things.
2. The drive was my 'operating system' drive. That meant that here is where I kept my 14 VirtualBox machines. (One was my business record keeping (accounting) and that is the one that I want real bad but its only 16 months of data so it can be redone but its painful!)
How do I set up the hard drive so that files can be moved to my RAID array (which should be just fine) - - - or should I? Should I be setting up this drive as it was before but just looking for a way to do backups? As I understand it operating systems on RAID isn't nice - - - or is it?
I think everything should be on RAID (and RAID0 doesn't count of course). OS, swap, data, everything. Disk failures happen, and they are a waste of time to have to deal with. RAID is of course NOT backup and not a sustitute (since RAID does nothing to protect against data corruption and user errors).
I am looking for something that doesn't crap out so completely. I understand I should have had backups but I wasn't able to get the shared folder stuff working so that I could seamlessly transfer stuff to my main array. That would also be a viable option if someone can tell me how to cudgel VirtualBox into submission.
Questions welcomed.
-- Len Sorensen
| From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> | On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 11:57:49AM -0500, o1bigtenor wrote: | > | > I have a large system with a fair number of resources which has just come | > home from the hospital (computer) when I had a disk drive fail abruptly. | > | > 1.The tech tells me that the hard drive can be accessed. How do I do a low | > level transfer to another hard drive? | > (This would mean that I would have empty sectors but there is some | > information that I would like to get.) DON'T make any sudden moves. They are likely to be wrong since you are upset and you are doing something new. | ddrescue can be handy for taking an image of a slightly defective | disk to somewhere else, so that you can then experiment on the copy to | recover things. Yes, I do this: 1) raw ddrescue from the whole failing disk to a whole new disk. (Make sure that the new disk is at least as large as the old one!) By copying the whole disk, you get the partition table and boot blocks. But you also get the same UUIDs so it is best to not have the two disks on the same machine after the copy is done (mount etc. will be confused). 2) Then put the failing disk on a shelf 3) Then play with the new disk. I find it best to do this from a live USB stick or CD so I'm not acutally booting off the bad hard drive, the new hard drive, or even just the same controller. Make sure that the live system does not use the sick disk's swap partition. Note: ddrescue is a bit tricky, but it is brilliant. Read the manual twice before using it. Google for examples of usage. I've posted to this list messages about how to use it. You DO want to let it use a logfile! Somewhere in there I do a smartctl -x /dev/sda and capture the output somewhere on another machine. I want to ask the drive what it thinks is going on. BTW, keep in mind that the identification of the problem is provisional. Subsequent observations may point the finger elsewhere. Eg. power supply, disk controller, RAM, sunspots.
On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 11:57:49AM -0500, o1bigtenor wrote:
Greetings
I have a large system with a fair number of resources which has just come home from the hospital (computer) when I had a disk drive fail abruptly.
1.The tech tells me that the hard drive can be accessed. How do I do a low level transfer to another hard drive? (This would mean that I would have empty sectors but there is some information that I would like to get.)
'dd' is the usual answer. But, on a failing disk, it may really kill it. I've been told that freezing your disk helps with recovery.
2. The drive was my 'operating system' drive. That meant that here is where I kept my 14 VirtualBox machines. (One was my business record keeping (accounting) and that is the one that I want real bad but its only 16 months of data so it can be redone but its painful!)
How do I set up the hard drive so that files can be moved to my RAID array (which should be just fine) - - - or should I? Should I be setting up this drive as it was before but just looking for a way to do backups? As I understand it operating systems on RAID isn't nice - - - or is it?
Well, I don't recommend changing your setup, when you're doing recovery. Do the recovery first. Afterwards, you can use RAID for OS. I think, most distro still ask for separate boot partition, eg. /boot as ext4 for MBR setup, and of course /boot/efi as fat32 for UEFI setup. And, do backup.
I am looking for something that doesn't crap out so completely. I understand I should have had backups but I wasn't able to get the shared folder stuff working so that I could seamlessly transfer stuff to my main array. That would also be a viable option if someone can tell me how to cudgel VirtualBox into submission.
Questions welcomed.
TIA
Dee
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On 16 July 2015 at 13:52, William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> wrote:
On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 11:57:49AM -0500, o1bigtenor wrote:
Greetings
I have a large system with a fair number of resources which has just come home from the hospital (computer) when I had a disk drive fail abruptly.
1.The tech tells me that the hard drive can be accessed. How do I do a low level transfer to another hard drive? (This would mean that I would have empty sectors but there is some information that I would like to get.)
'dd' is the usual answer. But, on a failing disk, it may really kill it. I've been told that freezing your disk helps with recovery.
I've actually done that: ran the power into the freezer and the data cable out and got the data I needed: the drive had been pretty much deceased before it went in there. It was surprisingly effective. I suppose it depends on the malady: I'd say it's worth a try. -- Giles http://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
participants (5)
-
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Giles Orr -
Lennart Sorensen -
o1bigtenor -
William Park