Retrieve Data Issue

[Durkatlon]

Looks like the drive is ad4 and the partition is the first one. What is the output of

ls -l /dev/ad4*

?

 

[bigman]

crw-r------- 1 root operator 0, 97 Aug 31 20:25 /dev/ad4
crw-r------- 1 root operator 0, 100 Aug 31 20:25 /dev/ad4s1
crw-r------- 1 root operator 0, 101 Aug 31 20:25 /dev/ad4s2
crw-r------- 1 root operator 0, 102 Aug 31 20:25 /dev/ad4s5

 

[Durkatlon]

Sorry for the delay. OK, here is where it gets a bit tricky. I tried to do this last night with an ext3 volume and it didn't quite work because it said the volume was dirty. Now, you're saying your volume is actually ext4. I have no idea how good the support is in FreeBSD for this filesystem at this point, and if it can be mounted as an ext2.

So, if (and that's a big if at this point) all goes according to plan, you should be able to mount like this in Fixit (this assumes you've already made the soft-link for the kernel modules etc as we discussed before):

Code:

Fixit# kldload ext2fs
Fixit# mount -t ext2fs /dev/ad4s1 /mnt/empty

I was getting "Invalid argument" errors when I tried it on my dirty ext3, so we'll see what you experience. If it doesn't work for you I would suggest you try a different filesystem on the target drive (perhaps NTFS?).

 

[bigman]

Hello Durkatlon, I hope that you had a great Weekend and Labor Day!

Ok, I was never able to get it to work with the ext4 Files System either, and I am getting confused (Sorry). Since you suggested it above I took and empty drive and just formatted it with NTFS, and went back through all the commands in FreeBSD. Here is where I am getting confused. If I issue the command cp -rpv /mnt/Test/* /mnt/empty I get no such file or directory (Obviously because it is not mounted at /mnt/empty). The issue is I can't seem to figure out where my "Empty" drive is mounted just by issuing the "Mount" command, and if I do "gpart show" it does show up in the list.

If I run the command cp -rpv /mnt/Test/* /mnt

It tells me

/: write failed, filesystem is full
cp: /mnt/New Folder/Files .PDFs/FILE0000.pdf: No Space Left on Device.

more data.....


There is plenty of space left on the device because it is formatted and is 8GB. Nothing else is on this drive. Any thoughts??


Justin

 

[Durkatlon]

The reason why you cannot copy to /mnt/empty is because the drive is not mapped there unless you mount it first. I have given up on ext2/3/4 at this point, but when I get some time I will experiment with an NTFS drive to see if I can get that to mount in read/write mode under FreeBSD's Fixit shell. More to follow!

 

[bigman]

Durkatlon, I hope you have not given up on ext2/3/4 because of me?? If you are aggravated with the issues I have been having I am very sorry. I do really appreciate all of your help you have given me.

Sounds Great....I look forward to seeing what you find out.



Justin

 

[Durkatlon]

Heh no, it's not you. I have been trying to figure out how to work this Fixit# shell for recovery purposes, but the support for "ext" filesystems is just not that great. None of this is terribly difficult because I personally wouldn't even use an empty drive to move files off a dead drive. I have a minimal install of FreeBSD instead of a LiveCD, so I have working network and can simply mount a CIFS share to copy the data off.

Getting an empty non-ZFS and non-UFS drive mounted in Fixit# is at this point more an exercise in curiosity, and an effort to help us both understand how this might work in case of a real system breakdown.

 

[bigman]

Oh ok, I just wanted to be sure. :)

That makes more since now. Thank you for those details. Yes, I would agree I am very curios as well. I guess I am one that likes to know ahead of time what will happen if I have total failure and how to fix it whether then waiting till it actually happens (Hopefully it never does, but don't we all hope for that!). It sure makes things a lot more complicated in the beginning, but I think it makes it easier in the long run for two reasons. One you know how to handle the issue and two you have learned something new. Anyway, I thank you for helping me work through this.


Justin

 

[bigman]

Hello Durkatlon,

I just wanted to touch base with you and see if you were having any luck with the issue we have been working on??

Hope your week is going well so far



Justin

 

[Durkatlon]

Oh hey, I forgot all about this thread :D. I had all kinds of problems getting a good NTFS "disk" to test with from VMWare because of snapshot commit issues in VMWare GSX itself (yeah, I run an old version!).

Then when I finally got that working I forgot about testing with Fixit. I'll see if I have some time to look at it soon.

 

[bigman]

No Problem...

I look forward to seeing what you come up with when you test it with Fixit. Again, thank you for all the time you have already and still are investing in this to help me out.


Justin

 

[bigman]

Hey Protosd,

Also, just to let you know I still haven't forgotten about the other issue we have been working on. I am stilling trying to get where I can attach that machine to the internet.

I hope you have made it back from your trip ok!


Justin

 

[ProtoSD]

Hi Justin,

No problem, I've got my fingers in too many pies right now anyway! No rush! Just send me a PM and remind me when you're ready and we can follow up here for others who are interested.

I made it back ok, just a little disappointed because I had to come back early.