[SOLVED] How to copy files from failing HDD using installation disk etc?

grumpyskeptic · 01-22-2024, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

Ok, just a regular partition. How did you try mounting it, Something like?

sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sda3 /mnt

Thanks, after a long pause I get -

Code:

mount: /mnt: can't read superblock on /dev/sda3.

grumpyskeptic · 01-22-2024, 11:01 AM

Just a note that I cannot clone the whole disk as I do not have a bigger HDD, and it does not seem worth the expense to buy one. I am hoping to look at the hdd in a file manager and be able to see what I would want to copy. Thanks.

michaelk · 01-22-2024, 11:02 AM

I might try running fsck with the -n option to see what is wrong but not actually fix anything just yet.

sudo fsck.ext4 -n /dev/sda3

beachboy2 · 01-22-2024, 11:30 AM

grumpyskeptic,

Cloning a copy of your current drive to a larger drive first may be a good idea. It all depends on how much you value the data on your HDD.

Alternatively, search for a professional, reputable data recovery company to deal with your HDD.

Data Recovery-USA:
https://www.techradar.com/best/best-...recovery-rates

In the UK I can recommend Essential Data Recovery:
https://www.essentialdatarecovery.co.uk/

Somebody with a similar problem here:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...ck-on-dev-sda5

grumpyskeptic · 01-22-2024, 12:19 PM

This seems interesting, although I've no idea what a superblock is - http://erikimh.com/linux-recover-cor...ad-superblock/

grumpyskeptic · 01-22-2024, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

I might try running fsck with the -n option to see what is wrong but not actually fix anything just yet.

sudo fsck.ext4 -n /dev/sda3

Would this be the command to get fsck to run without constantly having to confirm that you approved of its changes?

sudo fsck.ext4 -y /dev/sda3

The disk has nearly 1000 bad sectors.

Thanks.

michaelk · 01-22-2024, 12:43 PM

Yes, is that what the initial fsck command showed?

I agree that if have any data you want to save I would create a clone of /dev/sda3 if a backup does not already exist.

beachboy2 · 01-23-2024, 04:06 AM

grumpyskeptic,

A very interesting article on cloning a hard drive with bad sectors here:
https://www.data-medics.com/forum/th...-ddrescue.133/

On the other hand, you may wish to use a professional data recovery service.

grumpyskeptic · 01-23-2024, 08:30 AM

I tried running the Boot Repair option from the Live Mint DVD. It do not appear to fix anything, but it offered the below as output.

Code:

boot-repair-4ppa200                                              [20240123_1414]

============================== Boot Info Summary ===============================

 => Grub2 (v2.00) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 2048 
    of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and 
    looks for (,gpt3)/boot/grub. It also embeds following components:
    
    modules
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    fshelp ext2 part_gpt biosdisk
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       BIOS Boot partition
    Boot sector type:  Grub2's core.img
    Boot sector info: 

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /efi/BOOT/fbx64.efi /efi/BOOT/mmx64.efi 
                       /efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /efi/ubuntu/mmx64.efi 
                       /efi/ubuntu/shimx64.efi /efi/ubuntu/grub.cfg

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: /mnt/BootInfo/sda3: can't read superblock on /dev/sda3.


================================ 1 OS detected =================================

OS#1:   Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria (21.2) on sda3

================================ Host/Hardware =================================

CPU architecture: 64-bit
Video: Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller from Intel Corporation
Live-session OS is Linuxmint 64-bit (Linux Mint 21.2, victoria, x86_64)

===================================== UEFI =====================================

BIOS/UEFI firmware: 4.6.5(4.6) from American Megatrends Inc.
This live-session is in Legacy/BIOS/CSM mode (not in EFI mode).


a9c517741ac31962d7feb152948ad1ee   sda2/BOOT/fbx64.efi
a660182adef313615746a665966d2ccc   sda2/BOOT/mmx64.efi
a1da253696a304dce6b4668b70151c0e   sda2/ubuntu/grubx64.efi
a660182adef313615746a665966d2ccc   sda2/ubuntu/mmx64.efi
64349b3622c65f495a99dbf6102496e3   sda2/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
64349b3622c65f495a99dbf6102496e3   sda2/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi

============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================

Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________

sda	: is-GPT,	hasBIOSboot,	has---ESP, 	not-usb,	not-mmc, has-os,	no-wind,	2048 sectors * 512 bytes

Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________

sda2	: no-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	not-far
sda3	: is-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	farbios

Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________

sda2	: is---ESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot
sda3	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot

Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________

sda2	: not--sepboot,	no---boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	no--grub.d,	sda
sda3	: not--sepboot,	no---boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	no--grub.d,	sda

fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________

Disk sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk identifier: 7D462EA4-BD89-47E1-9AB7-51734DCE0BBD
        Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
sda1     2048       4095       2048    1M BIOS boot
sda2     4096    1054719    1050624  513M EFI System
sda3  1054720 1953523711 1952468992  931G Linux filesystem

parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________

sda:1000GB:scsi:512:512:gpt:ATA ST31000524AS:;
1:1049kB:2097kB:1049kB:::bios_grub;
2:2097kB:540MB:538MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
3:540MB:1000GB:1000GB:ext4::;

blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________

NAME   FSTYPE   UUID                                 PARTUUID                             LABEL                           PARTLABEL
sda                                                                                                                       
├─sda1                                               488e277a-9187-48ec-b981-9b901f3906a6                                 
├─sda2 vfat     91AA-0EDD                            e49a5917-c419-49c5-9245-764519f412d5                                 EFI System Partition
└─sda3 ext4     93bbaf59-393a-40ef-82db-81b45577139c 147d75b6-f9e7-4101-93a7-79ac9455ea6c                                 

Mount points (filtered): _______________________________________________________

            Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2   505.9M   1% /mnt/boot-sav/sda2

Mount options (filtered): ______________________________________________________

/dev/sda2   vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro

===================== sda2/efi/ubuntu/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

search.fs_uuid 93bbaf59-393a-40ef-82db-81b45577139c root hd0,gpt3 
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg



Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________

The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would not act on the boot.

The above is also available at http://sprunge.us/3cRKhx

Does it suggest anything worth trying?

As I pointed out previously, I CANNOT clone the disk because I do not have a larger HDD and do not want to buy one.

Thanks.

grumpyskeptic · 01-23-2024, 08:36 AM

Here is what I got with the command sudo fsck.ext4 -n /dev/sda3

Code:

sudo fsck.ext4 -n /dev/sda3
e2fsck 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
Warning: skipping journal recovery because doing a read-only filesystem check.
/dev/sda3 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inode 7342556 extent tree (at level 1) could be shorter.  Optimize? no

Error reading block 83886278 (Input/output error) while getting next inode from scan.  Ignore error? no

Error while scanning inodes (20974080): Can't read next inode
e2fsck: aborted

Should I now try sudo fsck.ext4 -y /dev/sda3 and if that does not work, give up?

michaelk · 01-23-2024, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Error while scanning inodes (20974080): Can't read next inode
e2fsck: aborted

Does not look promising but I guess worth a try.

beachboy2 · 01-23-2024, 09:04 AM

grumpyskeptic,

Running fsck on a drive which has bad sectors will often cause permanent data loss.

If you cannot clone the original drive to a second drive, in order for you to work on the latter drive, then I think that the only route is via a professional data recovery company using hardware recovery tools.

If that is too expensive, then I guess the data on the original drive is lost.

grumpyskeptic · 01-24-2024, 05:00 AM

I tried sudo fsck.ext4 -y /dev/sda3 and it did the trick, thanks, I can now see the files on the HDD with a file manager. I hope that all the files I can see are complete without any parts of them missing.

Rather than trying to boot the HDD, I am running Linux Mint from a Live DVD. .

When I have copied what I want I shall replace the HDD.

Another possibly related issue:

I've noticed that the DVD drive vibrates a lot, even though it is silent and the DVD is properly seated. When I rest my hand on top of the desktop computer case I can feel the vibration, but only when the DVD drive is active.

I wonder if this is normal, and might this vibration have damaged the HDD?

Thanks.

michaelk · 01-24-2024, 06:29 AM

Some vibration is normal. I have a DVD drive that vibrates a lot and loud, maybe not balanced correctly but I don't use it on that particular computer. Seems unlikely that it could damage a hard drive but I have see strange things happen.

rknichols · 01-24-2024, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

Some vibration is normal. I have a DVD drive that vibrates a lot and loud, maybe not balanced correctly but I don't use it on that particular computer. Seems unlikely that it could damage a hard drive but I have see strange things happen.

While it is unlikely to cause physical damage, vibration can definitely induce errors in a hard drive. I recall one video showing how simply shouting at a set of rack-mounted hard drives caused significant degradation in access times. One of the differences in "enterprise-class" hard drives is that the spindles are balanced to minimize vibration, in the expectation that multiple drives will be mounted in a rack and vibration would affect operation of other drives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4