From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754913AbYLUP50 (ORCPT ); Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:57:26 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753162AbYLUP5R (ORCPT ); Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:57:17 -0500 Received: from earthlight.etchedpixels.co.uk ([81.2.110.250]:33281 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752239AbYLUP5Q (ORCPT ); Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:57:16 -0500 Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:57:20 +0000 From: Alan Cox To: Norbert Preining Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: linux ext3 partition hosed, is this hardware of software error? Message-ID: <20081221155720.36b700f7@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> In-Reply-To: <20081221150302.GA3457@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> References: <20081221143640.GF1509@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <20081221144913.76ca53d3@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> <20081221150302.GA3457@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.5.0 (GTK+ 2.12.12; x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) Organization: Red Hat UK Cyf., Amberley Place, 107-111 Peascod Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1TE, Y Deyrnas Gyfunol. Cofrestrwyd yng Nghymru a Lloegr o'r rhif cofrestru 3798903 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > > > Buffer I/O error on device sda3, logical block 12 > > > Buffer I/O error on device sda3, logical block 13 > > > > Right near the start of the disk. > > Ah, that is the reason why grub is gone. To be accurate - start of partition but the effect is the same yes. > > Make a copy of the partition with a recovery tool and write it somewhere > > ddrescue? partimage? Any other suggestion? ddrescue should do the trick - anything which will copy all the valid sectors and write out the lost ones as zero or similar preserving what is left of the file. > > > (file on another disk whatever) and keep it safe. Make a copy of that and > > fsck the copy. You may need to use the alternate superblock option on > > fsck for this. > > Thanks, good hint, didn't know about that. It's there for exactly this kind of situation. Alan