Difference between revisions of "Disk recovery"

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(Created page with 'My father-in-law came to me with a failed hard disk from a Windows system. It is probably NTFS, but that isn't known for sure. I have a few Linux machines and will try to recove…')
 
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I have a few Linux machines and will try to recover what I can from the drive.
 
I have a few Linux machines and will try to recover what I can from the drive.
  
 +
==first try==
 
* It is a SATA drive, 250GB
 
* It is a SATA drive, 250GB
 
* It spins up when power is applied
 
* It spins up when power is applied
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mount: /dev/sdf: can't read superblock
 
mount: /dev/sdf: can't read superblock
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
 +
After verifying that the disk is really bad, I wrapped it in plastic, then in paper towels, then in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer while I look for better tools to tell me what is going on.
  
 
===new tools===
 
===new tools===

Revision as of 00:14, 10 January 2010

My father-in-law came to me with a failed hard disk from a Windows system. It is probably NTFS, but that isn't known for sure. I have a few Linux machines and will try to recover what I can from the drive.

first try

  • It is a SATA drive, 250GB
  • It spins up when power is applied
  • Linux recognizes the drive and assigns it /dev/sdf
  • I try to mount it as NTFS:
mount -t ntfs /dev/sdf /mnt/bob
Error reading bootsector: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sdf': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent or there is a hardware fault... 
  • I try to mount it as msdos:
mount -t msdos /dev/sdf /mnt/bob
mount: /dev/sdf: can't read superblock
  • I try to mount it as vfat:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdf /mnt/bob
mount: /dev/sdf: can't read superblock

After verifying that the disk is really bad, I wrapped it in plastic, then in paper towels, then in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer while I look for better tools to tell me what is going on.

new tools

I added a few packages that were not installed on my system.

disktype

Detect format on a disk or partition. http://disktype.sourceforge.net

testdisk

Data recovery tool.

GSmartControl

Graphical tool to get information from disks with smart monitoring.