HDD failure imminent. What to do?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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jd7654
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#46 Post by jd7654 »

nubc wrote:Maybe I could install a distro with GRUB2, then surgically remove the OS and substitute Puppy Slacko. Or if could find a distro that installs GRUB2 as an independent operation. Any suggestions for a distro? Ubuntu?

You'd think that Hiren's bootCD or some specialty utility distro (eg SystemRescueCD) would be able to install GRUB2.
Grub2 is kinda tied to the OS, you can look around for standalone Grub2 options, but defeats the purpose somewhat.
You can install a basic netinstall Debian 9 in less than 1GB that has Base OS minus Xwin and full Grub2. Ubuntu base install is bigger but also works.
Unlike you, I don't have any >2TB drives so I never needed to switch off Grub4DOS, which is simple and easy. The Grub2 bloatware I leave on the other distros PBR.(such as Arch, Debian, Fedora)

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nubc
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#47 Post by nubc »

That's good news, rcrsn51. I have installed Legacy Grub 2013 from Slacko 6.3. It doesn't work, possibly because of the (hd0,0) lettering options. Do you have any suggestions? Here's my menu.lst from grub.

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timeout 4
default 0
#
title Puppy Linux Full on sda1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=normal
I didn't like the Slacko 5.7 grub, so I used a DOS floppy to rewrite the MBR.

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C:/ fdisk /mbr

Then I installed Legacy Grub 2013 from Slacko 6.3, Still no luck.

I notice that Slacko 5.7 Legacy GRUB 2013 has an extra line

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initrd /initrd.gz 
Is this significant?

I just tried to boot from the hard drive, and got this message

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No boot device available

jd7654
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#48 Post by jd7654 »

rcrsn51 wrote:The legacy GRUB installer is here.

It will work with a GPT partition table.
Just out of curiosity, I did a test on VBox and could not get that Grub Legacy to work on a GPT disk. No valid boot device error. Grub2 worked fine though.

Is this Grub Legacy package the same as what is in Slacko 6.3.2? I tried that too and it also did not work. Maybe it would on real hardware, but I have no spare drives/systems to test at the moment.

EDIT: Never mind, operator error. Forgot that my Vbox test setup install was using 64-bit Ext4. 32-bit Ext4 on GPT worked OK with Grub Legacy.
Last edited by jd7654 on Wed 13 Sep 2017, 08:02, edited 1 time in total.

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nubc
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#49 Post by nubc »

Thanks for that test, jd. I'm still waiting for a follow-up from rcrsn51 on this matter Even if menu.lst is the same for 5.7 and 6.3, there could still be differences in Stage1 and Stage2.

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rcrsn51
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#50 Post by rcrsn51 »

@nubc: Once you wrote a new MBR with the DOS boot diskette, it's impossible to know where you are at.

What does Gparted say about the drive?

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nubc
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#51 Post by nubc »

/dev/sda (3.64 TB)
sda1 (29.30 GB) ext3 is boot partition (locked)
sda2 (3.61 TB) ext3
sda3 (4.88 GB) is swap
partition table gpt
heads 255
sectors/track 63
sector size 512

Any specific information you need?

After I rewrote the MBR, I deleted the contents of the boot directory before reinstalling Legacy GRUB 2013

I'd be happy to format the drives, or redo the partitions.

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nubc
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#52 Post by nubc »

I am running a frugal install that boots from CD, and stores a savefile on USB flashdrive. RAM is being written to the savefile every half hour, causing the computer to freeze for the duration of the write. This is ridiculous. How do I disable the automatic writing to savefile? Or at least make it reasonable, like every 3 hours.

Sylvander
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#53 Post by Sylvander »

nubc wrote:How do I disable the automatic writing to savefile?
See this post.

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nubc
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#54 Post by nubc »

That's long enough on the full install. I'll have to put that off for another day. I transferred the save file and sfs files from the flashdrive to root of the OS partition on the new hard drive, sda1. Booting is much faster.

Now I must apply myself to the task of saving the data on the old 2 TB hard drive. Currently, the computer is not seeing this drive when it's connected, so I have a difficult task ahead, before I can transfer the 1.8 TB of data to the new 4 TB hard drive. I don't think circumstances call for dd rescue yet, but I am open to suggestions for recovering the filesystem.

jd7654
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#55 Post by jd7654 »

nubc wrote:I don't think circumstances call for dd rescue yet, but I am open to suggestions for recovering the filesystem.
I've used Minitool Partition Wizard successfully before. It recovered a drive that even GParted itself corrupted. Its mainly a Windows program, but they also have bootable ISO which is Linux based, but looks like they don't offer that for download anymore, have to get it thru application. Though you can still find old versions for download in various places.

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nubc
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#56 Post by nubc »

GParted does not see the drive. The hard drive is spinning, with a little startup chatter. I put the drive in another computer, with same negative results. I am stumped. Maybe I'll have to clone the drive. Actually, I only want to clone the one data partition, sda2. I might have perhaps 70% of the drive in duplication, accidental backup.

jd7654
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#57 Post by jd7654 »

That sounds bad, definite hardware issue. Always best to quickly get data off a problem HD at the first sign of trouble. It is usually degenerative. You may only have low level options left.(like ddrescue, if that even works now)

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nubc
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#58 Post by nubc »

I have recovered a deleted directory containing AV files, and I can say from that experience it is very important that the entire file be recovered including the title. If I recover only anonymous files, the work involved in naming these files would simply be overwhelming. So a recovered file must include title.

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nubc
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#59 Post by nubc »

I tried to download Ubuntu iso (1.5 GB) to thumbdrive, and for some reason the download filled up my personal space. Okay, how do I resize the savefile? What is the maximum size I can make it? Right now, it's 2 GB, and probably almost full.

jd7654
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#60 Post by jd7654 »

nubc wrote:I have recovered a deleted directory containing AV files, and I can say from that experience it is very important that the entire file be recovered including the title. If I recover only anonymous files, the work involved in naming these files would simply be overwhelming. So a recovered file must include title.
The situation is different now. Not just a deleted files situation, you have a bad/failing hard drive situation. Time is against you. Seems like the high level copy data has failed. If saving the data is most important, I'd concentrate on that rather than setting up the new 4TB drive OS situation. The more you try and read the old 2TB drive it can be getting worse and more corrupted data and finally just stop working. I hope it's not there now, but sounds like it.

If it were mine. I'd clone the 2TB onto the 4TB with ddrescue and then setup its OS and booting later. It depends on your priority.

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nubc
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#61 Post by nubc »

It may be time to clone it. Have you had any luck with cold- freezing a bad hard drive?

How to Clone Hard Disks with ddrescue
https://datarecovery.com/rd/how-to-clon ... -ddrescue/

Can I clone to a partition instead of an entire hard drive?
I have a 4TB hard drive. There is a 30GB partition, sda1,for the OS at the beginning of the drive. The remainder of the drive, sda2,is for data. 3.6 TB. And there is a 5 GB swap file at the end of the drive. I would like to clone to sda2 only.

jd7654
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#62 Post by jd7654 »

You're on your own there with the freezer.

If the drive was functioning properly, then you could use partition copy/image tools like partclone or fsarchiver. But yours is more severe problem. In fact, if Gparted cannot even see the drive, you may not even be able to do ddrescue.

The ddrescue will just copy anything that is recoverable. Then you can move the data around later, add/delete partitions, resize, convert MBR to GPT, etc. on the good drive. Main thing is get the data off the bad drive. You can always reinstall OS and repartition later.

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nubc
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#63 Post by nubc »

I don't see ddrescue on the latest SystemRescueCD?

I just installed ddrescue 1.16 on this frugal install of Slacko 5.7.
Last edited by nubc on Thu 14 Sep 2017, 03:33, edited 1 time in total.

jd7654
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#64 Post by jd7654 »

You can use Slacko.

Boot your Slacko 6.3.2 CD.
Choose to not load save file otherwise it will try to search drives and may hang due to bad drive connected.
Connect to Internet.
Install ddrescue with PPM.

Follow your guide above.

EDIT: You want to do this from live CD and not HD installed OS as you will be overwriting the HD and don't want anything mounted for this procedure.

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nubc
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#65 Post by nubc »

To image from disk to disk:

root# ddrescue -f -n /dev/[baddrive] /dev/[gooddrive] /root/recovery.log
What is "root#" going to look like from the Puppy command prompt? Keep in mind, there is going to be a logfile in root.

Earlier,I transferred the savefile and sfs files from thumb drive to root of the frugal install, presumably in sda1. In preparation for this ddrescue operation I want to copy those two files back to the thumb drive. But these files were not located in root, they were located in /initrd/mnt/dev_save. I never put the two files in this location. How did it happen?
Last edited by nubc on Thu 14 Sep 2017, 04:13, edited 1 time in total.

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