Cant mount/recover second harddrive - please help :-(

[rflook]

OK so not long ago i updated my pc to the latest version of ubuntu, but it ran so slowly that i reinstalled a previous version. I wasnt too bothered at the time as i had two hard disks in my machine, one which help programs and the os etc, the other larger SATA one for all my media.

However when i booted up my computer after the reinstall, my second HD was no where to be found. So i tried

mount /dev/sda /media/HD2

and that didnt work, i even tried putting it into the fstab file and that didnt work either. So i had a look at the hard drive details via GParted, and it was telling me it was unallocated. Weird.

So next on the list was testdisk. I ran test disk once using the default option file type of 'Intel' when analysis the disk and it told me there were no partitions - same again when i did a deeper search. I tried analysing the disk again but this time i chose 'None' as the filetype, and this time it came back with a possible partition. But when i tried to view the files on the partition i simply got the following message

Cant open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged

I really would love any help for this problem. Mainly the videos and music are replaceable, BUT the biggest loss would be a lot of personal photos. Honestly any help is gratefully appreciated.

 

[G0AOZ]

I know nothing about Ubuntu...

What was on the hard disk? If it was a Windows system, then I'd try connecting the hard disk to a running Windows XP system, and then try something like GetDataBack. The sample version from here,

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

will allow you to see if anything is recoverable. Actual recovery requires you to buy this application.

There have been several recommendations from Tek-Tip posters for this software, and I have personally used it to good effect.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[Noway2]

It sounds like you may have a failing hard drive or a controller. Do both of the drives show up in /dev and do you have the partition numbers (such as /dev/sda1)?

I would suggest that you check the output of dmesg and also look in your log files, like syslog. See if you are getting any warnings or errors, especially things like I/O errors.

I would also try to get as much data off of it as I can, just in case.

Other things you could try would be swapping the hard drives to isolate and see if it is the drive or the controller. You might need or want to boot to a live CD if the one drive isn't bootable to do this.

 

[BadBigBen]

Depending on what FileSystem was on that drive, and how many Partitions, I would look at something in the order of the following:

Easus Data Recovery Wizard Professional (commercial)

http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/recover-ext2-ext3-drive.htm

R-Linux from R TT... (Freeware)

http://www.data-recovery-software.net/downloads/rlinux_en_10.exe

both run on Windows...

under Linux, I would look at:

TestDisk (Open Source)

http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20100226123335414/TestDisk.html

it is also included in the SystemRescue CD, a Linux LiveCD with many repair & rescue software pre-installed and ready to use once you boot from it...

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

or my favorite:

Parted Magic

http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[G0AOZ]

Neither Noway2 nor I heard back from Rflook so maybe he's fixed it or trashed it by now. It was three months ago...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[BadBigBen]

thnx Roger...

the thread showed as a NEW POST thread, and highlighted which usually disappears when you either click on the thread or when a certain amount of time has transpired, so I did not notice that the thread was that old...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[G0AOZ]

Ben, I've nearly been caught like that as well. Guess it must be some sort of occasional glitch on the Tek-Tips website that shows up old posts like that...

ROGER - G0AOZ.