Error reading pool block - deactivating device

[tasminracer]

Hi'

I've got a nw6.5 sp5 system that i recently migrated from nw5. after a few hicups on the migration all seemed fine for a couple of weeks.

then i get a call this am. users cant login.

When i get to the server its reporting its deactivated the SYS vol and another volume ( on the same disk but unused) due to error reading pool block, and its deactivated the device.

a reboot produces the same effect.

I managed to get sys to mount and edited everything from autoexec.

started up fine.

loaded groupwise - all fine

loaded gwia - loads fine then bad blocks and deactivates device.

i've had the server running all am without loading gwia and all seems fine.

i've run nss /poolverify and even nss / pool rebuild on sys nd it reports no errors? and a dsrepair for good measure.

same problem.

I tried copying the gwia directory and it stopped reading a file in gwia\gwi8fe3\4\ and deactivated the pool/volume again.

any clues... is it a disk failure happening or somthing else, and if so why doesnt poolverify find anything?

any help would be great Im stumped at the mo, if its the disk what the easiest way to move sys to a new disk !!!

cheers

graham

 

[marvhuffaker]

Hardware failure. The disks check fine, activate fine, but when you actually try to read the files, it can't pull from disk and chokes.

I'd try to get your info off ASAP and onto new system.

Is this a single drive server?

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[tasminracer]

there are 2 disks on the server at the mo, and all the data is on the second disk thats ok.

the disks are on a backplane, so i can quickly slam another one in.

is there an easy way to transfer the boot partition and the sys volume ( plus the empty data volume) onto an new disk?


I've managed to get the server to work for now by renaming the directory in the gwia that had the problem.

the file was

gwia\wpcout\gwi8fe3\4 ( i think wpcout is right)

I renamed the gwi8fe3 directory. there was a single file in \4\ that was 20 times bigger than anything else.

I've left it there in case its sitting on the bad sectors whilst i work out that to do next !!!!

 

[bytehd]

ghost will move it en-mass as a sector blob
hell i think even knoppix will too

George Walkey
Senior Geek in charge

http://www.insyncva.com

 

[tasminracer]

ghost will move it en-mass as a sector blob
hell i think even knoppix will too

George Walkey
Senior Geek in charge

I've got a new disk on the way for thursday am, so I'll just have to hope it stays up long enough

now i've got norton ghost 2003 & v9 but will they work with server as they need windows of some flavour dont they. do i need another version of it. if i can use what i've got do you have any pointers

cheers

Graham

 

[tasminracer]

It gets better !!! get on site today, and half the site is logged in ok. others having problems..

I go to the server and everything looks fine no errors anywhere, i can see mail coming in as well.

I try to log in lets me in ok. I go to console1 it cant find the gwdomain. mmm

i go to file manager no network drives. and I cant map to them either....

whats going on is this disk or sp5 thats doing strange things...

can i remove sp5 ?

 

[TheLad]

You can use the DOS GHOST.EXE which will work for what you are trying to achieve. If you create a DOS Ghost Bootdisk, the GHOST.EXE will be on there

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"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"
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[bytehd]

im wondering if his controllers are acting up.
why transfer a bad data set with bad controllers?
years ago I had a netware server where the controllers
were writing bad data.
just a thought


George Walkey
Senior Geek in charge

http://www.insyncva.com

 

[tasminracer]

Its looking more and more like all the problems im getting are down to somthing wrong with the disk. not bad enough to show up on a verify but bad enough to corrupt things. if i try and access the one file it brings the server down everytime...

I've got a copy of ghost 8.2 and a dos boot disk. if i select a disk to disk copy it see's the dos partition and the netware partition ( containing my sys and empty data nss volumes) and lists it as unknown. will it copy the nss volumes sucessfully or not or are there some other settings i need. I've not used ghost in this situation before.

The other option seems to be portlock but i see from some threads this may not work with sp5 although i have the eval version running. on the box. I've not used portlock but i assume i can only use that to move the volumes im then still stuck moving the boot and dos sectors again with ghost.

Cheers

Graham

 

[bytehd]

portlock eval only copies first gig or something.

Ghost will work fine.
sector-to-sector copy.

But again, you will now have a mirror image of a mess.
just possibly no NEW corruption.
so, just reload OS and GW

George Walkey
Senior Geek in charge

http://www.insyncva.com