Invalid HPFS name space name...invalid character

[cmack]

Our Novell 3.12 server Abended earlier today with the following abend error "Invalid semaphore number passed to kernel" "Running Process dsagent"..
Abend was due to large restore through Adstar.

This is not my problem though, after a shutdown and reboot, the server is failing to mount SYS. Error is “Invalid HPFS name space name...invalid character”.

I've looked up the Novell KB and the only relevant document was 350029. But this talked about applying the updated versions of MAC and OS/2 name space. This has previously been upgraded and hasn’t caused a problem.

I have ran vrepair, the first time detected 6 errors and wrote them to the volume, after a reboot the same error appeared when mounting sys “Invalid HPFS name space name...invalid character”. Subsequent vrepairs have not detected any errors and further reboots are still showing the same error.

Obviously I dont want to have to delete and recreate the volume and restore from backup, if I dont have to. By doing this we would lose a days work (last backup was on Wednesday night).

Has any one come across this problem or have any useful pointers/suggestions.

Thanks

 

[nkirch]

Hello,

did you find a solution for this problem meanwhile? We new have the sampe problem!

 

[cmack]

Hi,

Unfortunatly not, as far as I can remember we did have to delete and recreate the volume. Due to time restrictions and no obvious solutions. We had to take the hit and loose a days data on the server.

Sorry couldnt be more helpful.

Thanks

Calum

 

[nspeer]

We had this problem this morning. I ran VREPAIR and it failed as it couldn't load OS2.NAM with the same error message. I ran INSTALL.NLM, and noticed that the mirrored partitions were out of sync. I removed the mirrored pair, ran VREPAIR again and this time it found problems with 2 seperate files (long filenames) on the SYS: volume and fixed them both. After that, I did a PURGE /ALL command (SYSUBLIC\Purge.exe) from a workstation (with Supervisor rights) at the root of the SYS: volume to purge all files marked for deleteion. After that, I was able to mount the SYS: volume and remirror the drives. I suspect the SYS: volume was FULL of these files that needed to be deleted, and couldn't mount properly.

All of this saved the hassle of having to recreate the volume & restore from tape! Hopefully you mirror your drives, as it saved us a LOT of time!

Good luck,
NSpeer