From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: David Masover Subject: Re: recovering from "rm -rf" Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 20:06:06 -0500 Message-ID: <42F40CFE.3040001@slaphack.com> References: <42F3A08A.30102@planet.nl> <42F3A16D.6090306@namesys.com> <42F3C73B.9040808@slaphack.com> <42F3D760.7090008@slaphack.com> <42F3E7F1.1030205@slaphack.com> <42F3EF37.3090705@edsons.demon.nl> <42F3F4A4.2050505@slaphack.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: Errors-To: flx@namesys.com In-Reply-To: List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: michael chang Cc: PFC , reiserfs-list@namesys.com, rudy@edsons.demon.nl michael chang wrote: > On 8/5/05, David Masover wrote: > >>Rudy Zijlstra wrote: >> >>>David Masover wrote: >>> >>> >>>>PFC wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>>>Drive A is a 500 gig striped RAID. Drive B is a 200 gig IDE drive. I >>>>>>mv'ed all my data (about 100 gigs) from drive A to drive B. Drive B >>>>>>then had its power plug fall out (don't ask me how I managed that), I >>>>>>plugged it back in (stupid!) -- there was a spark -- drive B now won't >>>>>>spin up, and drive A is essentially "rm -rf"ed. >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> You probably fried the electronics... if the heads are still OK, >>>>>you could recover your data by exchanging the PCB from a brand new >>>>>drive, with the fried PCB of the old drive. You need some electronics >>>>>skillz, but a friend of mine did this (it was an adventure, as he had >>>>>to find the same drive as he had, from ebay, etc) and it worked for >>>>>him... if something that's not on the PCB is dead, well, you need a >>>>>recovery company. >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>Seems kind of a waste to buy a whole new drive, if it does end up being >>>>that simple. I wonder if I couldn't ship this back to the manufacturer >>>>and have them do it? I'm sure they have extras... >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>>forget that idea, the extra's are bough by the recovery companies... >>> >>>In other words, its not cost effective for the manufacturers to keep >>>spare parts around. >>> >>>/Kick in open door >>>The thing you *should* have done is keep good backups, especially >>>considering the amount you are willing to pay to recover... >> >>I'm not sure yet how much I'm willing to pay. If the Namesys people can >>help me out, there will certainly be a donation headed their way, but >>I'm not sure yet if I want to spend $500 to $5000 on a recovery. It's >>an academic question, anyway -- if it costs too much, I'll have to wait. > > > Most people I've seen, when the drive dies, they just buy a new one, > and forget about their old data. Depends what that data is, and what it would take to reconstruct. I know what you mean, but this isn't a few word documents and records and things, it's the closest thing to a life's work that I can have at my age. > So this was a performance raid, not a backup raid? Did you RAID on > the same drive? o_O [If memory serves me right, RAID/Striping only > gives better performance on multiple drives.] Indeed it does, and "Drive" A is an array of two identical drives, both of which still work, if I can get the data off of them. >>>nothing beats a backup on a separate medium, with an automated script to >>>make it every night (or more often if needed). >>>Kick in open door/ >> >>Indeed, a lesson learned. I've got some sort of backup script >>somewhere, but I'm not sure exactly what it's backing up, or to where. >>It may have the really important stuff, but almost certainly won't have >>all the music and anime, so I'm still trying to recover Drive A. > > > Music and Anime? Lol. No wonder you're trying to recover it all. > I'd suggest a data recovery company, all the same, before you damage > your computer completely. And maybe consider using e.g. a backup - > two drives; while you have to store data twice, at least if one fails, > you'll have a backup [how in the world did you end up with two drives > dead anyways?!?]. They aren't. It's a *third* drive that's dead. I needed to rebuild the two-disk array, to make room for Windows (a dual-boot), because there's a *fourth* drive that I'd been using for that. I could have just resized the filesystem, but it was Reiser4. So, I moved all the files from the RAID to the third drive, then the third drive promptly died. So I have a choice between trying to rescue the dead drive and trying to rebuild a filesystem that's essentially been "rm -rf"ed. >>Similar drive, if it'd work. But my manufacturer warns me that even >>identical-looking drives sometimes have different firmware. > > > In the manual, or over the phone? In the FAQ on their website. I sent them a more specific question, still waiting for a reply. >>>What you can do is ask the manufacturer which drives are using the same >>>PCBs. You might get lucky. >> >>(same PCBs and firmware.) Thanks, I'll do that. > > > You'll be hard pressed to find a e-bay listing that lists the PCBs and > Firmware, per the components, though? *shrugs* Yeah, I'm asking the manufacturer if they can help out with that. I don't mind buying a new drive. New drive: $100 or less. Data recovery service: $350 or more, probably $1k-7k. But then, if it ends up just being music and anime -- if I can recover the more important stuff from a backup that I may or may not have -- maybe it'll be cheaper to just buy more bandwidth for a few weeks.