[Lincs] Iain's HHD Problem

[Andrew Lyon]

>which reminds me... does anyone know how to recover data from a hard disk
that has lost the ability to recognise its partitions and thus wont boot?
>i have a second hard disk that is a bit old and flaky that im currently
trying to convince to talk to my computer, but that wont help me recover the
vital information stored on the dead(?) HD ><hinesight>always back up BEFORE
it dies</hinesight>

Have you tried cooling the drive? I mean freezing it? That's worked for me
in the past, I usually nick some dry ice from our stores and use that but a
freezer would probably work.

If you have the space I would be tempted to dd the entire drive into a file
then loopback mount that and see what you can recover.. As even when frozen
it wont work for long!

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Depends on what the problem actually is - the following assume the MBR
(Master boot record) has corrupted and you've lost your bootloader(Grub/Lilo
)/partition table info.

1. Use the bootdisk you created when you installed your OS - you did make
one didn't you? If not try a copy of a bootable distro like Knoppix.

2. If you are using LILO you can try booting with the aforementioned
bootdisk/bootable OS then once you are into the system check your
/etc/lilo.conf, making sure all the entries are correct. Then as root
run:
#lilo -v

3. Try a bootable distro designed to recover your system/data like "Recovery
is Possible"
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/ - I have a copy if
you want it.

4. OS selector - a wonderful little program which will allow to rewrite your
bootsector - I also have a copy if you want it

5. If you dual boot with windows on the same drive you can do an FDISK /MBR
command after booting into dos with a bootable DOS floppy and reboot -
windows will overwrite the MBR allowing you to at least boot into your
windows partition. You can then install a proper OS onto this drive (Linux
;-) and access your linux partition this way.

Hope these ideas help...

Grahame


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