[ale] Can't Boot! Need Super Block Wizard

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Wed, 2012-06-13 at 13:00 -0400, mdkliman at aol.com wrote:

> I'm "The Marvin" who's calling for help.

> Once upon-a-time I was technical - during the minicomputer era - but
> stopped short of Linux immersion.  I understand what I'm reading and
> am grateful for the helpful comments I've received.

> I'm sure the drives were inaccessible to the system when we tried to
> reboot (red lamps were lighted).  They appear to be online now (green
> lamps are lighted).  However, I don't know where to go from here.  I
> am not conversant with Linux or its utilities.

Red lamps and green lamps???  What kind of server is this we are talking
about and what kind of drives?  Are they external drives?  In another
message, I think you made a remark about "rdrives" here:

On Wed, 2012-06-13 at 12:41 -0400, mdkliman at aol.com wrote: 
> Robert,
> 
> I know the root password, but have no idea what utility to run. The
> system is where it failed, except that the rdrives that couldn't be
> accessed are now back online.

What are these "rdrives" and how many drives are we talking about???
Are you referring to raid drives?  Is this a raid array cabinet?

Have you rebooted the server since the drives came on-line?  I have seen
this in the past where drives were unavailable at boot up due to
(generally brief) power loss or fluctuations.  If you haven't, I
seriously doubt you have anything to loose at this point and would go
ahead and reboot the system first, without doing a power down.

If that works, great.  If not, trying powering it all down and bringing
it back up after a few minutes.

If either of those work, your first order of business is to get your
data OFF that system.  There is no way you can trust it going forward.

There are some recovery applications available such as dd-rescue which
can be used to recover data from a moderately damaged drive and there
are other techniques for use if you've blown a controller board or an
interface.  But we would need a lot more information first.

If someone gets out there (I'm totally unavailable for at least a couple
of weeks) and makes it work, it doesn't mean they "made it all better".
You need to upgrade that system or history will repeat itself and it
will be costly.
 
Regards,
Mike

> My programmer took a quick look and insists that I get Admin help to
> get the system back in order.  I am seeking someone knowledgeable who
> will come on-site and attempt to "clean up" the file system or
> determine that it's trashed.
> 
> Glug, glug, glug ...
> Marvin in Norcross, GA
> (404) 433-0900
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Lynch <ale_nospam at fayettedigital.com>
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> Sent: Wed, Jun 13, 2012 6:55 am
> Subject: Re: [ale] Can't Boot! Need Super Block Wizard
> 
> 
> On 06/13/2012 05:32 AM, Matthew wrote:
>  I am more curious, Does the Marvin know how to do everything that we 
>  are suggesting? I rather just go down there and fix it. I just don't 
>  have time to drive down 10 hours, fix it, and drive back.
> e did say he had a programmer that was familiar with Linux but probably 
> asn't a true sys admin.  I'm hoping Marvin can answer your question 
> hen he comes online.
> Jim.
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-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
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