Linux Recovery When Volume Cannot Be Mounted Using Mount Command

All the data files that are accessible in Linux based computers are placed in a big tree, called root directory and denoted as ‘/’, in an organized form. These data files might be spread out over various devices. The mount command in Linux operating system allows you to attach a file system on a data storage media to the root directory. However, if the file system is faulty and you run fsck utility to fix the problem after mounting the disk using this command, severe file system corruption occurs. It causes critical data loss situations and calls for Linux data recovery.

The mount command tells the Linux kernel to attach the file system found on your hard drive volume in the /dir directory. The previous owner, mode, and contents of the directory become invisible after mounting, and as long as the file system stays mounted, the /dir pathname refers to the root of file system on Linux hard drive volume.

The following three types of invocations of mount command don’t actually mount the volume:

· mount -h- It prints the help message on screen.

· mount -V- This invocation prints the version string.

· Mount [-l] [-t type]- The option lists all the mounted file systems that are of type “type” on your Linux hard drive. The -l option adds labels (like ext2, ext3) in the listing.

In current versions of Linux operating system, it is possible to mark the mount and submounts as private, shared, unbindable, or slave. The shared mount gives you an option to create mirrors of the mount.

Mount is an essential process for accessing data from any Linux hard drive volume. If the drive is not mountable, it cannot be accessed. Sometimes, when you try to mount a Linux volume, you come across the following error message that puts you in need of data recovery Linux:

“Wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda8, missing codepage or helper program, or other error. In some cases useful info is found in syslog – try dmesg | tail or so”

This problem is caused by dirty or corrupt file system. In such cases, you need to use Linux file Recovery software to get your mission-critical data back. The Linux data recovery applications enable you to thoroughly scan the affected Linux hard drive using advanced scanning algorithms.

Interrupted Volume Conversion Process Using ‘lvconvert’ Cause Data Loss in Linux

There are various techniques available in order to safeguard your valuable data, and disk mirroring is the most popular among them. It is the process of create an exact replica of all the data stored on your hard drive. You can easily convert your basic hard drive volumes to mirrored volumes, which replicates your data to prevent any sort of data loss situations. On Linux operating system-based computer, you can convert your linear logical hard drive volume to the mirror logical volume using ‘lvconvert’ utility. However, you should play safely while converting a Linux volume, as interruption to the process may cause hard drive failure and data loss situations. At this point of time, you need to opt for Linux data recovery solutions to get your precious data back.

The lvconvert is an inbuilt utility of Linux operating system that enables you to change a linear Linux hard drive volume to mirror logical volume. You can also use this utility to remove or add disk logs from the mirror devices. The command line utility supports various options or parameters to perform specific task. Some of the most common parameters of this utility are as given below:

-m, –mirrors Mirrors- This option specifies degree of mirror that you want to create. For instance, ‘-m 1′ converts original Linux volume to mirror logical volume with one linear volume and one copy.

–corelog- This parameter tells the tool to switch mirror from employing a persistent (disk-based) log to in-memory log. It is possible only if –mirror argument is of same degree of mirror that you are modifying.

-R, –regionsize MirrorLogRegionSize- It divides the mirror into various regions of defined size in MB (megabyte).

-s, –snapshot- It creates the snapshot from an existing Linux volume using another volume with same origin.

-Z, –zero y/n- This option controls zeroing of first KB of information in snapshot. The snapshot is not zeroed if volume is set to read-only.

Before you convert the volume, you must backup all your significant information. If the process fails, you can not access Linux hard drive volume and stored data and need of data recovery Linux arises. Linux recovery is best possible using advanced and powerful third-party applications. Linux data recovery applications ensure safe and easy recovery in all data loss situations, with read-only conduct and rich graphical user interface.

Stellar Phoenix Linux data recovery software recovers lost data from lost, deleted, corrupt, or inaccessible hard drive volumes. The software supports recovery from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes. It works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system, including Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Fedora, and more.

Recovering lost files from an ext4-based Linux system

The ext4 (Fourth Extended File System) is the successor of the ext3 file system, which is a journaled file system. It was developed as for backward compatible extensions to remove the 64-bit data storage limits. Being a journaled system, it is always a safe bet to use ext4-based systems in a production environment. However, at times data loss still may happen in these systems because of delayed allocation. Also, there are certain other reasons as well, such as human errors, virus infections, accidental removal of data, etc that result in data loss situations. In such cases, you should use a third-party Ext4 Recovery software to perform Linux data recovery of the lost data.

When you delete files from the ext4 file system, the files remain physically intact in the system. Only the pointer of the file system entries is deleted. Due to this, the operation system is not able to find the file at its location and, thus, this position is marked as available in the file system. To recover such deleted files, there are certain methods that you can use.

One such utility is the extundelete utility that analyzes the file system journals to recover the deleted data using ext2fs library. This utility is capable of recovering both the file name and its contents of the deleted file. Hence, it can be concluded that the extundelete utility is a useful and efficient tool.

Having said that, even the extundelete tool does not guarantee complete recovery of the lost data. Moreover, if the ext4 file system is damaged or deleted then you are unable to perform recovery of the lost data. Therefore, in such cases you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to recover the lost, deleted, and formatted data from ext4 file system. Such read-only tools are able to recover data from all kinds of data loss using fast yet sophisticated scanning algorithms.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is linux data recovery software that enables you to recover lost, deleted, or formatted data from ext4 file systems. Apart from ext4 file systems, it is also capable of performing ext2 recovery and ext3 recovery. It supports various Linux distributions such as Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Caldera, Mandrake, Sorcerer, TurboLinux, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. This Linux recovery software is able to recover data from various hard drives such as SATA, EIDE, SCSI, and IDE. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000.

Recovering lost data in ext3 partitions after ext3grep fails to recover

The journaled ext3 system is an extremely powerful file system and makes the data very organized as opposed to its predecessor, ext2 file system. It is so because the file system remains consistent even after a system crash or unexpected power failure. You do not need to perform lengthy checks after switching on the Linux system. Also, there is minimal chances of data fragmentation in the disk. However, in the ext3 file system there is a catch. When you delete a file, there is no prompt to delete the file. It is not even transferred to a trash bin like Windows. So, a lot of times the Linux users complain of accidental data loss. In such cases, you should use appropriate measures to recover the lost data. However, if you are not able to do so then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to perform ext3 recovery.

Consider a scenario wherein you are using an ext3-partitioned Linux system. While working on your system, you happen to remove some of the files. After deleting the files, you realize that you actually needed those files. You do not have the backup of these files as well. However, you need not worry as these files can be recovered. To know how’s it possible…read on

Actually once you delete a file, only its pointer is deleted from the memory and the file remains physically intact until it is overwritten by a new file. Thus, you need to immediately remount the hard drive as read-only mode.

Resolution:
In an ext3 file system, you can use ext3grep utility to retrieve deleted files from the Linux hard drive. It is a Linux utility, which is able to retrieve completely deleted files from ext3 file system volumes.
Although it is a pretty handy utility, it has got some limitations as well. It is not able to recover the files that are larger than 2 GB. In such situations, you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to perform the recovery of the deleted files. Such read-only tools are extremely safe and do not overwrite the original content while scanning it.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a Linux recovery tool that enables you to recover lost, deleted, or formatted data from Linux systems. Besides performing ext3 recovery , it is also able to perform Ext2 Recovery and ext4 recovery. It is supported by various Linux distributions such as Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Caldera, Mandrake, Sorcerer, TurboLinux, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.

How to Recover Linux Data After Hard Drive Crash?

Is your Linux hard drive crashing abruptly every time when you boot your system? Are you unable to boot your Linux computer and access data from it? Well, the problem may occur due to numerous reasons, which cause hard drive crash. Most commonly, this problem occurs due missing or corrupt data structures of your Linux hard drive. Due to the same, operating system can not locate stored files on the hard drive and access them. At this point, you need to opt for Linux data recovery solutions to get your valuable data recovered.

Crash of a Linux hard drive is indicated by various symptoms. Such symptoms include the following ones:

Your Linux operating system-based computer does not boot up.

You encounter various error messages, such as “No Fixed Disk Present” or “DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER”

Black or blank screen after you power up your system.

System reboots, freezes, or stops responding frequently.

“Operating system not found” and “Drive not formatted” messages.

Hard drive crash can be caused by various reasons and renders entire system inaccessible. The most common reasons of Linux hard drive crash are as given below:

Boot sector virus or damaged MBR (Master Boot Record).

Corrupted or damaged file system of Linux hard drive.

Missing or damaged system files or operating system.

Virus infection.

Corrupt Superblock or other critical meta data structures.

When system crash occurs, it becomes impossible for the operating system to locate files on hard drive. If it can not locate and access the files, which are required by Linux operating system to boot up, the boot process fails.

In order to fix a crashed Linux hard drive and perform Data Recovery Linux, you are required to format it and reinstall operating system. This process replaces all the missing, corrupt, or damaged system resources and bring the hard drive back to life. However, it also removes all the data from hard drive and create needs of Linux recovery.

Recovery is best possible using advanced and efficient commercial software, known as linux recovery software. They use high-end scanning techniques to carry out in-depth scan of entire Linux hard drive to extract all lost data from it.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is an easy to use and read-only utility that recovers your valuable data in all data loss situations. The software works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system, including SUSE, Red Hat, Debian, and Ubuntu. It recovers lost data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system partitions.

Interrupted Logical Volume Extending Process Causes Data Loss in Linux

LVM (Logical Volume Manager) is a part of Linux operating system kernel, which manages hard drives and other mass storage devices. It is a way of allocating disk space into various logical volumes, which can easily be resized or extended instead of hard drive partitions. You can not place Linux /boot/ partition on logical volume group as it is not readable by the Linux boot loader.

You can easily extend a logical volume, using lvextend utility. It also supports extension of the snapshot logical volumes. Before you proceed for extending a Linux logical volume, you must first create an absolute backup of entire volume. In case the logical volume extending process gets interrupted or halted, you may lose access to logical volumes and encounter data loss. At this point, you have to opt for Linux data recovery software to get your valuable data back.

The lvextend command-line utility, offers you the following options to perform a series of operations on your logical volume-

-l, –extents [+]LogicalExtentsNumber[%{VG|LV|FREE}]: It sets or extends the size of logical volume in units of the logical extents. With + sign, value is contributed to actual size of volume and without this, value is accepted as absolute one.

-L, –size [+]LogicalVolumeSize[kKmMgGtTpPeE]: Sets or extends size of logical volumes in the units of MB. The size postfix of M for MB (Megabytes), G for GB (Gigabytes), T for TB (Terabytes), P for PB (Petabytes), or E for EB (Exabytes) is elective.

-i, –stripes Stripes: Provides number of the stripes for extension. This option is not usable with the logical volumes, which use original metadata logical volume manager format that must use single value throughout.

-I, –stripesize StripeSize: Provides number of the kilobytes for granularity of stripes. It does not work on logical volumes, which use original metadata logical volume manager format that must use single value throughout.

All the above options are very useful in modifying a logical volume. However, serious problems occur if the process is interrupted due to any reasons, such as system crash, power outages, improper system shutdown, and user error. In such cases, the volume can not be accessed and you encounter severe data loss, which require Linux recovery to be fixed.

Data Recovery Linux is best possible using advanced and efficient Linux data recovery software. They recover lost data safely and easily in all data loss scenarios.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a read-only and easy-to-use utility that ensures absolute recovery of lost Linux data. The software works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system, including Red Hat, Mandriva, SUSE, and Fedora. It recovers data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT 12 file system volumes.

Resizing Mounted Ext2 File System May Cause Corruption

The Ext2 (second extended) file system is an advanced file system for Linux kernel. It is a replacement of Ext file system. It is possible to resize the Ext2 file system, while it is mounted and system is using it. This is possible using the ext2online utility. The process of resizing the file system while applications have open files, and writing data to file system, is OK. However, you should always have a complete and valid backup of your mission critical data before mounting an online or mounted file system. In case anything goes wrong, you may encounter serious data loss situations, which requires Linux data recovery to be fixed.

You can resize only the mounted Ext2 file system. In order to use the ext2online utility, you must have Online ext2 resize support (CONFIG_EXT2_RESIZE) option enabled in your Linux Kernel. You can enable this feature after applying appropriate patch for 2.x kernel series.

The file system, which is specified by the device, or the mountpoint must be mounted currently. By default, the mounted file system is enlarged to fill up the device. If you have specified an optional size parameter, then it uses the specified size instead. If optional modifier is not available, it is taken from Ext2 file system blocks.

The ext2online utility doesn’t modify size of actual storage device. It changes the file system only. When you want to enlarge file system, you should expand underlying storage device first. You can do it online for the logical volumes, using the lvextend tool that combines file system resizing and LV extensions.

The original architecture or design of Ext2 file system doesn’t provide online resizing option. There are some limitations to the amount of resizing, that you can do while your file system is mounted. Without any preparation, you can resize Ext2 file system to next 256 MB range for 1 KB file system, 2 GB for 2 KB file system, and 16 GB for 4 KB file system.

You should always keep in mind that resizing the mounted file system is integrally risky and causes file system corruption. At this point, Linux data recovery becomes essential.

Linux recovery is best possible using advanced and powerful third-party applications, known as Ext2 Recovery software. With interactive graphical user interface and read-only conduct, they are totally safe and easy to use in all data loss situations.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software ensures absolute recovery of lost Linux data using high-end scanning techniques. The software recovers data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes. It works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system, including Red Hat, SUSE, Mandriva, Fedora, and Ubuntu.

Superblock Corruption Makes Linux Volume Unmountable

Like other computer operating systems, Linux also comprise of various components, which include Superblock. Superblock is a significant metadata of Linux operating system, which describes file system on the Linux hard drive. The system components have interdependency and work together to keep your system functional. However, if any of these system components or data structures gets damaged, the system may not work properly and you can not access stored data from the hard drive. This behavior leads to critical data loss situations and require Linux Data Recovery to be fixed.

Under some situations, you can not mount your Linux file system and the data stored on the Linux hard drive volumes can not be accessed. Most of the problem occurs in a dual-boot system. When you try repairing your Linux file system on the root partition, process could not complete successfully. It renders your entire system inaccessible.

When you run fsck utility on the affected Linux hard drive, without ‘L’ option, you may come across the below error message:

“Leonzwei root # xfs_repair -nLv /dev/hdc3
Phase 1 - find and verify super block…
Bad primary super block - bad magic number!!!

Attempting to find secondary super block…

Found candidate secondary super block…
error reading super block 54 — seek to offset 57982058496 failed
unable to verify super block, continuing”

The repair process is interrupted after the above error message. In such cases, you need to identify the cause of this behavior and then perform Data Recovery Linux by resolving it.

Grounds of the problem

This behavior takes place because of corruption to the Linux Superblock. File system can not mount after Superblock corruption and thus your system can not boot up. Corruption may occur due to numerous reasons, such as virus infection, improper system shutdown, user errors, and more.

Solution

You can sort out this problem by replacing the damaged Superblock with its identical copy, which is maintained by Linux operating system to prevent such problems. However, if it is not possible, hard drive formatting is the only way to go. It actually removes all the data from hard drive and causes severe data loss. At this point, you need to use Linux Recovery applications to get your mission critical data back. The applications are particularly designed to methodically scan entire hard drive and extract all lost data from it, ensure absolute Linux Data Recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most advanced and effective utility to ensure perfect recovery in all data loss situations. The software works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system, including Red Hat, SUSE, Fedora, and Debian. It Recover Linux from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes.

Recovering Linux system after using fsck on a mounted system

Are you finding difficulties in mounting your Linux system drive? The problem could be due to corruption in the file system. To address such issues, Linux provides fsck utility. It is a command-line utility, which checks integrity and consistency of the Linux file system. In addition, it finds errors and fixes them, if possible. However, if you run this utility on a mounted file system, then you may not be able to access the data at all. In such cases, you should use a third-party Linux recovery software to perform data recovery for Linux system.

Consider a scenario wherein you have accidentally run fsck on a mounted Linux file system. The inode root gets damaged and all inodes start calling similar blocks. When you try to mount the volume after fsck, the following error message is displayed:

“Mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda1, missing codepage or helper program, or other error. In some cases useful info is found in syslog — try dmesg | tail or so”

When you run \dmesg\, as suggested in the error message, another error message may be displayed, that is:

“ext3-fs: corrupt root inode, run e2fsck”

And when you run e2fsck, yet another error message is displayed, that is:

“Root inode is not a directory. Clear?”

If you press ‘Y’ and proceed with the process, the parent entry of each inode from the root directory will be deleted. The root inode will attempt to recover but if it fails, another error message will be displayed, that is:

“Cannot Allocate Root Inode”

After this error message, you will not be able to access your system.

Cause:

This behavior is caused due to corruption of the file system, superblock, root inode, or any other Linux data structure. Because of this, the operating system cannot locate the hard drive volumes.

Resolution:

To sort out this problem and perform Linux recovery, you should reformat the hard disk and reinstall the Linux operating system. However, that would invariably mean that your valuable data will be lost. In such cases, you should use a third-party Linux data recovery to recover lost data. Such tools are able to recover lost data safely by using fast yet sophisticated scanning algorithms.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a Linux recovery tool that enables you to recover lost data from all instances of data loss. It is able to perform ext2 recovery, ext3 recovery, and ext4 recovery. In addition, it can recover FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 file systems as well. This software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.

Recovering a Red Hat Linux system after a power outage

Today, the Linux operating system has carved a niche of its own. It has got a dedicated category of users who will happily pay for it if it ever comes with a price tag. The Linux system is secure, reliable, fast, and does not require hardware/software drivers to install them on the system. Having said that, even such a robust operating system can face corruption. Corruption can occur due to various reasons such as power outages, corrupt file system, human errors, damaged operating system, etc.

In such cases, you should try performing appropriate corrective measures to sort out the issue. However, if you are unable to do so then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to perform Linux recovery.

Consider a scenario wherein you are working on a Red Hat Linux system. Suddenly, there is a power outage and the system shuts down unexpectedly. When you try to switch on the system, you fail to do so.

Cause:

The cause of this situation is that the Linux system has corrupted because of power outage.

Resolution:

If the problem is because of having a faulty hardware like bad hard drive or memory chip, the file system check may not be sufficient to resolve this problem. This happens particularly when the file system is corrupted. In such cases, the Red Hat boot process will produce an error message and guide you into a shell so that you can perform the file system repair yourself.

When the recovery shell dismounts all the file systems to mount the root file system in a read-only mode, you can perform full file system checks on it. To do this, you should run the e2fsck utility on the corrupted file system that will be able to resolve all the inconsistencies. Exit the shell and restart the system. The system will function normally now.

However, if you still are unable to recover the system then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to do the needful. Such read-only tools are able to recover the data safely without overwriting the existing data.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a Linux recovery software that enables you to recover data from the corrupted Linux systems. It is supported by various Linux distributions such as Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Caldera, Mandrake, Sorcerer, TurboLinux, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. This Linux data recovery software is able to perform ext2 recovery, ext3 recovery, and ext4 recovery. In addition, it can recover data from FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 file systems as well. This Linux recovery software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.