“Root inode is not a directory” Error in Linux

The disk check command in Linux, fsck, runs in five phases. The first phase is to check the data blocks and its size while in second one, this check for the pathnames. Then in the subsequent phases, connectivity, reference counts and cylinder groups are checked respectively. If at the second phase, in which the pathnames are checked, the fsck fails, the situation could be drastic.

This can happen due to inode issues. You may get error messages like:

“Root inode is not a directory. Clear?”

This is the clear indication that the root inode has got corrupted somehow. Now what are inodes? The inode in Linux file systems are the data structures which hold all the information of the files stored except its name and data. This can be referred as the unique number given to each file and for each file there in an individual inode. The file is accessed by this inode only.

Now in this particular case, the root inode which is usually the inode number 2 has got damaged. This is the first inode of the file system and represents the root or starting point of the filesystem.

If you agree to ‘Yes’ in this error message, then this will delete the parent entry of each inode from the root directory. Then in the third phase of fsck, the root inode is attempted to recover, but if this fails, another error message displays:

“Cannot Allocate Root Inode”

The situation to be weird to those who possess lots of critical and important data on their Linux systems as this is the stage where they can lose their data. The only option to recover the data is to have the Linux recovery tools which gain the capability to retrieve the data even in the filesystem issues.

These tools are called Linux data recovery software which makes use of the influential algorithms to drag out the data. Once written data does not move from the hard drive, until you overwrite it, so Linux recovery software go along this fact and put maximum efforts to recover the data.

Data recovery Linux is not so easy job to be done through any of the software but instead demands high technology from the software. These Linux recovery utilities provide an abstract view to the users.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software works as the ultimate solution for data recovery Linux. Valuable for Ext2, Ext3 and Reiser FS file systems, this software uses the most powerful scanning algorithms to recover the data. Giving the interactive user interface to the users, it does the complete job for Linux data recovery. The software recognizes each file type.

Linux Error ‘Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt!’

The following error message in Linux operating system may annoy you when you run the fsck command with the sudden fear of losing the precious data:

“The filesystem size (according to the superblock) is xxx
The physical size of the device is xxx
Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt!”

The superblock is the important data structure of Linux file systems which describes the size of the inode-table and the size of the total file system. This also contains the information like File system type, size, status, information about the metadata structures. Thus this shows that the loss of either information may create serious problems of data loss in Linux.

The problem could be if some files have been attempted to write upon the portion of the disk where the superblock is stored and the filesystem wouldn’t allow it to write. The solution of the problem runs in three steps:

  1. Unmount all the partitions using the ‘unmount-a’ command in single user mode
  2. Repair the partitions
  3. Resize the partitions

Resizing the partitions without repairing them may complicate the problem with the following error message:

“attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to resize”

So this is advised to repair the partitions first using e2fsck -cc /dev/md3 command. The process is safe if you have the backup copy of the data and if you don’t have, you certainly require tool for Linux recovery.

Resizing the partitions would delete all your data, thus the perfect scanning procedure to scan the hard drive and hence Linux data recovery software is required. These are the tools are built with the indigenous technology to run the powerful algorithms.

Developed by different data recovery companies, this software allow the users to work through the interactive interface. These data recovery Linux software address all data loss problems.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software is the superbly built Linux recovery tool for Ext2, Ext3 and Reiser FS file systems. This software uses the extensive scanning algorithms oriented to complete data recovery Linux. The software supports all the Linux flavors for Linux data recovery.

You can apply this utility after any instance of data loss. This software offers you the graphically rich user interface which can be checked through its demo version, available on Stellar’s website.

Data Loss in Linux due to Logical Volume Manager

Logical Volume Manager or LVM for Linux operating system does the great work for maintaining the disk drives and similar mass-storage devices. Particularly for the RAID systems, use of LVM has great advantages. The Linux flavor like RedHat will allow you to create LVM volumes on top of the RAID volumes.

This is a type of storage management system which overcomes the limitation of not changing the size of the file system without the destruction of data. Thus this allows you to change the size of the file system without harming the data. Using LVM, you can create single volume group consisting of multiple disks used in the system and then this can be used to create logical partitions.

You can also maintain multiple logical volumes with the storage space of your own choice. Also, you can force catching disk space allocation and disk stripping. But this should not be taken as the substitute for regular backup in Linux.

Apart from this, LVM is usable in adding more physical storage, creating the snapshots of file systems and moving the volume groups to new physical storage. On the other hand, the limitation comes in the form of being not supported to parity-based redundancy.

This keeps the metadata header (basic information about the data) at the start of each physical volume, which is a complete copy of the entire volume group’s layout. Also the metadata loss will create several complications. The damage of this LVM creates several complications for the users.

In the event of data loss, if the LVM is found to be damaged due to any means, then the snapshots of the file system created by it would also be found to be incomplete and damaged. This crates the need of Linux recovery through the scanning of the hard drive.

This process is practical through the help of data recovery Linux software, made for this part. These Linux recovery utilities are based on the principle that the data never gets deleted until overwritten and can be recovered via the perfect and valuable processes.

Linux data recovery software have a great efficiency to impart the ease factor for using the software through their interactive and graphically rich user interface. The software come under different brand names and functionality and the best one would be which can address all the data loss complications.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software has been built by expert engineers of the data recovery industry. This Linux recovery utility acts as an ideal data recovery software for the reason that this has all the qualities of a perfect and complete product.

The software supports Ext2, Ext3 and Reiser FS file systems and runs on Windows based system, so you just need to attach your affected hard drive to it for the valuable data recovery Linux. All the Linux flavors are supported by the software and performs Linux data recovery for all types of files in all possible cases of data loss.

Linux Data Recovery after Resizing and Defragmenting

Saving important data on the Linux supported systems has become like a trend. But in few cases after saving lots of data on the Linux volumes, you realize that these volumes are not of optimum size. Like the example, you have enough room in /usr but not in /home.

The solution of this problem exists repartitioning or resizing the hard drive for different sized volumes. But this is necessary that you backup all your data first, so as not to fall for Linux data recovery. The way to result this is to use the partition resizer which is available for different Linux file systems.
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Linux Hard Drive Errors and Linux Data Recovery

Linux is the most popular and widely accepted computer operating system that is used on both desktop and server computers. Several organizations consider Linux as the most reliable and stable operating system and stores a vast amount of data on the Linux based systems.

Linux hard drive can store all kinds of data ranging from applications to text files and partitioned using either Ext2, Ext3 or ReiserFS file system. Linux file systems use physical journaling and provides better scalability as compared to other computer operating systems.

But no operating system or computer is completely fool proof and the errors can occur in Linux systems also. Sometimes, you may find it difficult to access data from the Linux systems and may get some sort of hard drive related errors when you use fsck command. You may get the error messages stating:
“/dev/hda3: Super block last mount time is in the future”
Or

“/dev/hda3: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY”
These error messages occur every time when you boot your system to try to open any Linux hard drive volume. After these error messages, you can’t access the data stored on particular volume.

These error messages can occur due to the file system errors or volume corruption. File system errors or volume corruption could be the result of virus attack, unexpected system shutdown, operating system malfunction and many others.
No matter what is the reason of the trouble, it is very important to save your data. The data stored on your hard drive is at stake of loss and you need to use some solutions as quickly as possible to save it.

Data is the lifeblood of any organization and losing it is not accepted at any cost. Data loss can destroy your business and can possibly put you out of the business. It can financially harm the organization. Thus, it is very important to recover your data for smooth running of your business.

Data recovery in such circumstances can be carried out using data recovery software known as Linux data recovery software. These software are fairly easy to use and the data recovery Linux can be done by user itself without having any sound technical knowledge.

A systematic and complete scan of the hard drive is mandatory to ensure absolute data recovery. Thus, you should always select a powerful and advanced data recovery Linux software to get all of your data back.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the highly developed and the most advanced Linux recovery software that is helpful in most of the cases of Linux data loss. The hard drive scanning mechanisms availed by this Linux recovery software are very advanced and can address all of the issues.

Due to the rich graphic support and interactive user interface, this software won’t let you feel the need to any kind of technical knowledge. This Linux recovery software has been designed read only and non destructive to give you original results without altering the data.

Data Recovery from Crashed Linux System

A disk that contains a Linux kernel which can be booted is known as Boot Disk. This disk can be used to boot the kernel, which then might load a root file system to any other disk. The Kernel on the Boot Disk generally should be told where to find the root file system.

You can say that a boot disk contains everything that is required to boot a Linux based computer. The benefit of this kind of disk is that it is compact- anything required is stored on a single disk. It is mainly beneficial in case of a system crash where you can boot the system through Boot Disk and can save your data to other location.

There are some unfortunate situations where your Linux operating system crashes and you don’t have a boot disk to boot the system. The only way out that can solve you problem in this case remains is the reinstallation of the operating system.
But it is not a safe way as it needs the hard drive formatting and wipes all of the data stored on the hard drive. It causes the nightmare of the data loss can puts you in serious problem. If the data is of great importance then create hazards for your business also.
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‘Read Only File System’ Error in Linux

“Read-only file system”, this error message may appear on your screen of Linux based system which has been using dual boot procedure with Windows like operating system. When you try to mount the Linux partition, all may set well except the flash of the stated error message at the end of boot. The result of this is that you can’t do any modification or writing to your files and the system may also freeze forcing you to restart the system using hard boot.

This may create havoc for the users and the most relevant thing which the user thinks about is the data. This may create a thought in the user’s mind that whether he/she would need Linux recovery or not. So for finding out this, you need to know the reason for the same. Well the reason for this error message may be any one like:

•    File system corruption
•    Incorrect unlock addresses for an LPC flash chip
•    Disk failure

In case of disk failure, to prevent the hard disk from further harm, the file system is re-mounted as read only. This is an automatic case. For the detection and solution, you can try out the mentioned things:
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Document Mangling in Linux

In computing terms the word mangling means the rewriting the file again if it is incompatible at the operating system level. In the operating system like Linux when you see that the document is mangled up then this may be due to some serious bug in it. This happens mainly at the networked systems. If the file names contain colons or backslashes then the operating system can take it other ways and can generate errors.

If the operating system like Linux gets failed then you left with no other option then to reinstall it. But if the Word processor has some bug in it then the system would not crash at all but this bug can lead your system at the stage of data loss which is irretrievable. This condition certainly requires Linux data recovery.
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The Road to Linux

Linux operating system is the name given to the computer operating system which is Unix-like. This operating system has been designed for general use on the desktops, laptops and servers. But it is now being used for several of the purposes due to its advanced features like computer architecture support, stability, security, embedded systems, targeting of specific user groups and lots many.

Other of the uses are as listed below:
•    Internet is widely used by almost all of the users for collecting information and for lots other works. So in the present situation where more and more reliability and security is required at the server level, Linux operating system is now used as server operating system. This is due to its more stability and long uptime, and the fact that desktop software with a GUI is often unneeded, this has risen prominence in this area.
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Blocks in Linux

The Linux based computer systems bank on Ext2, Ext3 and Reiser FS file systems. These file systems stores the data in the form of Data Blocks. Blocks are used to decrease the chances of internal fragmentation and decrease disk seeks time when reading or writing a large amount of data on the disk. Each data block group consists of a super block, an Inode bitmap, subsequently the actual data blocks.

The super block of your Linux operating system stores significant booting information. The group descriptor holds the value of block bitmap, Inode bitmap and the starting of the Inode table for each block group.  This data structure of the Linux operating system not only reduces the disk fragmentation but also make the data storage very simple.
Sometimes you may find that your Linux system responds very slowly. It might possible that the system crashes, hangs, and freezes. Such situations occur if there is a lost of fragmentation on the hard disk. The disk fragmentation can occur in case if you are using blocks also.
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