Lost all my data

So I have pro edition installed everything seems to be running fine. I currently have 3x 1.5tb drives and a 250 gig.

I had another 1.5tb in one of my pcs with a lot of my data so I transfered it over then shut down the array and installed it into the unraid server. It took like 2 days to delete all the data. So the option comes up to format new drives. I select that and its starts formating all the drives rather then just the new drive. I quickly shut down the server and hit restore. The drives still show data on them but when I goto the file share its blank. Is there anything I can do now or am I basically screwed?

So I have pro edition installed everything seems to be running fine. I currently have 3x 1.5tb drives and a 250 gig.

I had another 1.5tb in one of my pcs with a lot of my data so I transfered it over then shut down the array and installed it into the unraid server. It took like 2 days to delete all the data. So the option comes up to format new drives. I select that and its starts formating all the drives rather then just the new drive. I quickly shut down the server and hit restore. The drives still show data on them but when I goto the file share its blank. Is there anything I can do now or am I basically screwed?

First... by pressing the button labeled "restore" you immediately invalidated the parity drive.  It takes the config/super.dat file and re-names it as config/super.old   Then, it created a new config/super.dat file when you started the array based on the then configured drives.

To get back the parity (at least to where it was before you started) you can use the "Trust-My-Parity" procedure as described in the wiki here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Make_unRAID_Trust_the_Parity_Drive,_Avoid_Rebuilding_Parity_Unnecessarily

Now, this procedure will not get back your data.  Since you've formatted the drives you will need to rebuild their respective file-trees.   (Their directory structures pointing to the data blocks containing your files)

Whatever you do, DO NOT WRITE ANY NEW FILES TO THE DRIVES YOU ACCIDENTALLY FORMATTED.

You will need to perform this set of steps for each of the drives you accidentally formatted (I'll use disk1 and disk2 as an example, change the number for each of your other disks in turn):

Turn off any spin-down timers.  We do not want the disks to be spun down in the middle of the repair.

Turn off any sleep/suspend screen savers on your PC if doing this via telnet.  Don't want it shutting down in the middle of a repair step.   It might be better if the following commands are typed on the unRAID system console directly, but as long as your PC does not shut itself down, you'll be fine using telnet.

Stop samba (you will not be able to un-mount the disk if it is busy... and samba will keep it busy)

/root/samba stop

un-mount the drive.  

umount /dev/md1

Rebuild the file-tree scanning the entire disk for files.

reiserfsck -–scan-whole-partition -–rebuild-tree /dev/md1

Respond with "Yes" when prompted... Upper-case "Y", lower case "es"  The scan can take many hours for a large drive.  

Re-mount the drive:

mount /dev/md1 /mnt/disk1

un-mount the next drive.  

umount /dev/md2

Rebuild the file-tree scanning the entire disk for files.

reiserfsck -–scan-whole-partition -–rebuild-tree /dev/md2

Respond with "Yes" when prompted... Upper-case "Y", lower case "es"  The scan can take many hours for a large drive.  

Re-mount the drive:

mount /dev/md2 /mnt/disk2

Do the above steps for each of your disks, then....

when all done, you should be able to re-start samba

/root/samba start

and see if your files have been restored.   Files in the top-most directory will probably end up in a lost+found directory created by the restore process.  You'll need to re-name them to their correct names.  Files lower in the directory hierarchy will probably have their correct names.

While this is all happening, write to lime-technology describing how the "unformatted" bug has caused you to lose all your data and request it be fixed as soon as possible.  

Also describe how your mis-understanding of the button labeled as "Restore" caused you to use it in a panic attempt to get your data back.    The button is actually a "Set Initial Disk Configuration" button.  It has absolutely nothing to do with restoring your data from parity, in fact, it prevents any re-construction of a failed disk as it immediately invalidates parity.

If you have questions, ask here...  You will need to run a full parity check once all this is done.  

Joe L.

Im getting an error that no reiserfs metadata found.

I only had enough data to fill half of one drive. Is there a way to recover from the parity?

Here is the error.

root@Tower:~# reiserfsck --scan-whole-partition --rebuild-tree /dev/sdc

reiserfsck 3.6.19 (2003 www.namesys.com)

*************************************************************

** Do not  run  the  program  with  --rebuild-tree  unless **

** something is broken and MAKE A BACKUP  before using it. **

** If you have bad sectors on a drive  it is usually a bad **

** idea to continue using it. Then you probably should get **

** a working hard drive, copy the file system from the bad **

** drive  to the good one -- dd_rescue is  a good tool for **

** that -- and only then run this program.                **

** If you are using the latest reiserfsprogs and  it fails **

** please  email bug reports to [email protected], **

** providing  as  much  information  as  possible --  your **

** hardware,  kernel,  patches,  settings,  all reiserfsck **

** messages  (including version),  the reiserfsck logfile, **

** check  the  syslog file  for  any  related information. **

** If you would like advice on using this program, support **

** is available  for $25 at  www.namesys.com/support.html. **

*************************************************************

Will rebuild the filesystem (/dev/sdc) tree

Will put log info to 'stdout'

Do you want to run this program?[N/Yes] (note need to type Yes if you do):Yes

Replaying journal..

No transactions found

###########

reiserfsck --rebuild-tree started at Fri Apr 16 07:18:56 2010

###########

Pass 0:

####### Pass 0 #######

The whole partition (366284640 blocks) is to be scanned

Skipping 19389 blocks (super block, journal, bitmaps) 366265251 blocks will be read

0%..block 108335637: The number of items (4096) is incorrect, should be (1) - corrected

block 108335637: The free space (21761) is incorrect, should be (4048) - corrected

pass0: vpf-10150: block 108335637: item 0: Wrong key [8650760 0 0x0 SD (0)], deleted

block 212079866: The number of items (9) is incorrect, should be (0) - corrected

block 212079866: The free space (0) is incorrect, should be (4072) - corrected

block 225718585: The number of items (606) is incorrect, should be (1) - corrected

block 225718585: The free space (1792) is incorrect, should be (4048) - corrected

pass0: vpf-10110: block 225718585, item (0): Unknown item type found [88066 338 0x27051000 (15)] - deleted

                                                          left 0, 21488 /secc

Could not find a hash in use. Using "r5"

        "r5" hash is selected

Flushing..finished

        Read blocks (but not data blocks) 366265251

                Leaves among those 4

                        - leaves all contents of which could not be saved and deleted 4

                Objectids found 2

Pass 1 (will try to insert 0 leaves):

####### Pass 1 #######

Looking for allocable blocks .. finished

Flushing..finished

        0 leaves read

                0 inserted

####### Pass 2 #######

Flushing..finished

No reiserfs metadata found.  If you are sure that you had the reiserfs

on this partition,  then the start  of the partition  might be changed

or all data were wiped out. The start of the partition may get changed

by a partitioner  if you have used one.  Then you probably rebuilt the

superblock as there was no one.  Zero the block at 64K offset from the

start of the partition (a new super block you have just built) and try

to move the start of the partition a few cylinders aside  and check if

debugreiserfs /dev/xxx detects a reiserfs super block. If it does this

is likely to be the right super block version.

If this makes you nervous, try  www.namesys.com/support.html,  and for

$25 the author of fsck,  or a colleague  if he is out,  will  step you

through it all.

Aborted

root@Tower:~#

Is there something else I can try?

Im getting an error that no reiserfs metadata found.

I only had enough data to fill half of one drive. Is there a way to recover from the parity?

 

Here is the error.

 

 

root@Tower:~# reiserfsck --scan-whole-partition --rebuild-tree /dev/sdc

reiserfsck 3.6.19 (2003 www.namesys.com)

 

*************************************************************

** Do not  run  the  program  with  --rebuild-tree  unless **

** something is broken and MAKE A BACKUP  before using it. **

** If you have bad sectors on a drive  it is usually a bad **

** idea to continue using it. Then you probably should get **

** a working hard drive, copy the file system from the bad **

** drive  to the good one -- dd_rescue is  a good tool for **

** that -- and only then run this program.                 **

** If you are using the latest reiserfsprogs and  it fails **

** please  email bug reports to [email protected], **

** providing  as  much  information  as  possible --  your **

** hardware,  kernel,  patches,  settings,  all reiserfsck **

** messages  (including version),  the reiserfsck logfile, **

** check  the  syslog file  for  any  related information. **

** If you would like advice on using this program, support **

** is available  for $25 at  www.namesys.com/support.html. **

*************************************************************

 

Will rebuild the filesystem (/dev/sdc) tree

Will put log info to 'stdout'

 

Do you want to run this program?[N/Yes] (note need to type Yes if you do):Yes

Replaying journal..

No transactions found

###########

reiserfsck --rebuild-tree started at Fri Apr 16 07:18:56 2010

###########

 

Pass 0:

####### Pass 0 #######

The whole partition (366284640 blocks) is to be scanned

Skipping 19389 blocks (super block, journal, bitmaps) 366265251 blocks will be read

0%..block 108335637: The number of items (4096) is incorrect, should be (1) - corrected

block 108335637: The free space (21761) is incorrect, should be (4048) - corrected

pass0: vpf-10150: block 108335637: item 0: Wrong key [8650760 0 0x0 SD (0)], deleted

block 212079866: The number of items (9) is incorrect, should be (0) - corrected

block 212079866: The free space (0) is incorrect, should be (4072) - corrected

block 225718585: The number of items (606) is incorrect, should be (1) - corrected

block 225718585: The free space (1792) is incorrect, should be (4048) - corrected

pass0: vpf-10110: block 225718585, item (0): Unknown item type found [88066 338 0x27051000 (15)] - deleted

                                                         left 0, 21488 /secc

Could not find a hash in use. Using "r5"

       "r5" hash is selected

Flushing..finished

       Read blocks (but not data blocks) 366265251

               Leaves among those 4

                       - leaves all contents of which could not be saved and deleted 4

               Objectids found 2

 

Pass 1 (will try to insert 0 leaves):

####### Pass 1 #######

Looking for allocable blocks .. finished

 

Flushing..finished

       0 leaves read

               0 inserted

####### Pass 2 #######

Flushing..finished

 

 

No reiserfs metadata found.  If you are sure that you had the reiserfs

on this partition,  then the start  of the partition  might be changed

or all data were wiped out. The start of the partition may get changed

by a partitioner  if you have used one.  Then you probably rebuilt the

superblock as there was no one.  Zero the block at 64K offset from the

start of the partition (a new super block you have just built) and try

to move the start of the partition a few cylinders aside  and check if

debugreiserfs /dev/xxx detects a reiserfs super block. If it does this

is likely to be the right super block version.

If this makes you nervous, try  www.namesys.com/support.html,  and for

$25 the author of fsck,  or a colleague  if he is out,  will  step you

through it all.

 

Aborted

root@Tower:~#

 

where mdX = md1, md2, md3, corresponding to disk1, disk2, disk3, etc...

You attempted to run reiserfcsk on the entire raw drive (the /dev/sdc device).  The file-system is on the first partition, used by the "mdX" device, so running the file system repair on the "/dev/sdc" device did not find the metadata it was looking for.  It is natural for it to fail.

hopefully, what you did did not corrupt the disk even more.   We will not know until you run reiserfsck on the correct device.

Joe L.

Yo, sandman.. it seems you read/skim way too fast and it has repeatedly gotten you in trouble...

Take the time to read and comprehend what's out there and if you're still not sure, ask around before proceeding (semi)blindly..

Good luck with the restoration, I hope it works out okay.

Yea thanks dude it worked.

There were a couple files that are either corrupt or just mislabeled but other then that I think its all fixed.

I guess dont hit restore.

In the future, if it does start formating all the drives when I add an additional drive, what would be the best course of action?

I think school has ruined me. Forced me to skim everything.

In the future, if it does start formating all the drives when I add an additional drive, what would be the best course of action?

As I understand it, it doesn't really matter what you do.  You can either cancel the format ASAP, or let it finish.  Either way you'll have to run reiserfsck.  Hopefully another Hero member can confirm that.

I think school has ruined me. Forced me to skim everything.

I hear that.

In the future, if it does start formating all the drives when I add an additional drive, what would be the best course of action?

 

As I understand it, it doesn't really matter what you do.  You can either cancel the format ASAP, or let it finish.  Either way you'll have to run reiserfsck.  Hopefully another Hero member can confirm that.

 

 

I think school has ruined me. Forced me to skim everything.

 

I hear that.

I may copy a drive, then sacrifice it on another machine to see what happens.

I'll wait until after the par2 stuff is done.

Right now I have the md5 generation done.

The par2 generation is giving me issues. Keeps getting killed with an out of memory error.