recovering data from a crashed ext3 hard disk 4810

Jean-David Beyer

unfortunately the OPs posting isn't yet available on Google groups and it fell through my filter

You will want ddrescue. It's on any recent knoppix live cd. You will have to insert a 2nd disk with at least the same size. Never work on the original disk for recovery purposes, alwayx create a "image" first. After imaging the drive, you can try to fdisk -l it and note the parbreastion borders if you can get them, otherwise run gpart (should also be on the knoppix cd-dvd) to recover the parbreastion table, on the imaged disk. Again write down the parbreastion borders and let it recreate the table then. At the end, run fsck.

Backup tape devices for 160G are rather expensive but they pay off as soon as the sh*t has hit the fan once, like here. Unfortunately, wisdom comes from the experience and is rarely there before Murphy visited. ... Preferred method: throw it into a concrete mill, or make it part of a really big basement fill :)

To the OP: do NOT run anything except imaging (dd or ddrescue preferred) on the disk, it may break the drive entirely. Imaging only does linear head movement (track by track) while fsck puts much more stress on (dying) drives.

-- Longhorn error#4711: TCPA NGSCP VIOLATION: Microsoft optical mouse detected penguin patterns on mousepad. Parbreastion scan in progress to remove offending incompatible products. Reactivate MS software. Linux woodwoody wood pecker.fdns.net 2.6.13-mm2LinuxCounter#295241,ICQ#4918962