[opensuse] broken HD, data recovery possible?
Hi everybody, The HD (with Suse 10.0, ReiserFS) of my moms old laptop is broken and I thought, maybe there's a possibility to revover her e-mails and some OOo textfiles, but google wouldn't help me (I probably search wrong - find only commercial ads...). Trying to mount /dev/hda1 or /dev/hda2 with the rescue system fails (it says: partition doesn't exist) The openSuse install CD says, "parted cannot format the disk". reiserfsck says the SuperBlock cannot be read - and I cannot rebuild the Superblock with reiserfsck because I don't know what answers I should type to the questions it asks.... The only thing I know is that it's a 20 G disk with a swap, a root and a home partition (with reiserfs). But I don't even know the sizes of the partitions or the version of reiserfs... Is there a Linux tool to make a bootable CD, that will then search the disk and give possibility to save found files to a floppy? any hints? thanks Daniel -- Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Switzerland professional photography: http://www.daniel-bauer.com Madagascar special: http://www.sanic.ch -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Daniel Bauer wrote:
Hi everybody,
The HD (with Suse 10.0, ReiserFS) of my moms old laptop is broken and I thought, maybe there's a possibility to revover her e-mails and some OOo textfiles, but google wouldn't help me (I probably search wrong - find only commercial ads...).
There are not many Tools for ReiserFS.
Trying to mount /dev/hda1 or /dev/hda2 with the rescue system fails (it says: partition doesn't exist) The openSuse install CD says, "parted cannot format the disk". reiserfsck says the SuperBlock cannot be read - and I cannot rebuild the Superblock with reiserfsck because I don't know what answers I should type to the questions it asks....
The trouble seems to be that not even partitions are recognised. Try a bootable Knoppix CD, that distribution is designed to run without a harddisk, and has a range of tools to analyse hdds and partitions. Try to recover the partitions first. Then you might even be able to read all data. If you are serious about it, you should try to make a dd_rescue image of the broken hdd first and then tinker with the image to rescue as much as possible.
The only thing I know is that it's a 20 G disk with a swap, a root and a home partition (with reiserfs). But I don't even know the sizes of the partitions or the version of reiserfs...
Is the hdd still visible in your notebook Bios?
Is there a Linux tool to make a bootable CD, that will then search the disk and give possibility to save found files to a floppy?
Knoppix, testdisk. You don't get any automatic rescue options, the work will have to be done by yourself. -- Sandy List replies only please! Please address PMs to: news-reply2 (@) japantest (.) homelinux (.) com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hi! I don't use ReiserFS, but I have a copy of Paragon's Partition Manager on one of my Win clients which does "see" ReiserFS partitions. A quick check of the User manual reveals that this program formats, copies, resizes and moves ReiserFS partitions. You can downloadl a trial version from http://www.paragon-software.com/demo.htm. The commercial version costs $50 and supports a bootable CD or floppy with the program. If your data is worth $50 it might be a solution. (It's also a good utility to have around ...) Regards, Daniel Daniel Bauer wrote:
Hi everybody,
The HD (with Suse 10.0, ReiserFS) of my moms old laptop is broken and I thought, maybe there's a possibility to revover her e-mails and some OOo textfiles, but google wouldn't help me (I probably search wrong - find only commercial ads...).
Trying to mount /dev/hda1 or /dev/hda2 with the rescue system fails (it says: partition doesn't exist) The openSuse install CD says, "parted cannot format the disk". reiserfsck says the SuperBlock cannot be read - and I cannot rebuild the Superblock with reiserfsck because I don't know what answers I should type to the questions it asks....
The only thing I know is that it's a 20 G disk with a swap, a root and a home partition (with reiserfs). But I don't even know the sizes of the partitions or the version of reiserfs...
Is there a Linux tool to make a bootable CD, that will then search the disk and give possibility to save found files to a floppy?
any hints? thanks
Daniel
* Daniel Feiglin <dilogsys@inter.net.il> [02-26-07 01:34]:
I don't use ReiserFS, but I have a copy of Paragon's Partition Manager on one of my Win clients which does "see" ReiserFS partitions. A quick check of the User manual reveals that this program formats, copies, resizes and moves ReiserFS partitions. You can downloadl a trial version from http://www.paragon-software.com/demo.htm. The commercial version costs $50 and supports a bootable CD or floppy with the program. If your data is worth $50 it might be a solution. (It's also a good utility to have around ...)
The GNome Partition Editor probably does as much for a better price: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php -- Patrick Shanahan Registered Linux User #207535 http://wahoo.no-ip.org @ http://counter.li.org HOG # US1244711 Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 OpenSUSE Linux http://en.opensuse.org/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Patrick Shanahan wrote:
The GNome Partition Editor probably does as much for a better price: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
I've never had much luck with gnuparted. I always get 'unsupported feature' when I try to use it on ext3 volumes. It doesn't seem to like NTFS, either. Most of my systems have one or both of those filesystems. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
* David Brodbeck <gull@gull.us> [02-26-07 13:50]:
Patrick Shanahan wrote:
The GNome Partition Editor probably does as much for a better price: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
I've never had much luck with gnuparted. I always get 'unsupported feature' when I try to use it on ext3 volumes. It doesn't seem to like NTFS, either. Most of my systems have one or both of those filesystems.
It has been updated in the last several days. -- Patrick Shanahan Registered Linux User #207535 http://wahoo.no-ip.org @ http://counter.li.org HOG # US1244711 Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 OpenSUSE Linux http://en.opensuse.org/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 25 February 2007 18:03, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Is there a Linux tool to make a bootable CD, that will then search the disk and give possibility to save found files to a floppy?
I have found Insert to be very useful: http://www.inside-security.de/insert_en.html In your case, gpart and foremost might be useful (both of which are included on the Insert disk). foremost is quite good at recovering files but it doesn't recover the file names so you'll have to wade through a load of files to find what you want. I guess it all depends on how valuable the files are and how much work you're prepared to put in to retrieve them but provided the disk is not physically damaged, you should be able to get something back. Also, I would definitely agree with an earlier post which recommended making an image of the disk. Good luck, James. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Sunday 2007-02-25 at 19:03 +0100, Daniel Bauer wrote:
The HD (with Suse 10.0, ReiserFS) of my moms old laptop is broken and I thought, maybe there's a possibility to revover her e-mails and some OOo textfiles, but google wouldn't help me (I probably search wrong - find only commercial ads...).
Trying to mount /dev/hda1 or /dev/hda2 with the rescue system fails (it says: partition doesn't exist) The openSuse install CD says, "parted cannot format the disk". reiserfsck says the SuperBlock cannot be read - and I cannot rebuild the Superblock with reiserfsck because I don't know what answers I should type to the questions it asks....
The only thing I know is that it's a 20 G disk with a swap, a root and a home partition (with reiserfs). But I don't even know the sizes of the partitions or the version of reiserfs...
Is there a Linux tool to make a bootable CD, that will then search the disk and give possibility to save found files to a floppy?
I would prefer to take the disk out and work in my own computer, with that disk as "extra", then do an image of the whole thing, and work on it. Mind: use a new cable, 80 pin ide cable is fragile. First step is recognizing the partitions. Use "fdisk -l /dev/whateverdisk" to print the partition table. If it comes out empty, use "gpart" to guess them, and follow it's advice to recover them. The next step would be to fsck the partitions, but first, I would dd each one and work on the copy, not the original. But I'll leave that step for another post. I went this road recently, I almost lost 140GB. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF4wZ4tTMYHG2NR9URAnT4AJwPSgDOV0hQOwoFRX6EON4YQk80hgCffyXg M2p0jkBWB5VCfUwCdPZ7Uco= =Ff9K -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Daniel: Use ddrescue #dd_rescue /dev/broken /dev/sda There is an rpm for suse. Ciao -=terry(Denver)=- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Monday 2007-02-26 at 10:13 -0700, Teruel de Campo MD wrote:
Use ddrescue
#dd_rescue /dev/broken /dev/sda
Be carefull, that doesn't save an image file. It will overwrite the sda partition table et all. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF45aWtTMYHG2NR9URAqwYAJ99mDvbk9HVjIlp5AHp+BlQyJNhSACfaqiJ +bh9fCl7qERKmUJ9e2frJWY= =hzs5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Carlos,, You are correct. It works great when you have a disk that goes caput and you get a new disk for replacement and you try to save as much data as you can. It though this was Daniel's situation. This is not a tool for an unwanted delete file etc. Regards, -=terry(Denver)=- On Tue, 2007-02-27 at 03:25 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:
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The Monday 2007-02-26 at 10:13 -0700, Teruel de Campo MD wrote:
Use ddrescue
#dd_rescue /dev/broken /dev/sda
Be carefull, that doesn't save an image file. It will overwrite the sda partition table et all.
- -- Cheers, Carlos E. R.
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Monday 2007-02-26 at 20:56 -0700, Teruel de Campo MD wrote:
You are correct. It works great when you have a disk that goes caput and you get a new disk for replacement and you try to save as much data as you can. It though this was Daniel's situation. This is not a tool for an unwanted delete file etc.
Ah, right, cloning a disk, yes. But the new one would be broken as well, the partition table seems to be broken. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF5BUctTMYHG2NR9URAgZqAJ9IGeV9vo6+hus/YgHVn1NjIXCb0QCePfp3 7/BBMHIcoqo0X4Up7yW2GzI= =Sd7d -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Carlos E. R. wrote:
The Monday 2007-02-26 at 20:56 -0700, Teruel de Campo MD wrote:
You are correct. It works great when you have a disk that goes caput and you get a new disk for replacement and you try to save as much data as you can. It though this was Daniel's situation. This is not a tool for an unwanted delete file etc.
Ah, right, cloning a disk, yes. But the new one would be broken as well, the partition table seems to be broken.
The idea behind cloning, if possible is that you don't destroy the original with your efforts to recover data. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Tuesday 2007-02-27 at 07:26 -0500, James Knott wrote:
Ah, right, cloning a disk, yes. But the new one would be broken as well, the partition table seems to be broken.
The idea behind cloning, if possible is that you don't destroy the original with your efforts to recover data.
I know, I do that myself. But I save images of each partition separately, not the whole disk. I haven't tried, but I have my doubts that utilities like "fdisk" could work on a disk image :-? - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF5DIptTMYHG2NR9URAhdaAJ9AcQF2XtcajLUX4+Q4DP++2NlMaQCfY8GG NH4c6jh604lnZn1RSusTwS0= =27kx -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Carlos E. R. wrote:
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The Tuesday 2007-02-27 at 07:26 -0500, James Knott wrote:
Ah, right, cloning a disk, yes. But the new one would be broken as well, the partition table seems to be broken.
The idea behind cloning, if possible is that you don't destroy the original with your efforts to recover data.
I know, I do that myself. But I save images of each partition separately, not the whole disk. I haven't tried, but I have my doubts that utilities like "fdisk" could work on a disk image :-?
It works if you set it up as a loopback filesystem, IIRC, i.e. # man losetup # losetup -f /dev/loop0 # losetup filesystem.img /dev/loop0 # fdisk /dev/loop0 # losetup -d Russell Jones -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Tuesday 2007-02-27 at 15:09 -0000, Russell Jones wrote:
I know, I do that myself. But I save images of each partition separately, not the whole disk. I haven't tried, but I have my doubts that utilities like "fdisk" could work on a disk image :-?
It works if you set it up as a loopback filesystem, IIRC, i.e. # man losetup # losetup -f /dev/loop0 # losetup filesystem.img /dev/loop0 # fdisk /dev/loop0 # losetup -d
Ah! That's very interesting indeed 8-) - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF5FActTMYHG2NR9URAsw3AJ4qCli4CqZHrjx/HbTiEHm2WDTwNACfbs/Q 2cMU4Sli4uYIV5pDq5Gx74g= =Auc0 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hello Sandy, Daniel, Patrick, Carlos, Teruel, James, Bandi... :-) thank you very much for your hints. Meanwhile I have downloaded several "live CD's and tried with them what I was able to, till now with no success. Nothing really important has been lost, so I will not invest too much work on that topic. I don't now what happened. Somehow it looks as just the whole disk is rotten. The BIOS shows it, but fdisk, gparted etc. show a 7.something GB disk, what in fact was a 20 GB disk. It doesn't find /dev/hda1 nor /dev/hda2 and parted says, it can't work with a partition outside of the disk... I was just hoping there was a tool which I can download, burn on a CD, boot with it and save the data on a floppy without the need of knowing/thinking so much :-) (In my early computer days, on NCR systems, we had a "dump"-command and it just printed out the raw contents of a disk in hexadecimal form, even from an unmounted disk, if I remember correctly. Well, it was a 40 MB (yes, "MB" not "GB"!) disk, so probably not quite the same as nowadays...) Anyway: thanks a lot for the try. Daniel -- Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Switzerland professional photography: http://www.daniel-bauer.com Madagascar special: http://www.sanic.ch -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Monday 2007-02-26 at 19:46 +0100, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Hello Sandy, Daniel, Patrick, Carlos, Teruel, James, Bandi... :-)
thank you very much for your hints. Meanwhile I have downloaded several "live CD's and tried with them what I was able to, till now with no success. Nothing really important has been lost, so I will not invest too much work on that topic.
I don't now what happened. Somehow it looks as just the whole disk is rotten.
It happened to me not yet three weeks ago. I suspect the cable.
The BIOS shows it, but fdisk, gparted etc. show a 7.something GB disk, what in fact was a 20 GB disk. It doesn't find /dev/hda1 nor /dev/hda2 and parted says, it can't work with a partition outside of the disk...
If the partition table has been trashed, then /dev/hda1, hda2 etc are useless. What I'm interested in is the output of "fdisk -l /dev/hda". Does the bios shows the correct size? And you don't mention using gpart.
I was just hoping there was a tool which I can download, burn on a CD, boot with it and save the data on a floppy without the need of knowing/thinking so much :-)
A floppy is way too small! There is dd, of course, it does that, in raw.
(In my early computer days, on NCR systems, we had a "dump"-command and it just printed out the raw contents of a disk in hexadecimal form, even from an unmounted disk, if I remember correctly. Well, it was a 40 MB (yes, "MB" not "GB"!) disk, so probably not quite the same as nowadays...)
You have "hex" and similar tools. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF45ZMtTMYHG2NR9URAjDbAJ9gv1CxbsCZ6PZOv7SpV37x/fPxnQCfe3a9 +i5t5bgrna1EdTmh7H7MwcY= =ohAA -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Dienstag, 27. Februar 2007, Carlos E. R. wrote:
If the partition table has been trashed, then /dev/hda1, hda2 etc are useless. What I'm interested in is the output of "fdisk -l /dev/hda".
ok, I gave it another try... I was not successful, but as you and some others seem to be interested I deliver the asked infos: here's the output of fdisk -l /dev/hda: ----- Disk /dev/hda: 8323 MB, 8323080192 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1011 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 66 529985+ 82 Linux swap Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?): phys=(0, 0, 1) logical=(0, 1, 1) Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings: phys=(64, 254, 63) logical=(65, 250, 59) /dev/hda2 * 66 2432 19004767 83 Linux Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?): phys=(66, 0, 1) logical=(65, 250, 60) Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings: phys=(1022, 254, 63) logical=(2431, 246, 55) ----- as you see, the disk seems really messed up...
Does the bios shows the correct size?
I guess this laptop has really seen it's best times a while ago. Now I can't access the BIOS anymore, it asks me for a password to access it, but I never installed one and had no problems before. So I don't know...
And you don't mention using gpart.
Yes, sorry, I thought you were talking about gparted and just didn't type the "ed" :-) So here's the - disenchanting - output of gpart /dev/hda: ----- Begin scan... End scan. Checking partitions... Ok. Guessed primary partition table: Primary partition(1) type: 000(0x00)(unused) size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0) chs: (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r Primary partition(2) type: 000(0x00)(unused) size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0) chs: (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r Primary partition(3) type: 000(0x00)(unused) size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0) chs: (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r Primary partition(4) type: 000(0x00)(unused) size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0) chs: (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r ---- I was also looking at the website of testdisk, but there it says that the size of the disk must be reported correctly to make the tool work successful - and that exactly seems to be the problem.
I was just hoping there was a tool which I can download, burn on a CD, boot with it and save the data on a floppy without the need of knowing/thinking so much :-)
A floppy is way too small! There is dd, of course, it does that, in raw.
Yes, for a whole disk copy of course. As there is no other disk in the laptop (and I don't want to put that disk in my perfectly working desktop PC) I have no possibility to make such a copy. It would have been great if I could just save some files, but well...
regards Daniel -- Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Switzerland professional photography: http://www.daniel-bauer.com Madagascar special: http://www.sanic.ch -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Wednesday 2007-02-28 at 09:55 +0100, Daniel Bauer wrote:
On Dienstag, 27. Februar 2007, Carlos E. R. wrote:
If the partition table has been trashed, then /dev/hda1, hda2 etc are useless. What I'm interested in is the output of "fdisk -l /dev/hda".
ok, I gave it another try... I was not successful, but as you and some others seem to be interested I deliver the asked infos:
Thanks :-)
here's the output of fdisk -l /dev/hda: ----- Disk /dev/hda: 8323 MB, 8323080192 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1011 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 66 529985+ 82 Linux swap
Ah?
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?): phys=(0, 0, 1) logical=(0, 1, 1)
Ough!
as you see, the disk seems really messed up...
Yes... My guess here would be the compatibility jumper in the drive, it limits the size to 8GB, I think. But reading the rest, I changed my mind.
Does the bios shows the correct size?
I guess this laptop has really seen it's best times a while ago. Now I can't access the BIOS anymore, it asks me for a password to access it, but I never installed one and had no problems before. So I don't know...
Ajá! Then my guess is definitely the bios is hosed. You have to reset it, somehow, then autodetect the drive, and see if things changes. I think the bios is informing the kernel of the wrong disk geometry and size. If you haven't written anything to the disk, repairing the bios settings should solve it all, with luck.
And you don't mention using gpart.
Yes, sorry, I thought you were talking about gparted and just didn't type the "ed" :-)
So here's the - disenchanting - output of gpart /dev/hda:
Yes, too bad. But doesn't matter, if it is the bios. Another thing could be the cable.
Yes, for a whole disk copy of course. As there is no other disk in the laptop (and I don't want to put that disk in my perfectly working desktop PC) I have no possibility to make such a copy. It would have been great if I could just save some files, but well...
I don't think the drive is the problem, though. You could boot with a rescue CD, then dd through the network. But first, try resetting the bios. I don't know how to do that in laptops, other people here might know. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF5WfptTMYHG2NR9URAv/6AJ96MTEohMZ3bkOCTJE+ihYTjHOUTACfcgZ3 DwBRlZOVdqksDERwTgLIRo4= =4jI+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Mittwoch, 28. Februar 2007, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Does the bios shows the correct size?
I guess this laptop has really seen it's best times a while ago. Now I can't access the BIOS anymore, it asks me for a password to access it, but I never installed one and had no problems before. So I don't know...
Ajá! ^^This sounds sympathically spanish, idioma de mis sueños, jajaja :-)
Then my guess is definitely the bios is hosed. You have to reset it, somehow, then autodetect the drive, and see if things changes. I think the bios is informing the kernel of the wrong disk geometry and size. If you haven't written anything to the disk, repairing the bios settings should solve it all, with luck.
Oh well, I guess now I distroyed the rest of life that was in that box :-( I couldn't find anything to reset the bios, so I opened all screws on that laptop I could find, and finally saw the cmos battery (or what I think was the cmos battery). I took it out to make the BIOS forget everything, inserted it back - and then the BIOS *really* forgot everything: now it even doesn't see any disk anmore at all... I tried that atapwd thing (it's quite hard to find a bootable dos diskette when everybody uses linux), but that brings only a blinking line for the primary master... Also all other programs now don't see the disk anymore... So now I really give it up. It was a very old laptop and I guess, it had more than one problem - may it rest in peace :-) Thank you all for your help. I'll keep your mails in my "look first folder", although I hope I will never need those infos anymore... kind regards Daniel -- Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Switzerland professional photography: http://www.daniel-bauer.com Madagascar special: http://www.sanic.ch -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed 28 Feb 2007 18:54, Daniel Bauer wrote:
(it's quite hard to find a bootable dos diskette when everybody uses linux)
- guess it's prolly practical to run on Linux: DOSEMU FREEDOS . . . and those can be used to make bootable DOS disks/diskettes friendly greetings -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
* Daniel Bauer <linux@daniel-bauer.com> [02-28-07 13:57]: [...]
I tried that atapwd thing (it's quite hard to find a bootable dos diskette when everybody uses linux), but that brings only a blinking line for the primary master... [...]
Name : dosbootdisk Relocations: (not relocatable) Version : 1.1 Vendor: SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany Release : 53 Build Date: Tue 02 May 2006 04:01:58 AM EDT Install Date: Wed 23 Aug 2006 07:08:43 PM EDT Build Host: gaspode.suse.de Group : System/Boot Source RPM: dosbootdisk-1.1-53.src.rpm Size : 88625 License: GPL Signature : DSA/SHA1, Tue 02 May 2006 04:04:25 AM EDT, Key ID a84edae89c800aca Packager : http://bugs.opensuse.org Summary : A DOS Boot Disk Based on FreeDOS Description : A FreeDOS boot disk. It is useful if you need to run a flash program to update your BIOS. Authors: -------- Steffen Winterfeldt Distribution: SUSE LINUX 10.1 (i586) /usr/bin/dosbootdisk /usr/bin/dosformat /usr/share/dosbootdisk /usr/share/dosbootdisk/floppy.gz -- Patrick Shanahan Registered Linux User #207535 http://wahoo.no-ip.org @ http://counter.li.org HOG # US1244711 Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 OpenSUSE Linux http://en.opensuse.org/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Wednesday 2007-02-28 at 15:34 -0500, Patrick Shanahan wrote:
Name : dosbootdisk Relocations: (not relocatable) ... Summary : A DOS Boot Disk Based on FreeDOS Description : A FreeDOS boot disk. It is useful if you need to run a flash program to update your BIOS.
Uau! Definitely, this email goes to my "interesting" folder ;-) - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF5hDJtTMYHG2NR9URAnTgAJ9n3FZUEMYPg8W7EI2DEKJEKUn6/wCfQj7n C+7bdunm3edj4MWXChTtlno= =I7pn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Wednesday 2007-02-28 at 19:54 +0100, Daniel Bauer wrote:
On Mittwoch, 28. Februar 2007, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Does the bios shows the correct size?
I guess this laptop has really seen it's best times a while ago. Now I can't access the BIOS anymore, it asks me for a password to access it, but I never installed one and had no problems before. So I don't know...
Ajá! ^^This sounds sympathically spanish, idioma de mis sueños, jajaja :-)
X-) I guess I can now and then use a little idiomatic colour O:-)
Then my guess is definitely the bios is hosed. You have to reset it, somehow, then autodetect the drive, and see if things changes. I think the bios is informing the kernel of the wrong disk geometry and size. If you haven't written anything to the disk, repairing the bios settings should solve it all, with luck.
Oh well, I guess now I distroyed the rest of life that was in that box :-(
Oh, my! :-(
I couldn't find anything to reset the bios, so I opened all screws on that laptop I could find, and finally saw the cmos battery (or what I think was the cmos battery). I took it out to make the BIOS forget everything, inserted it back - and then the BIOS *really* forgot everything: now it even doesn't see any disk anmore at all...
Doesn't it have a reset to defaults or sensible values option? Or a "detect" HD? Or set manually disk settings?
I tried that atapwd thing (it's quite hard to find a bootable dos diskette when everybody uses linux), but that brings only a blinking line for the primary master...
Also all other programs now don't see the disk anymore...
Maybe there is no disk - the cable could be damaged, so the bios does not see it.
So now I really give it up. It was a very old laptop and I guess, it had more than one problem - may it rest in peace :-)
Who knows... I'm clutching at straws to find hope.
Thank you all for your help. I'll keep your mails in my "look first folder", although I hope I will never need those infos anymore...
Experience comes from failures more than successes :-) - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFF5hPZtTMYHG2NR9URAlyZAJ9VTK/BKcbhuE+uJAnRjREIFG9B0wCfTbDv oYTCi3569L8nG0TPj0gH/OU= =OrOf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Wed 28 Feb 2007 08:55, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Now I can't access the BIOS anymore, it asks me for a password to access it, but I never installed one and had no problems before. So I don't know...
- just a couple of remarks : _________ 1). http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html - if you go to above address & download the DOS Unlock ATA utility ATAPWD.EXE that will prolly solve the password problem. ......................... 2). http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?swid=1 - Western Digital have some DOS utilities : DOS Data Lifeguard may be worth a look ............................ friendly greetings -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed 28 Feb 2007 08:55, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Now I can't access the BIOS anymore, it asks me for a password to access it, but I never installed one and had no problems before. So I don't know...
[ excuse me - do not remember if your disk is SCSI] - another remark : _________ IF something has 'flipped' in the BIOS to cause it to ask for a password . . . then maybe something else may have flipped too : - like the BIOS could have seen the disk as LBA and flipped to something else? thus, the DOS Unlock ATA utility ATAPWD.EXE that will prolly solve the password problem, could be worth a try, to re-set the BIOS to defaults, and then make adjustments as logocally required? ............................ friendly greetings -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
riccardo35@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed 28 Feb 2007 08:55, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Now I can't access the BIOS anymore, it asks me for a password to access it, but I never installed one and had no problems before. So I don't know...
____________ [ excuse me - do not remember if your disk is SCSI]
- another remark : _________
IF something has 'flipped' in the BIOS to cause it to ask for a password . . . then maybe something else may have flipped too :
- like the BIOS could have seen the disk as LBA and flipped to something else?
thus, the DOS Unlock ATA utility
ATAPWD.EXE
that will prolly solve the password problem, could be worth a try, to re-set the BIOS to defaults, and then make adjustments as logocally required?
Or there may be a jumper to reset the BIOS on the motherboard. Usually you put it on, turn on, turn off, take it off and turn back on again. (aren't those the words of a song?) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Russell Jones wrote:
Or there may be a jumper to reset the BIOS on the motherboard. Usually you put it on, turn on, turn off, take it off and turn back on again. (aren't those the words of a song?)
Hold on... this is a laptop? Sorry, I missed that. I don't know how to reset the BIOS of one of those. I'd go to the manufacturer's website and look for a PDF of the technical manual. And as a previous poster implied, suggest you check the drive cables (power and data) are properly pushed home then try auto-detection of the HDD again. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (11)
-
Carlos E. R. -
Daniel Bauer -
Daniel Feiglin -
David Brodbeck -
James Knott -
James Watkins -
Patrick Shanahan -
riccardo35＠gmail.com -
Russell Jones -
Sandy Drobic -
Teruel de Campo MD