BLU's server crash and data recovery

[Ben Eisenbraun]

On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 12:06:06PM -0400, Bill Bogstad wrote:
> Look up ddrescue.

>From Jerry's email, it looks like the data is on a RAID volume built with 
a hardware RAID controller (probably PERC4 or so, but Jerry didn't say).  
If the controller says the volume is in a failed state, I seriously 
doubt that it will let you mount it, and I don't think running dd on the 
individual disks connected to a standard SCSI controller is going to give 
you anything of value.

Am I wrong?  I can't think of any way that 'dd if=/dev/sdx of=/dev/NULL' 
is going to prove or disprove anything.  If might possibly prove that the 
motor on the disk will spin the platters, but given that you're throwing
the data away, how would you know?

Disk manufacturers make free utilities for testing their disks.  If you
suspect a hardware failure, I would use one of those.  The added benefit is 
that if the disk is toast, it will spit out the RMA code you need to get 
a replacement.

-ben

--
oh, you hate your job? why didn't you say so? there's a support group for
that. it's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.       <drew carey>