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Hello,

We have a client with a server Clearos 7, we do not know what flavor (community or home..) Apparently the server have had a power failure incident and since it is failing to boot.
Seeking help to save the information on the disks. Attaching a photo for the boot screen
Notes:

1. System and data are on the same raid5 , 3 disks of 2 Tb each
2. When we boot from live cd , disks can be seen, however it shows 0 bytes available
3. cannot access the disks. If there is a method to save the data on the disks we do not much care about saving the system,

Looking forward to your reply.
Saturday, February 09 2019, 10:49 AM
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Responses (7)
  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, February 11 2019, 12:15 PM - #Permalink
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    Thanks for the controller info... since that is not spitting out an error (none mentioned) - it would seem the RAID meta-data is intact.

    However, my question "How are they seen" is unanswered - what program indicates they are "full"l? If they are trying to do a normal mount of a file system ( i.e. not specifying read-only) then the act of trying to mount could do more damage. ClearOS by default uses lvm - if they are just trying to mount an lvm volume without lvm - then that is a futile exercise... and would explain "being full" as lvm, if used, was probably configured to use all of the disk space and make it available to the file-system. But who knows - no details forth coming on how the system was installed...

    Normal practice in these situations is to procure 3 new disks and do a dd copy of each original disk to a new disk before anything else. Then try to perform data recovery on the cloned copies - the originals put away in a safe place. If the recovery is unsuccessful, then the 'clones' are remade - this procedure minimises the likelihood of destroying the data on the originals with a botched recovery attempt...

    Why didn't the client use these forums themselves for a more direct line of communication? Anyway - based on what little information is being presented here, I'm convinced that I cannot help you any more. Nothing to work with. My suggestion of using a reputable data recovery service is the best advice I can give. Good Luck to both you and your client...
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  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, February 11 2019, 11:31 AM - #Permalink
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    Tony Ellis wrote:

    Thinking about this, probably they should just send the disks to a reputable data recovery firm. Since they don;t seem to know what they are doing, their attempts at recovery could easily destroy any chance that presently exists of retrieving the data.

    While waiting they should start thinking about their processes. Records of what is installed on their system(s) and when, backup procedures, system change control and all the other processes that any company with any IT system should have in place, whether large or small.

    If they insist on risking their data (a big risk I might add) by trying to recover themselves , In addition to Nicks' question... Raid Controller make and model please?

    When we boot from live cd , disks can be seen

    How are they seen? Exactly what do you "see"?



    @Tony Ellis
    The Disks are seen as one 4Tb disk and 0 space left (sometimes 44mbytes)
    Raid controller HP P410i
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  • Accepted Answer

    Sunday, February 10 2019, 09:53 PM - #Permalink
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    Thinking about this, probably they should just send the disks to a reputable data recovery firm. Since they don;t seem to know what they are doing, their attempts at recovery could easily destroy any chance that presently exists of retrieving the data.

    While waiting they should start thinking about their processes. Records of what is installed on their system(s) and when, backup procedures, system change control and all the other processes that any company with any IT system should have in place, whether large or small.

    If they insist on risking their data (a big risk I might add) by trying to recover themselves , In addition to Nicks' question... Raid Controller make and model please?

    When we boot from live cd , disks can be seen

    How are they seen? Exactly what do you "see"?
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  • Accepted Answer

    Sunday, February 10 2019, 07:51 PM - #Permalink
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    By hardware, you are saying you have a separate RAID controller cart (not a motherboard BIOS function)?

    Have you tried looking at the saved rdsosreport.txt
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  • Accepted Answer

    Sunday, February 10 2019, 06:45 PM - #Permalink
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    Hello,

    I am attaching the photo.
    In reply to @Tony Ellis the Raid is hardware not fake.
    Unfortunately no Backup, I know it might look weird but that is the reality. Anyway he is our client hardware wise (server and stations bought from our company), we have nothing to do with soft or apps.
    Trying to help that is all.
    Attachments:
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  • Accepted Answer

    Saturday, February 09 2019, 10:03 PM - #Permalink
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    Attaching a photo

    Attachment please... (it's missing from your append)

    When we boot from live cd , disks can be seen

    How are they seen? Exactly what do you "see"? Fake, Hardware or Software RAID?
    Did the RAID assemble? - if not, getting it running is the first step to data recovery...
    Second Step - ClearOS during installation by default installs lvm, this will need to be active once RAID is assembled. Was the original installation with default or custom partitioning?

    As for business, home or community edition - home and business have a subscription fee - get the client to check their financial accounts. They should also have logon details for the ClearCentre portal regardless of the edition - login and check...

    Alternative... Install from scratch and restore data from backups... (If their data is important to them, they should have up-to-date backups).

    I
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  • Accepted Answer

    Saturday, February 09 2019, 02:40 PM - #Permalink
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    I've no idea how to recover a RAID volume, especially of a distributed format such as RAID5. TestDisk seems to be the most widely used or mentioned recovery utility.
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