Recovering corrupted ext2-based file system from Linux

The Linux system is an open sourced operating system that is much more secure than other operating systems. It provides the freedom to administer your system by taking care of the look & feel and the applications to be installed, etc. However, as nothing is perfect in this world, the Linux systems too can get corrupt or fail. These corruption scenarios can occur because of virus infections, abrupt system shutdown, damaged file systems, etc. You should take the help of in-built corrective methods to rectify the problem. However, if you are not able to restore the data, then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to recover data to the maximum possible extent.

Consider a scenario wherein you have a Linux 4 system. You switch on the system, but it fails to boot. An error message is displayed, that is: 

“ext2fs partition type 0x83. .... ext3-fs: journal inode is deleted.... mount: error 22 mounting ext3 error 2 mounting name switchroot: mountfailed:22 umount/initrd/dev failed:2 kernal panic - not syncing”

Cause:

The root cause of this error message is the hard disk has crashed after the abrupt system shut down and, is now inaccessible. The reason behind this is that some bad blocks must have formed in the inode  table, which is making the file system unrecoverable.

Resolution:

To resolve this problem, you should either of the following methods:

·     Start the system from the disaster recovery boot media and run e2fsck on the damaged file system. This tool is used to check and repair the integrity of the file system.

·     Try to mount the file system if it is on another file system and transfer the data to some other storage media such as memory cards, pen drive, etc.

The problem will be resolved using any of the mentioned methods. However, there are chances that you may still face the problem even after performing these methods. In such cases, you should use a third-party Ext2 data recovery software to recover the inaccessible data from Linux  file system. Such tools are read-only in nature that do not overwrite the existing data while scanning the damaged area.

How to recover corrupted ext2 file

Linux is an Open source OS and it is more secure than windows. It provides the freedom to monitor your system by controlling the look & feel and the applications to be installed, etc. However the Linux system too can get corrupt. These can be due to lot of reasons like virus infections, system shutdown, damaged file systems etc.
Consider a scenario wherein you have a Linux system. You switch on the system, but it fails to boot.

An error message is displayed, that is:

“ext2fs partition type 0x83. .... ext3-fs: inode journal is deleted.... mount: error 22 mounting ext2 error 2 mounting name switchroot: mountfailed:22 umount/initrd/dev failed:2 kernal panic - not syncing”

Cause:
The root of this error message is that the hard disk is crashed after the abrupt system shut down and it is now inaccessible. The reason behind this is that some bad blocks must have formed in the inode  table, which renders the file system unrecoverable.

Resolution:

To resolve this problem, you should use the following methods:
·     Start the system from the recovery boot media and run e2fsck on the damaged file system. This utility is used to check and repair the integrity of the file system.
·     Try to mount the file system if it is on different file system and transfer the data to some other storage media such as external drive, pen drive, etc.

Either of the above method may be able to either rectify the file system or transfer the data to some safe location. However, if you are unable to do so then you should use a Linux recovery software to recover Linux file system. Such read-only tools are able to recover lost file/data .

Recover corrupted data from Superblock of Linux system

Linux files are a collection of various folders, which are stored in a separate partition. The entire partition is divided into various file blocks, which are used for storing the user data. The metadata can be explained as the repository that contains the information of the file system "that is data about the data" is meta data. One such is the superblock, which is very important for the health of the Linux.

A file system cannot be mounted if fails to access the superblock. This issue arises if the superblock is corrupted it happens due to various reason like as malware infections, power outages, file system corruption and human errors. In such cases, appropriate corrective measures  must be taken to recover the file. If you are not able to resolve the issue, then help of third-party Linux recovery tools to perform data recovery of Linux OS.

 let us assume a case wherein you have an ext3-partitioned Linux system and you fails to access your partition. An error message is displayed, that is:

“/dev/sda2: Input/output error

mount: /dev/sda2: can’t read superblock”

 The superblock has corrupted because of the above mentioned reasons.

 

Resolution:

 

You can recover the primary superblock from the various backup available that the Linux system maintains to deal with such situations. To do this, you need to perform the following few steps:

1) Find out superblock location for /dev/sda2

2) Repair the Linux files using alternate superblock # abc, where abc is the location of the alternate superblock.

3) Mount file system using mount command viz, # mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

4) Try to access the files system.

However, if you still are unable to solve the problem, then you should use a third-party Linux recovery software to perform Linux data recovery. Such tools are read-only in nature and perform Ext2 recovery without overwriting the original data.

Linux data recovery :IVC Process Using ‘lvconvert’ Cause Data Loss

There are utilities tools available in the market order to safeguard your precious data, and disk mirroring is the most important among them. It is the process of create an exact copy of all the data stored on your hard disk. You can easily convert your basic hard disk volumes to mirrored volumes, which copies your data to prevent any sort of data loss conditions.

On Linux OS based computer, you can convert your linear logical hard disk volume to the mirror logical volume using ‘lvconvert’ utility. However, you should play safely while converting a Linux volume, as interruption to the process may cause hard disk failure and it could cause data loss. At this point of time, you need to opt for Software to recover linux   .

The Interrupted volume convert is an inbuilt utility of Linux OS that enables you to change a linear Linux hard disk volume to mirror logical volume. This utility can be used to remove or add drive logs from the mirror devices. The command line utility supports various options or parameters to perform specific task. Some of the most common parameters of this utility are as given below:

 1) -m, –mirrors Mirrors- 
This option declares the degree of mirror (replica of data) that you want to create. For instance, ‘-m 1′ converts original Linux volume to mirror logical volume with one linear volume and one copy.

2) corelog-
This parameter tells the tool to switch mirror from employing a continues (disk-based) log to in-memory log. It is possible only if –mirror argument is of same degree of mirror that you are modifying.

3 )  R, –regionsize MirrorLogRegionSize
- It divides the mirror into various divisions of defined size in MB (megabyte).

4)  -s, –snapshot
- It creates the snapshot from an existing Linux volume using another volume with same origin.

5)  -Z, –zero y/n-
This option controls zeroing of first Kilo byte of information in snapshot. The snapshot is not zeroed if volume is set to read-only.

Before you convert the volume, you must backup all your significant information. If the process fails, you can not access Linux volume and stored data and need of data recovery Linux software arises. Linux recovery is best possible using advanced and powerful third-party applications. Linux  recovery applications ensure safe and easy recovery in all data loss situations, with read-only conduct and rich GUI.