Posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 4:55 AM
Every computer operating system performs various system level operations during boot time or while executing installed applications. These operations are critical from system point of view to access data from hard drive and run the software, both application and system software. Linux operating system manages all the system related operations through init. It is the most significant step of booting process. However, if it fails to run properly, system becomes unbootable and stored data become inaccessible. This behavior leads to data loss and put you in need of Linux data recovery solutions.
When you boot your Linux computer, init is the step of the process that is identified through process id 1. The init data structure has all controls sequences and processes when you shut down your Linux machine. If you encounter errors while starting or shutting down the Linux system, it can be due to missing init file or initrd file corruption...
Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 11:47 PM
Though, recent versions of various LINUX flavors come with attractive and friendly graphical user interfaces, basically LINUX is a command based operating system. In LINUX, there lies a command for everything and these commands enable you to carry out actions on any files and directories stored on your computer. However, improper execution of these commands can result in complete or partial data loss from LINUX based systems. As, we all know, data loss is inevitable, it is better to be prepared with latest backup. However, if the backup is not there or due to some unresolvable reason, failed to restore the lost data, you are badly in need of any efficient
Linux Data Recovery software.
Taking a real life problem into consideration, suppose, there are four users for a single account on a LINUX system. The user IDs for the users are dba2adm, dba2adm1, dba2adm2 and dba2adm3 respectively. If you want to drop the Net Search Extender instance of user dba2adm, using nxidrop command, it will remove the Net Search Extender instance of db2adm along with the content of home directories of all the other users with prefix dba2adm...
Posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 11:13 PM
The Ext2 (second extended) file system is an advanced file system for Linux kernel. It is a replacement of Ext file system. It is possible to resize the Ext2 file system, while it is mounted and system is using it. This is possible using the ext2online utility. The process of resizing the file system while applications have open files, and writing data to file system, is OK. However, you should always have a complete and valid backup of your mission critical data before mounting an online or mounted file system. In case anything goes wrong, you may encounter serious data loss situations, which requires Linux data recovery to be fixed.
You can resize only the mounted Ext2 file system. In order to use the ext2online utility, you must have Online ext2 resize support (CONFIG_EXT2_RESIZE) option enabled in your Linux Kernel. You can enable this feature after applying appropriate patch for 2.x kernel series...
Posted on Monday, May 24, 2010 at 11:29 PM
A Linux based computer system becomes unbootable in case its file system gets corrupted or damaged. In most of these situations, a Linux user encounters an error message that does not allow him/her to access the data saved on the Linux hard drive. Few main causes for corruption in file system (either EXT4, EXT3, or EXT2) can be improper system shutdown, inode corruption, superblock damage, virus infection, accidental system shutdown, and operating system malfunction.
To overcome such situations, the user needs to repair the damaged file system using 'e2fsck' command. This command checks and repairs the corrupted files system in almost all cases. However, the command does not ensure 100% repair in all file system corruption scenarios. For cases where the above command fails, the user needs to reinstall Linux operating system and then restore data from an updated backup. But, in the absence of a valid backup, you will need to opt for a commercial Linux Recovery application...
Posted on Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:45 AM
Like other computer operating systems, Linux also comprise of various components, which include Superblock. Superblock is a significant metadata of the Linux operating system, which describes file systems on the Linux hard drive. The system components have interdependency and work together to keep your system functional. However, if any of these system components or data structures gets damaged, the system may not work properly and you can not access stored data from the hard drive. This behavior leads to critical data loss situations and require Linux Data Recovery to be fixed.
Under some situations, you can not mount your Linux file system and the data stored on the Linux hard drive volumes can not be accessed. Most of the problem occurs in a dual-boot system. When you try repairing your Linux file system on the root partition, process could not complete successfully. It renders your entire system inaccessible.
When you run fsck utility on the affected Linux hard drive, without 'L' option, you may come across the below error message:...
Posted on Friday, May 14, 2010 at 2:39 AM
The Linux system is an open sourced operating system that is used by people all over the world. Unlike Windows and Apple operating systems, it is not a sole proprietary of a single organization. In fact, over 1,000 developers from at least 100 different companies have contributed to its each update. On a lighter note, it is created by the people, for the people, and of the people a la democracy. The most notable thing about Linux is that it can be used absolutely anywhere, from wristwatches to supercomputers.
However, Linux systems too can get corrupted. Corruption can occur due to various reasons such as human errors, virus infections, abrupt system shutdown, damaged file system, faulty hardware components, etc. To resolve this issue, you should take appropriate corrective measures. However, if you are unable to do so then you should use a third-party
Linux data recovery software to perform data recovery of Linux system...
Posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 3:22 AM
A Linux file system is a collection of various files and folders, which is stored in a separate disk partition. The entire disk partition is then divided into various file system blocks. These blocks are further used for storing the user data or the metadata. The metadata can be referred as the repository that contains the information of the file system. This information could either be the type, size, status, or any other information of the file system.
One such metadata structure is the superblock, which is very essential for the health of the Linux system. A file system cannot be mounted if you are not able to access the superblock. This case arises if the superblock is corrupted. Corruption can happen because of various reasons such as virus infections, file system corruption, human errors, etc. In such cases, you should consider taking appropriate measures to perform data recovery of Linux system...
Posted on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 11:49 PM
In a Linux system, the basic partition type code that is used commonly is 0×83. It is used across most of the file systems such as ext2, ext3, ext4, etc. When a hard disk is partitioned in a fresh Linux system, it consists of two partitions, a root directory partition and a swap partition. A partition table is the table that references all the hard drive partitions.
This partition table can get corrupt because of various reasons such as abrupt system shutdown, virus infections, damaged file system, interrupted hard drive repartitioning, resizing or file system conversion, etc. To overcome system corruption, you should replace it with an updated backup. However, if it is not available then you should use the Linux data recovery tools to recover lost data.
Consider a scenario wherein you switch on your Linux system. The system fails to start and the following error message is displayed:
“The partition table on device was unreadable.”
Cause:...
Posted on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 12:06 AM
In Linux systems, all the system processes are carried out by the “init” (short for initialization) program. It runs as a daemon in the system and, usually, has process ID (PID) 1. During the boot process, ‘init’ is the last process to be executed. Sometimes, the system is unable to boot properly, as it cannot find ‘init’.
This may happen if the ‘initrd’ (initial ramdisk) file system is corrupted because of various reasons such as file system corruption, virus infection, accidental system shutdown due to power surges or system crash, etc.
To overcome this situation, you may need to format the system, reinstall Linux and use the updated backup of the system. However, if you are unable to bring it back to normal then you should consider using a
Linux recovery tool.
Consider a scenario wherein you have a Linux system. You switch on the system, but it stops at the boot process. An error message is displayed, that is:...
Posted on Saturday, April 17, 2010 at 12:35 AM
Are you unable to start any application or access data on Linux computer? Are you getting library errors while starting any application or retrieving data from the hard drive? This behavior may take place due to corrupt or missing library files of your Linux operating system.
In such situations, you must replace the damaged library files to keep your system functional. It leads to critical data loss situations and needs
Linux Data Recovery to be fixed, if you do not have an updated backup in place.
As a practical example of this problem, you may encounter the below error message when you run any application on Linux operating system-based computer:
“Program name: error in loading shared libraries: lib xxx…so. X: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.”
After the above error, the application starting process gets terminated improperly and it cannot be used further.
Grounds of the problem...
Posted on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 4:57 AM
Ext3 is the most commonly used and stable file system of Linux operating system. This journaled Linux file system divides hard drive space into blocks. These blocks are managed in block groups. Every block group is defined by an individual data structure, which stores critical information, known as Group Block Descriptor. Every block group is assigned data structure to access it.
The data structure is also useful because it contains inode table, inode bitmap, and location information of block bitmap. The group descriptors are arranged sequentially and together create group descriptor table. In such situations, the block group descriptors get damaged and your system becomes inaccessible. It causes data loss and requires
Linux Data Recovery if there is no backup in place...
Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 12:06 AM
In order to start or boot your Linux computer without a system or boot disk, you generally need to install boot loader. It is the first program, which runs when your computer boots. This is in charge of loading and transferring control to Linux kernel. Kernel initializes the remaining part of operating system. LILO (Linux Loader) is the most widely used boot loader for Linux operating system.
It provides excellent stability and reliability features. However, in some situations, LILO can not proceed to boot your system and gives numerous error messages. At this point, your system becomes totally inaccessible and you face data loss situations. In order to recover lost data at this point,
Linux Data Recovery is required.
LILO errors do not contain any message. When it loads, it shows the LILO word. Every letter of this word is printed after or before performing some particular actions. When LILO fails to load at any point, you can use the letters that are printed so far for identifying the problem. Below is the description of the words that are printed when LILO loads:...
Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 11:50 PM
Like every other operating system, Linux computer also contains a system or boot volume, which is used to boot your system. Boot device is one on which all the boot files and Linux operating system are installed. In some cases, you may encounter boot errors while trying to start Linux-based computer. This behavior may occur due to missing or damaged boot files. In such cases, Linux system refuses to boot and you can not access the data stored on your Linux hard drive. It leads to critical data loss and needs Linux Data Recovery.
When you try to boot your Linux computer, you may receive the following warning message:
“EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended”
After the above error, when you run ‘e2fsck’ utility, you face further error messages that resemble the followings:
• TivoMaster:/var/tmp$ e2fsck -y /dev/hda7 e2fsck 1.06, 7-Oct-96 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09 e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hda7...
Posted on Monday, April 12, 2010 at 4:46 AM
Modern computers allow you to install two or more operating systems on a single hard disk. This configuration is known as ‘Multi-Boot’. Every operating system, such as Linux, employs one or more hard drive partitions. The way in which hard drive partitions and data is arranged, is known as hard drive geometry. If any kind of disagreement occurs with these hard drive partitions, you may encounter catastrophic consequences that will eventually lead to severe Linux data loss. In order to retrieve lost data in such circumstances, you need to perform
Data Recovery Linux using powerful tools.
The MBR (Master Boot Record) includes a partition table, which describes where the primary hard drive partitions are stored. Partition table can contain at most 4 table entries, for the 4 primary partitions. The information in partition table is redundant: location of Linux partition is given by both 24-bit begin and end entries, and by 32-bit start and length entries. Linux operating system uses only the length and start fields, and thus can handle the partitions of not more than 232 sectors. It means, the length of Linux partitions can be at most 2 TB, which is 12 times bigger than modern hard drives...
Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2010 at 10:59 PM
Most of the Linux file systems, including ext3, support file system journaling and thus are less prone to corruption. But as all problems can’t always be ruled out, a Linux volume can get corrupt for multitude of reasons. Though you can delete the corrupted volume and resolve such issues, but Linux Data Recovery is always a primary concern for all data preserving users.
Here is one of the problems that a Linux user can experience when mounting a volume. Consider you are a Linux user. You successfully shutdown your computer, but the next time when you try to boot the computer, it doesn’t boot and shows the below error report on the screen:
.EXT3-fs error (device dm-0) ext3_check_descriptor: Block bitmap for
group 0 not in group (block 41471)
EXT3-fs group descriptors corrupted
mount: error 22 mounting ext3
mount: error 2 mounting none
switchroot: /initrd/dev failed: 2
Kernel panic not syncing: Attempt to kill init
This error report is preceded with the general information of mounting the volume...
Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2010 at 12:04 AM
A root file system in Linux operating system contains all necessary information about the files required at the time of booting the system. This file system is saved on a partition where the root directory is located. Corruption in root file system can be due to improper system shutdown, operating system malfunction, virus infection, and human errors. In most cases of root file system corruption, the system becomes unbootable, resulting in inaccessibility of hard drive data. To get past root file system corruption, a user needs to repair it by running FSCK command manually. However, if the corruption persists even after running FSCK command, then the user needs to opt for a third-party Linux Data Recovery application.
To explain the above case, consider a practical scenario where you encounter the underneath error message while booting your Linux system:
“*Checking root file system...
/contains a file system with errors, check forced
/:
Duplicate or bad block in use!...
Posted on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 11:24 PM
Ext4 or Fourth Extended file system is an advanced and reliable Linux file system, which is successor of Ext3 file system. It is a journaling file system, which has emerged very quickly. It adds numerous performance improvements and remove the 64-bit data storage limitations. However, in case of system crash, you may lose your valuable data from Ext4 file system volume, due to delayed allocation. Data loss is a critical situation, which may put you in needs of Linux Data Recovery.
- Delayed Allocation is a feature of Ext4 file system, in which the blocks need to be allocated for holding the pending writes. The disk space for appended information is subtracted from free-space counter, however not really allocated in free-space bitmap. Alternatively, appended data remains in memory until it becomes necessary to be flushed to the storage media because of memory pressure or any other reason.
In Ext4 file system, Delayed Allocation causes some extra risks of the data loss if your system gets crashed before all the data is written to hard drive...
Posted on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 2:58 AM
Ext3 or Third Extended is a reliable and popular file system for Linux operating system. It supports advanced concept of file system journaling to protect your system against unexpected system shutdown, system crash, and power outages like situations. It reduces the need of system repairs, and possibilities of data loss. Thus you do not need to use Linux Data Recovery methods to overcome any sort of file system related problem.
Levels of Journaling in the Ext3 file system:
• Journal- Both file contents and metadata are written to journal before they are being committed to file system. It improves system performance as it is comparatively uninterrupted on the hard drive.
• Ordered- Only the metadata is journaled; the file contents aren’t journaled. However, it guarantees that the file information is written to hard drive before the associated metadata is labeled as committed in journal...
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 11:01 PM
An unbootable Linux system can be a result of superblock corruption. A superblock is a an integral part of Linux file system, which saves information related to file system. Corruption in superblock primarily occurs due to improper system shutdown, virus infection, and file system damage. In such cases, the data saved in the hard drive becomes inaccessible. To overcome such situations, the user needs to use a valid backup to restore data or perform repair using e2fsck function. However, if the measures fail to resolve corruption, then only third-party
Linux Data Recovery application can help.
Consider a practical case, where you try to reboot your system after it shuts down due to power failure. While doing so, you encounter:
“Checking Filesystems [BUSY]
/dev/sda4:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:...
