On Wed, 2007-03-21 at 08:42 +0530, Sanjay Arora wrote: > Hello all > > Nill experience with LVM. Have a Default Centos 4.4 install updated till > a week ago with three HDDs. System's not booting up since my staff > pulled out the plug due to a short circuit nearby. > > Machine is a PIII 550 MHz, with 3 HDDs 40 GB, 120 GB (Actually is bigger > but my bios detects only upto 120 GB) & 20 GB...about half filled with > data & the backup server taken out in the short circuit. > > Upon bootup, the system starts with root, kernel & initrd notices, then > says Uncompressing Linux then spits out the Error....CRC Error -- System > Halted. > > Booted from the CD in reinstall mode where anaconda looks for linux > installations on the HDD and asks about upgrade, reinstall or fresh > partition/create partition/delete partition for reinstall, but the > installer does not detect any linux installation on the HDD. I aborted > at that stage. > > Now my system is a default linux installation where I have used the > autopartitioning done by the system (LVM2) and almost all of my data is > either in /home directory or couple of directories in the / > > I am willing to do a reinstall if my data is preserved. What do I need > to do to diagnose the problem? and pointers to recovering from this > problem and various tradeoffs. Can't lose data, as already have lost > backup server (smps, motherboard, hdd circuitry all short-circuited, so > no hope there). LVM howto was not much of a help as it seems to mostly > have how to expand or reduce lvm and similar issues. > > Please keep in mind that I am a user and not sys-admin, though I can use > command-line, if instructions & how-tos are there. > > Please help. > > With best regards and thanks in anticipation. > Sanjay. > > If LVM volume was spread across all the drives, and one drive is damaged, you > will have a hard time recovering the data. It can be done, but it will be > difficult. Do you have a better idea of how the data was laid out? > If there was electrical problems, you might have damage to this system also. > I don't think there is any physical damage to these HDDs, as the system boots & acceses the boot partition & gets CRC error on reading some data...maybe lvm data. And yes, the lvm volume would be spread across all the HDDs. So how do I find out lvm configuration data and give it to lvm? or maybe there is a way to mount lvm slices one by one and copy the data to a fourth HDD? With regards & thanks for taking the time to respond. Sanjay.