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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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(Solved!) Data recovery, point me in the right direction? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've been on Linux for close to a year but I'm still kinda a newbie and the past 40 something hours have been really testing me.

I had my 4tb backup HDD break on me in a strange way, it still mounts and at first glance seems to still be working, But KDE throws an error saying the drive won't mount (even tho it is?) and I'm unable to copy files from it using Gui or Term commands it just freezes up without throwing an error message, It also freezes after using Ls more than once or twice on it.

Now last night I used clonezilla to copy the entire drive to a portable HDD of the same size, now that drive is giving me the same issue. So I'm assuming it's a software issue and not the drive itself? at least for the 2nd drive.

I already tried fsck to no avail and I'm abit stumped on where to go from there. Any help would be great!

Edit: Should also add the drives EXT4

Update: At the directions of a Gentoo nerd I know. I'm currently in a live boot of Ubuntu copying files to another drive and they seem to be working so far.

Part of the issue might with my few month old install of Endeavour, But I'm still gonna replace the drive. I already paid for a new on.

Another Update: I was able to recover the majority of my files to other drives by running an Ubuntu live USB and copying them over on that, So seems something on my main install was preventing me from copying files? Either way the drive itself is still done for and I got two others on the way to replace it, I've also reinstalled my distro as I was having some bugs with it anyway.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Stop trying to write to it, such as with fsck. Shut down the system, boot from another drive, and mount the flaky drive read-only. See if you can get any important files off it. If that doesn't work it starts getting weirder. Also, is the drive making any weird noises? What is the output of smartctl -a? Do you have important stuff on the drive that is not backed up? Do you have stuff on the drive that is highly confidential and not encrypted?

Best case is that you have backups and your drive is encrypted or uninteresting, so if it is failing then you can warranty it and restore from backups. Are you ok for that if it comes to it?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

It's not the boot drive and is unmounted at the moment

Any data recovery I'm trying at the moment is from the portable drive I cloned the main one from. And yes I got actually important stuff backed in multiple places, it's mostly media and stuff like game saves I'm trying to get back.

I'm actually in a live boot rn copying as many files off it to other drives (and it seems to be working unlike on my main install?)