Arch Linux

syd

Member

From: Auckland, NZ

Registered: 2006-01-22

Posts: 155

Corrupt /var partition.

Hey,

Yesterday my /var partition got corrupt. It cant be mounted due to bad sectors or bad boot sectors. This is the second time a reiserfs partition has told me that i have bad sectors. On two different hard disk's, this one only 2weeks old.

So ive got my linux back up and running.

I was just woundering if some one could tell me:

1. What important filies ive lost?

2. Is there a way of regenerating pacmans cache file that listed all the software you have             installed? (at the moment i have to --force every time i want to install somthing)

3. Lastly is there a way of getting my data off a reisenfs partition. I have its not as easy as ext.

Thanks,
Ben

raskolnikov

Member

From: France

Registered: 2006-01-08

Posts: 100

Re: Corrupt /var partition.

Yesterday my /var partition got corrupt. It cant be mounted due to bad sectors or bad boot sectors. This is the second time a reiserfs partition has told me that i have bad sectors. On two different hard disk's, this one only 2weeks old.

If you want an advice : test your disk with manufacturer's tools (generally available for free on their websites) and if it has bad sectors, trash it. You can try to repair if such an option is available, but it will only delay disk final crash.

1. What important filies ive lost?

Well, nothing... if you're running a workstation. /var contains only packages for pacman, logs file, mail and print spools, daemons pid and lock files.

2. Is there a way of regenerating pacmans cache file that listed all the software you have             installed? (at the moment i have to --force every time i want to install somthing)

Don't know for this one :?

3. Lastly is there a way of getting my data off a reisenfs partition. I have its not as easy as ext.

There are some options you can try but you should really backup all datas of this disk before. I never used them (in four years of reiserfs use) so I can't tell you if it works or not, but here we go :
1) boot from a livecd (arch noodle or lfs live cd are good and quick, others may works if they support reiserfs and have recovery tools) : that's because your filesystem must be unmounter
2) reiserfsck --fix-fixable /dev/hda3 (where your /var resides)
3) if reiserfsck ends with an error, you may try the --rebuild-tree option : it will scan the disk and rebuild the filesystem, this can be dangerous if you have dumps of reiserfs filesystem in your disk (they will confuse the process) and you should not interrupt it (including power failures) or your filesystem may be definitely gone.

Good luck...

---

Excessive showering, grooming, and toothbrushing is not only vain, it wastes valuable coding time.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Corrupt /var partition.

I'd find out if the hdd is bust. If so, get your data off it as quick as you damned well can before doin anythin. It's plausible for a new hdd to be bust too.

Check dmesg for any errors. I would have told you to check logs, but they died with /var. Your pacman database died with /var too. There's no way of recovering that apart from reinstalling everything to recreate it.

James

syd

Member

From: Auckland, NZ

Registered: 2006-01-22

Posts: 155

Re: Corrupt /var partition.

Hey,
Thanks

Looks like it would be best to reinstall seeing as im getting a nvidia   gfx card in a week or two.
And i have heaps of junk installed (ie kde & gnome).

Just cheaked dmesg and i have this error.

ReiserFS: sdb5: warning: sh-2021: reiserfs_fill_super: can not find reiserfs on sdb5
Ill google it.

Thanks for the help.