[Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

quarks · 2007-10-11 09:29:38

I accidentally dd'ed a liveusb image to a hd partition instead of an usb flash drive with:
sudo dd if=faunos-fortytwo-0.3.2-usb.img of=/dev/sdb

But /dev/sdb is my second hd, the usb was located at /dev/sdc.
My partition list according to parted is now as follows:

Model: ATA WDC WD740ADFD-00 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 74.4GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 20.0GB 20.0GB primary ext3 boot
2 20.0GB 74.3GB 54.3GB extended
5 20.0GB 72.5GB 52.5GB logical ext3
6 72.5GB 74.3GB 1842MB logical linux-swap

Model: ATA HDT722525DLA380 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 24.7MB 24.6MB primary fat16
2 24.7MB 979MB 954MB primary ext3 boot

As you can see /dev/sdb is formatted to different filesystem, however I can still access part of that partition.
df -h lists:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 19G 12G 5.9G 67% /
none 502M 12K 502M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda5 49G 45G 1.2G 98% /home
/dev/sdb5 174G 168G 5.6G 97% /media/media
/dev/sdb6 57G 45G 9.1G 84% /media/temp

Only /dev/sdb6 (/media/temp) is gone, the partition /dev/sdb5 (/media/media) is (luckily) intact for as far as I can tell.
Why is it that 'df' lists this differently and can I recover the filesystem on /dev/sdb like it was before (as seen in df table; was ext3) without any further data loss?

retsaw · 2007-10-11 10:56:07

It's odd that you can't access sdb6, but can still access sdb5 when sdb5 would be the one that was overwritten assuming it is the first partition on the disk.

gpart can try to guess where partitions should be when you have lost the partition table, and you might be able to recover what is left of sdb5 if you repartition correctly and use e2fsck on it pointing to one of the still intact backup superblocks. I wouldn't count on it working though. If you don't have backups, try to backup everything you want to keep from sdb5 before shutting down your computer.

WyoPBS · 2007-10-11 14:59:23

This is just one of several reasons I really dislike the move to treat IDE drives as SCSI drives - when my flash drive, my camera, and my hard drive are all /dev/sd* this is a disaster waiting to happen. I gave up on the Arch kernel and compiled my own kernel with old-school IDE drivers so I have my /dev/hd* device names back where they belong.

quarks · 2007-10-11 20:52:51

retsaw wrote:

It's odd that you can't access sdb6, but can still access sdb5 when sdb5 would be the one that was overwritten assuming it is the first partition on the disk.
gpart can try to guess where partitions should be when you have lost the partition table, and you might be able to recover what is left of sdb5 if you repartition correctly and use e2fsck on it pointing to one of the still intact backup superblocks. I wouldn't count on it working though. If you don't have backups, try to backup everything you want to keep from sdb5 before shutting down your computer.

Thanks, I'll do that after I backup the 170GB.

Lone_Wolf · 2007-10-11 20:53:22

You are aware that SATA drives are named sdx always and almost all new systems have sata drives now ?

this might help : Arch Wiki on Persistent_block_device_naming

If you don' t feel like using persisten names , use

HOOKS="base udev ide scsi sata usb filesystems"

in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and regenerate the initrd.

You don't need to compile your own kernel for this.

WyoPBS · 2007-10-11 23:47:12

Hmmmmm... he said his HD, so I *assumed* (bad idea!) that he still uses IDE like I do. I can't afford to replace my drives with SATA yet :-(

I also don't like using initrd. I have enough memory that there is no reason to use a 2-stage boot, I would rather just put it all into one image. But now that I know about the HOOKS option, I might try that the next time I install a new kernel.

iBertus · 2007-10-12 00:07:55

WyoPBS wrote:

Hmmmmm... he said his HD, so I *assumed* (bad idea!) that he still uses IDE like I do. I can't afford to replace my drives with SATA yet :-(
I also don't like using initrd. I have enough memory that there is no reason to use a 2-stage boot, I would rather just put it all into one image. But now that I know about the HOOKS option, I might try that the next time I install a new kernel.

You certainly don't seem to like modernization. ;)

WyoPBS · 2007-10-12 03:32:28

iBertus wrote:

You certainly don't seem to like modernization.

You're just saying that because you're jealous of the superior throughput I get with my 300 baud Hayes Micromodem on my trusty old Apple ][+.

Apple ][ Forever! (if it wasn't designed by Woz, it ain't an Apple)

Arch Linux

#1 2007-10-11 09:29:38

[Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

#2 2007-10-11 10:56:07

Re: [Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

#3 2007-10-11 14:59:23

Re: [Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

#4 2007-10-11 20:52:51

Re: [Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

#5 2007-10-11 20:53:22

Re: [Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

#6 2007-10-11 23:47:12

Re: [Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

#7 2007-10-12 00:07:55

Re: [Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

#8 2007-10-12 03:32:28

Re: [Dumb mistake] Image file dd'ed to hd partition instead of usb drive

Board footer