lost data in partition,unmounted and empty
 

dear Bruno I now noticed that E partition is unmounted! :eek: not accessible in Windows even.
I remember I did one or two stages of that blog of yours and then determined not to continue.how can mount it again? all my thesis files are there :( please help with care! why this has been occurred? I had stored most of my cases there and named the partition "Important",its volume was 0(empty) at first and now is 130MB occupied on disc without any file or folder.my thesis folder is empty.:( :( :(

I brought it to a store that recoveres lost data and he told me that he can restore my thesis files.
Today it showed me a message that its a unmounted drive when i wanted to open the partition E: and when i start Windows it was empty too.
It was fine last night.i moved a folder of cases and returned paraview folder to linux desktop and it worked fine at that time. What was the cause?
Is there anything that i better tell to recovery center that helps them?

lost data in partition,unmounted and empty
 

linux shows the message that E partition is unmounted! not accessible in Windows even.how can mount it again? all my thesis files are there :( why this has been occurred? I had stored most of my cases there and named the partition "Important",its volume was 0(empty) at first(when it became not accessible) and now 130MB is occupied on disc without any other(other than system information folder that originated when i used partition manager software for recovering the folders back)file or folder.my thesis folder is empty.:( :( :(
I brought it to a store some hours before that recoveres lost data and he told me that he can restore my thesis files.
It was almost fine last night.i moved a folder of cases and returned paraview folder to linux desktop and it worked fine at that time. What was the cause?
Is there anything that i better tell to recovery center that helps them?
And i remember that when i was entering to a folder with a lot of files in another partition the PC was became very slow and mouse was moving slowly and with discontinuity and if i left the PC it went to a situation like hibernate but without any responce so that i had to restart it.
This issue repeated today for the partition of my thesis and i restarted the PC but didn't check immediately the partition but think may that be the cause.
I used some softwares in Windows without success.
I have a semi bach up of main files but not for papers,axiliary cases,...

Hi Ehsan,

1. What were the exact steps you did from my blog post?
2. Did you do the exact steps that are described in my blog post?
   1. Or was there any very small difference in the commands you executed?
3. And where exactly did you run the commands? More specifically, inside which folder did you run them?
4. If it's an external drive, do you always use the "safely eject" feature in Ubuntu, even before shutting down or restarting the machine?

Without knowing the exact steps you've taken and what you did, with every single detail properly described, it's impossible for me to diagnose the exact problem.


My guess is that you did not take the necessary precautions and therefore this would end up happening sooner or later, even if you hadn't followed some of the steps from my blog post. :(

Best regards,
Bruno

dear Bruno
I rememberd now that i downloaded the file was specified in the firsta of the blog and didn't any steps as remember(didn't continue)
In downloding message it was written that some space will be deleted!
I didn't pay attention to what space it means and how much due to hurry,i had opened the terminal in the root of that ntfs partition,this had occurred very before that a download command had deleted some information instead of adding files,i think it has happened again.
I myself don't know when it has happened exactly during that day.

edit button doesn't work in the cell phone opera browser.
I myself don't know when it has happened exactly during that day and guess.
Its internal wd 300g hard disc.
Can they return information in your opinion? I tried using some software in windows without much success.

Hi Ehsan,

I've moved all of the relevant posts for this topic from the thread http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...-3-12-a-4.html
Now, let me re-read all of the thread again, to figure out what I can suggest....


OK, so the problem seems that you're not even sure what you did for this to happen. Now, going back to what I wrote about creating a file-based partition:
If you followed properly the instructions I wrote, both on the quote above and in the indicated blog post therein, none of those commands could have damaged your partition, since none of them will overwrite over existing files. Unless of course, you did not accurately followed the instructions, in which case, it could have lead to not being able to recover any files, since it could have overwritten over the data.

And from the post #3 (which originally was the first post on this thread), it would seem that it has nothing to do with the instructions on my blog post.


Now, as for the recovery of the files, the standard plan is as follows:

1. Do not make any more changes to the partition where the data is currently deleted. If you make any change at all, you risk writing data over the deleted files.
2. Check the disk state, as indicated by the "GSmartControl" application (see this post: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/lou...tml#post436662 post #12)
   If the disk is indicating bad health, then the problem might be worse than expected.
3. You'll need an independent auxiliary disk partition, with the same amount of disk space as the original partition, because you need to retrieve the files without damaging the original partition.
4. The following link gives several instructions on how to use testdisk and photorec for trying to recover data: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk#Documentation
   • You can install testdisk and photorec on Ubuntu by running:
     
     Code:

     ---

     sudo apt-get install testdisk

     ---

   • testdisk - this can help recover hidden partitions, undelete files (if the drive has not been formatted) and to clone a partition.
   • photorec - this can help recover files, when there is no longer a file structure available. Problem here is that you'll have to inspect the recovered files manually, because they will not have their original files.
   • CAUTION: Read all of the instructions first, once or twice, before actually performing the tasks!
5. Always keep in mind that the objective is to copy/recover the deleted files from the original partition, to the auxiliary independent disk/partition, so that you won't overwrite the data that is missing.

In all honestly, if:

• you do not know for certain that you're able to read all of the existing instructions provided at the page indicated in step #4 and to follow only the ones necessary;
• or if you do not have enough auxiliary disk space available for copying the deleted files onto it;
• then I strongly advise you to go to that shop and request their assistance in recovering the files.

Good luck!
Bruno

Hi Bruno
They are some cases like "tank" case if you remember,and a lot of pdf's.
I vaguely remember i did one step of the blog in the root maybe and after that refuse to continue.if it be the case,which command may have lead to a damage?
I called him and he told a lot of folder has recovered but the name of my thesis folders are not among them :(
And i told him that awaits till i go tomorrow and see what has been recovered.
I have some old backups in different places,am still confused and upset that all bad events want to occure for me one after another.
I bought an external hard disc and will test recovering if they can't be recovered by the shop.

----------------------

Bruno i deleted some files for free up more space (as you know it was the reason for moving paraview folder to another partition),may the partition table be among them?can user delete it at all as it has mentioned in the link for #4?

The partition table can only be damaged if you used the command dd and specify to use "of=/dev/sdf9", where "sdf9" is the drive "sdf" (it's not the same as "F:", but it's similar) and the partition "9".
Only this would write over the whole partition, erasing both the partition table and file structure, along with anything else that would be located in that partition.

But this should not have happened, if you followed the blog post correctly, because the command in the blog post explicitly says to use "of=ext4file", indicating that we want to write to the file named "ext4file".


The only other possibility that I can think of is if you tried to use the commands from step #2 from this blog post: Using the official pre-built ParaView 3.10.1 version with OpenFOAM - but in this case, you would have had to use modified commands, such as:
only this could have removed all files.


But as I've said many times over: without knowing the exact steps you took, we cannot know for certain what happened exactly.

i'm thinking what i have done that may cause the issue.but i felt in a hurry and was doing a lot of works,yes i remember i did the first step and then used ctrl+c instead of exit carelessly,may it cause such trouble?
I didn't think last posts of us be in relation to lost of data :(
Please help me what you can about using those softwares so that the work can be done correctly.

----------------

thanks a lot,im still in the shock!
Its a very good chance that main cases folders were in linux desktop and also in another partition.

Hi Ehsan,

After thinking a while on this, here's a review on what you might want to try. First, as I wrote above:
Given the status of your disk/partition, the only potentially possible solution is to use photorec: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step


All of this happened because you created the partition once again, by using the partition manager; instead of first contacting me or someone who knows what to do in these cases. Therefore, by creating the partition, you ended up overwriting some of the already existing data, because NTFS (so does ext3 and ext4) uses additional metadata, beyond the file structure, leading to those 130MB you talked about.

Oh well... with any luck you've already managed to get back most of the files you were missing.

Good luck!
Bruno

Hi Bruno,
Thanks for your attentions a lot.
I went to the recovery center shop and saw my folders have recovered exactly with their contents! I checked them and verified and the young manager told me that he will copy them to their hard disc and i can get them in my external hard disc.he told me that they use a hardware named recovery card not softwares and therefore can recover folders and structures instead of only files that have to be organized if softwares can recover them.
But some folders had zero space and he said that they have been recognised in this stage and their content will be displayed after extracting data and copy to another hard.
I hope i can earn my files again!
I bought a 2TB internal hard disc for 152$ to not allow such thing repeat until i'm alive !
I didn't find out at last what had caused these days and nights full of thought and stress!
I didn't grasp what you mentioned about partition manager dear Bruno,i used that when the data was lost.
I have to have several copies for important data,right?in external or internal hard discs?
I paid near all of my father's salary for a 2TB internal and a 1TB external hard discs,and my old 300GB one.i don't know how to manage them.
Can i copy all of 300G hard data to 2T one so that 2 windows and one ubuntu work like before(in 300G one)?
Dear Bruno I appreciate your valuable advices.
Thanks a lot.

Hi Ehsan,

Honestly, I advise you to do the minimum amount of changes as possible:

1. If you have a new internal hard-drive, use it for backing up things and also for handling some of the bigger simulation cases. Do not use it for placing binaries (such as ParaView) inside it.
2. The external hard-drive should be used for keeping backups of cases in compressed files (7zip or tar.gz), and other documents in uncompressed form, so that you can avoid loosing any data and still save some space.

Either way, try to keep things as simple as possible, because any new experiment you do with these drives now, could lead to more time and data loss.

In addition, I suggest:

1. Backup at least once a day and only when your mind is well rested and not busy with several things at the same time. Otherwise, you risk not having a proper backup because you were thinking about something else.
2. Always make sure you use the standard steps for safely removing (also known as "ejecting") the external drive.
3. If you have enough space on the external drive, create one folder per day with the date of that day, e.g. "2013-09-23", and backup any news cases and/or modified documents into that folder. This way you can keep some backup redundancy and also to keep track of how the work has progressed.
4. Keep a hand written paper notebook or notepad with mental notes of where you have things stored and backed up. This can help you to both improve your own memory and have some information redundancy, for those stressful situations of when you don't remember what you did and where you put things.
   • In theory, the best sidekick you can have while doing a thesis is a daily journal, so that it can help you remember what you've done so far. Specially for keeping track of the experiments and boundary conditions you've tried.
   • I say "hand written paper notebook or notepad", because this way you won't loose some vital information in case of an electrical power outage.
5. And last but not least: do not experiment upgrading and trying out news things until your thesis is complete! None of this confusion would have happened if you hadn't tried out something sort-of new... or at least, if you hadn't panicked, this could have been avoided as well ;)

Good luck! Best regards,
Bruno

another partition unmounted.
 

Hi Bruno,
I got my hard disc and now I saw that another partition has became unmounted with the error 2 as attached.whats the matter?he has corrupted another healthy partition.can I repair it myself?

Hi Ehsan,

Well, something very strange is going on with your computer. Specially if you don't provide details, it's even stranger ;)

OK, a few questions:

1. Is the partition located in an internal or external hard-disk?
2. What format was the partition created with? ext3, ext4, FAT32 or NTFS?
3. If it was NTFS, did you access it in Windows before this happened on Ubuntu?
4. If the hard-disk is external: have you always used the "safely eject" feature?
5. Has your computer crashed recently?
6. Is your computer able to shut-down properly from Ubuntu and/or Windows?
7. Have you been using lately that command line shutdown or halt? And if you have, which exact command have you been using?

Best regards,
Bruno

hi Bruno,
Its an internal 320G hard disk.its format is NTFS.
When i brought it to the shop this partition was OK.
Although when i opened a big folder the PC was getting very slow,but the files were there.
When i returned it back to home,i opened it with Windows 8 that was in other internal hard disk I've bought just newly and saw it shows an error when i want to open it,that the file system is corrupted and didn't open the partition(named STore).
I had made a new partition on my new hard disk with name of Store and conncted both old and new hard disks together.may their similar names make the issue?can it lead to cleaning older partition?
Yes i had access to it in Windows,crash...no,only the issue was slowing down the PC when the huge folder opened located in STore partition,it was becoming slower and slower till moving mouse was not possible and i had to restart the PC.
This problem occurred for the partition named important only one time and i restarted it and i guess now that the information have deleted after this occurance.
And about shutdown yes,i used that in Ubuntu for some test cases like as you told in another thread.
I want to bring it again to the shop.
If i use those softwares can them return folders like it was before or just a lot of files list?
And may it be their fault?

Hi Ehsan,

Having partitions with the same name should not be a problem, but should be avoided, so that you yourself don't confuse between the two.

When you restarted the computer on Windows, because it was being very slow... did you forcefully restart it or did Windows peacefully accept your request to restart?

Check on Ubuntu with GSmartControl to check the health of the disks.

I suggest that you bring the whole computer tower to the shop. Something strange is going one with your computer and they should be able to figure out what's going on. Because from my experience, it can be any of the following issues:

1. The power supply might be failing and not be able to properly supply power to the hard disks.
2. The motherboard might be having some issues with communicating with the disks.
3. The older disk might be failing.
4. It could be some other hardware part that might be draining too much power and disturbing power flow inside the tower.
5. The old partition might be too damaged for normal operations and perhaps Windows was trying to repair it, which could be why it was slowing down so much.

The biggest concerns are the possible hardware failures. Only in the shop should they be able to assess what's going on.


If the hardware is OK, then my suggestion would be to let Windows try to repair the partitions. Right clicking on each drive letter, going to the properties, then the maintenance tab, it should give you an option to check the partition and choose to do a full check. It will likely tell you that only after restarting the computer it will be able to do the scan disk, so do that. It will take a long while to perform the scan, so prepare yourself to wait.


But as I said, if this is actually a hardware problem, then using scan disk could put in danger your hard-disks, because they could fail sooner than expected due to whatever might be damaged on your computer.

Good luck!
Bruno

and both shutdown and halt i tested like in shutdown thread i think or in email thread.
Can they cause some trouble?
Why this happen only for secondary(data)partitions not Windows xp and Windows 7 or Ubuntu partition?(i should thank god that Ubuntu partition is healthy!my main cases are there on the desktop)
I have bought the hard 5 years ago.and that softaware you told show that its healthy.can it be the work of a virus or a hacher?when the thiefs ransacked the home about 3years ago the had left this hard in the older PC.can they use some way to communicate the PC and infiltere in?

They could, in case the shut down is not done in a safe way. Honestly, my worst experiences were with hibernation, not with shutting down, so this is only an hypothesis.

You don't use the primary partitions as much as you do the secondary partitions. And using NTFS on Ubuntu (or any Linux Distribution) should be done with great care. This is mostly because usually we have to let Windows do the safety checks on the NTFS partitions, because it is (allegedly) the one more suitable for the job.

I don't know what software you've installed on your machine, so I don't know. And since you are using an older version of Ubuntu, it's a possibility. And personally I don't trust those anti-filter software you've mentioned before... I've never needed to use any of them, so I don't know if they are open source or simply "free"...

It's possible, but I doubt that.

I'm more inclined to being a result of incorrect usage of the machine, such as problems with power outages. And since you've mentioned that the CPU cooler had gotten a lot of dust on it and that you had opened the computer yourself, I suspect that something might have gone wrong in your maintenance efforts.


Either way, there are too many variables at work here. And the biggest concern is a big hardware failure might be coming in, and you're being very lucky that it won't simply crash completely and not restart at all.
We had one like that at work just this week and there was no clear reason as to why the power supply simply fried.

Hi Bruno
the power supply is 430 watts output and I used an online page that calculates power needed for a system and it shows 370watts.then power seems acceptable I think.
I think the issue is likely related to using NTFS partitions in Ubuntu foa a long time without Windows have access to them during one year except maybe 3-4 times in earlier months.
well you say that I should have allowed Windows do some modifications and maintenance work on them,right?
maybe its my destiny that I have to engage serious troubles so that learn and experience new things.I don't know if they let me defense or I have to register for another semester by any chance.

hi again Bruno,
I'm on bus and just gave it to the shop !
He says what you mentioned that when use both linux and windows sometimes a partition jump(if translation be true) occures and also it occurs more in western digital hards and he have seen these cases before.
Well its occurance right now is dissappointing.

I got it and now in home i saw that partition of linux is cleaned completely,
Like a horrible dream.
Whay such things are happening?
Only good thing is that i had predict maybe this terrible thing happen and copied my necessary folders to external hard disk,maybe your guess pointing to mother board and power be true.
Now what can be done?
Can the operating system Ubuntu be returned back by recovery?

Hi Ehsan,

Didn't they tell you what they did to fix the computer?

We need to first know what exactly they did on the shop. Because it might be possible to recover the files, or it might be completely impossible to recover the files, depending on what exactly they did :(.

Best regards,
Bruno

hi Bruno,
People work in the shop are only a brother and sister.he told me he uses a recovery card and its software on his Windows.
I called him and he surprised that it happened for linux partition too and then said that it happens mostly for western digital and samsung hards.
He told that boot files can't be recovered by this method,only folders and files in them can be recovered.
Please tell me what questions should i ask him to get enough information.
He says that partitioning when formatting of disk has been done,may has been done incorrectly.
But i have been using it for 10 months while windows and linux have been both there on disk,why it should happen exactly now.
I think maybe its better to download 12.04 LTS Ubuntu and install it and OF and all other programs again.

Hi Ehsan,

The details I want to know are:

1. What was the problem that was detected in the shop? In other words:
   1. Were there any problems with the motherboard?
   2. Were there any problems with the CPU?
   3. Were there any problems with the Power Supply Unit (PSU)?
2. My suspicion was that there was a hardware problem, but it could also only be a problem with the NTFS partitions, which were getting a bit too damaged from the crashes and excessive file accesses from Ubuntu, without passing by Windows enough times for it to correct things itself.
   The questions here are:
   1. What was exactly done to fix the NTFS partition that was broken?
   2. Was the partition reformatted?
   3. Was there any new software installed?
   4. Was there any application used for specifically fixing Windows partitions?
   5. Were all partitions reformatted?

And I forgot to ask this to you Ehsan: when you wrote that the files for Ubuntu were missing, do you mean that you were not able to boot onto Ubuntu and only to Windows?
Or did you mean that you did boot to Ubuntu, but all of the files were missing?

Like I said, I need details! I'm not able to see what you are seeing, so I need you to describe in detail what you are seeing!

Best regards,
Bruno

Hi Bruno,
The linux partititon had deleted too,he in the shop says that only some folders like boot are seen in recovered folders and desktop isn't there.
My main cases folders were on desktop,why it can't be recovered in your opinion according to your knowledge and experience?

Hi Ehsan,

So many possibilities... a few possibilities come to mind:

1. Ubuntu might have been installed with a separate home partition. This would explain why the boot data was found, because only the main Ubuntu partition was found. Problem is: where was the home partition and why wasn't it found as well?
2. When whatever happened for the other files to get erased in the first place, the desktop folder also somehow got erased as well. But in the confusion, you might have not noticed it.

Beyond this, I haven't got enough details in order to estimate what happened. I've asked you several times as to what exactly happened before the files were missing, but you haven't managed to give me a detailed description of what happened.

And whatever else I may estimate, would have roughly the same probability of being as correct as the possibility of a black hole 1000 light-years away having caused a rift in time and space, and therefore caused a localized EMP that disrupted the contents of the hard disk. :(

Best regards,
Bruno

dear Bruno,Hi
I didn't bring all the case of the PC to the shop because I don't think he can find if there is any problem in hardware.I asked him that may main board be responsible for these data losses and he told these problems are more software issues than hardware.

about series two of questions I have to say that I didn't format it,only for question 2 of series 2,I had installed some softwares like Fluent in Windows but only one time used that.
dear Bruno,it may be a problem with power or AMD main board,because the problem occurs in new hard disc(WD,2TB) when copy large folders too.the small window that shows copying disappears and the source folders lost too."it is a copy problem" both in windows and Linux,I have to change both Main Board and power when I get rid of these problems and could defend.
I wan to say all of these horrible dreams that take place in real life in the defense session!
what your opinion about copy issue? it seems that maybe PSU can't supply enough power when work with large(around 10 GB) folders.in older hard as I told before when I even open a large folder,mouse movements became discontinue and all things became lock,when I wanted to copy them to another partition so that its space be lesser,it locked too and I had to restart the PC and after that all the partition deleted.after recovery as you know next partition deleted(it was there before recovering the other partition) and when it recovered the Linux lost.
I called him now and the folders that I managed to copy them to external hard before Linux issue has recovered (when I wanted to re-copy folders from external to internal,they lost,I don't know why this happen only when writting occurs to internal hard,but I can copy large folders to external hard)
home folder was in Linux,I thik maybe he has recovered swap partition,but he says that it has 50 GB space.

Hi Ehsan,

Indeed, this seems to be a problem with the power supply :( You can try unplugging the DVD drive, to see if this reduces the amount of electricity necessary to go around the system.
In addition, if the external hard drive is not self-powered, this could also could be a cause for the stress made on the power supply.

Problem is that I've seen similar problems to this one where:

• in one case the power supply was to be blamed;
• but on another was the motherboard that was getting very old and began to incorrectly control the hard drive or to disturb the power supply to the hard drive.

As for the hard drive to loose a whole partition due to a power failure, perhaps it was only able to reset the bits when the power requirements were lower and then was not able to set them back properly when more power was needed.
The other possibility is that there could have been physical damage to the plate of the disk, but this would have been diagnosed by the SMART system that hard drives have got: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

With any luck, only the file structure was damaged and photorec could have been used to recover files, but those files would have to be manually seen by you to ascertain what they were... and with OpenFOAM cases, this is a complete nightmare :( Just to imagine over 1000 "U" files with no indication to which case they belong to...


Thinking back:

• Either when you tried to clean the heat sink for the processor, something got damaged (I already wrote about this before);
• or perhaps when you cleaned the heat sink for the CPU, you should have also cleaned the power supply.
  But now, it's too late to think about cleaning it, because it's probably already damaged.

Some equipment does exist for testing power supplies, but I'm not familiar with it and I don't know how much exactly that equipment can diagnose.

So I can only guess that a new power supply would be less costly part of them all right now, although you have to be very careful if the power rating on the new one is enough to handle all of the hardware. I believe that for your current system, perhaps 650W would be best.


Good luck! Best regards,
Bruno