Work partition "Uninitialized"

[Piru]

If you're really paranoid about losing stuff:

Make a 1:1 image copy of the drive (for example under linux). Then if you mess things up with b0rken application, you always have the whole disk image to work with.

Granted, this requires some linux knowhow, and might fail anyhow (if the drive is physically failing)

Next best thing would be trying DiskSalv (from aminet) recovery, but not the *in place* one (disksalv recovery is non-destrutive one if you recovered to another partition). If DiskSalv can't do it, then it might be a good idea to try find QBT. If I recall correctly QBT was superior tool. It has been a LONG time though (I haven't used FFS in about 10+ years or so), so bear with me.

It is also possible that the HDD is physically toast. In this case only partial data can be saved, and you could potentially lose quite a bit of it.

[zyphoid]

motorollin wrote:
Do the partitions show up in HDToolBox too?

--
moto

@moto yea I think the drive is fine since the dh0: partition "Workbench" still boots the system, and I did some of these threads off it.  Something went wrong as it tried to close out from mame to wb screen. The boot sector got damaged I'm sure,

I couldn't locate Qb-tools Help someone, or a freeware alt?
Couldn't find DiskSalv either!

 :getmad:

[Piru]

http://www.aminet.net/package/disk/salv/DiskSalv11_32

[zyphoid]

thanks i saw it but wasn't sure if it was the ver you were referring to

[scuzzb494]

Hi

Does't help but you really should have left the hard drive to finish its mad spin when you first got the problem. Sometimes takes ages to settle down, but will eventually. A real longshot but have you tried booting with a floppy Workbench, any will do. A HD Install disk for 3.0 or 3.1 will do. Use an old Toolbox to validate the partition... sometimes will kickstart the partition.

I don`t think DiskSalv will work cus it won`t recognise that a hard drive volume exists.

scuzz

[zyphoid]

scuzzb494 wrote:
Hi

A real longshot but have you tried booting with a floppy Workbench, any will do. A HD Install disk for 3.0 or 3.1 will do. Use an old Toolbox to validate the partition... sometimes will kickstart the partition.

I don`t think DiskSalv will work cus it won`t recognise that a hard drive volume exists.

scuzz

sure, I'll try anything and that seems simple enough

[motorollin]

I would be wary of trying anything in HDToolBox until you've tried everything else. HDToolBox is potentially destructive. Piru's suggestion of using Linux to take a clone of the disk is a good one. The command you are looking for is "dd", which will pipe the raw contents of the disk to a file (or back the other way).

QBTools will search the disk for files even if the partition has been deleted. Not sure about DiskSalv.

--
moto

[Matt_H]

The dcp tool burried in this package is the best Amiga equivalent to dd that I've found. Use it to dump your entire drive to a file (which will probably mean either over the network or plugging in another drive to serve as the destination).

[scuzzb494]

Hi

HDToolbox is not destructive unless you save the changes. I have found that just scanning with HDToolbox is sometimes enough to kickstart a partition ( dunno why ). Most folk have access to a floppy disk so I would have thought it an easier option than the others particularly as the contents of a hard drive to a file could be a problem unless you have network options or a spare capacity hard drive on the system.

I have an SCSI hard drive here that can fail on boot and is unaccessible. The icons don`t appear on the screen. I never panic and just wait a moment or two to let it spin up when warm and reboot, and it appears.

This partition has lost its way, though all the data is still there no doubt and can be recovered. I would suggest booting from a floppy and doing the old two button mouse down to check whether you can mount the drive may be a touch simpler if its just a moody partition. Bump starting can sometimes work. Always useful to partition such that you can always copy the entire contents of one partition to another partition, format the damaged partition and then copy back. And all without switching the Amiga off. I have encountered problems like this on many occassions. I use to have great problems with Theme Park doing this and sadly also YAM. I never panic, I always find the volume eventually. Writing to the disk is not an option and should never be done...

Validating simply checks the physical structure of the drive. You don`t have to save anything. The old HDToolbox is far better than the later versions, not sure how this worked on 3.9. I only use 3.0 and 3.1 and my drives have lasted since ... er 1993, no problem.

scuzz

[rkauer]

 When in the past I use FFS (thanx GOD, never more!) I use to have a lot of problems with YAM, a couple of games and EVEN with WorkBench itself.

 Lost System partition and/or ALL partitions at a time! Last time I loose the RDB due a problem with IDEFix97:pissed:

 When use QuaterBackTools, sometimes I get the system fixed, but sometimes it simply TRASH the HD. So I move on to SFS (now 1.270, some old versions have problems with IDEFix TOO- bundled in in OS 3.5/3.9).:pissed:

 What The Heck! If you can restore your partition, MAKE A BACKUP! After install SFS 1.270 (or newer), install it AND Full format the partition (in order to catch bad blocks). Them DELETE FFS from your RDB and Workbench.

 If you can, burn a new ROM without the validator tool (no use anymore). Give the old ROM to the dog, buy a rifle and shoot down B.Mac (not the clown burger one), give your Amiga to me (as a gift, I'll treat her very well, trust me).

 Uuuuuuuufffffffsssssss, I'm feeling better now.

 Time for a :pint:

[orange]

I used QBTools too, it helped in some cases. But if you defragmented the drive in past it could make recovery tough.

Another software worth trying is AmiBack Tools, in case it has not been mentioned already..

[zyphoid]

@everyone Thanks all! after staying up all night Quarterback tools got everything salvaged including my files!

NOTE TO ALL VERY VITAL TO HAVE A PARTITION WITH ENOUGH ROOM TO COVER THE MAIN ONE SHOULD IT FAIL..... OR BACK-UP FILES!!  IN MY CASE I USED A DRIVE PARTITION CALLED SPARE:

Thanks for saving my Amiga. All your suggestions were extremely helpful.   :-D  :-)  ;-)  :roll:  :-D

[_ThEcRoW]

Congratulations on your saved Amiga!

[pVC]

zyphoid:

Did you get the partition fixed or just recovered the files to other partition?

If files are saved to other partition, then it would be nice to try to fix the broken partition. And I still would recommend ABTools (AmiBack) for it.. fixed many badly broken partitions with it at old ffs times

[motorollin]

Congratulations! So glad you got everything back. Your next steps:

1. Back up your irreplaceable documents (letters etc) to a safe medium - another hard disk, a CD-RW, or at a push floppy disks
2. Buy a brand new hard disk
3. Install SFS on the new hard disk
4. Move everything on to the new hard disk
5. Throw away the old hard disk as the noises it was making suggest imminent mechanical failure, which means data recovery will not be possible unless you send it away for expensive professional recovery
6. Implement, test and maintain a reliable backup process

--
moto

[zyphoid]

pVC wrote:
zyphoid:

Did you get the partition fixed or just recovered the files to other partition?

If files are saved to other partition, then it would be nice to try to fix the broken partition. And I still would recommend ABTools (AmiBack) for it.. fixed many badly broken partitions with it at old ffs times

yea was able to reformat and transfer files back to drive partition.