Media Server HELP!!!

I'm beyond my pay-grade and need serious help to rescue an external usb storage device or, at a minimum, all the media files on it.

Not sure if I should be posting here, or hardware forum, or media/entertainment forum, but my server is Ubuntu linux and my request revolves around linux "rescue" knowledge, so here goes...

This is my first attempt at a media server project. I've set up an old desktop with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to serve as a full-time media server to my household machines. I've set up AirVideo and MediaTomb to stream to a combination of Apple and Android devices, using UPnP. I just finished Handbrake-ripping the last dvd of my 300+ movie library to a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 2TB external usb drive, configuring AirVideo and MediaTomb and successfully tested the stream to an iPod Touch and my Archos IT. Was feeling pretty pleased with myself for the successful setup of my first server, with no assistance. Planning on using the external usb drive as my "backup drive", I started looking into a 2nd hard drive for the main box, large enough to accommodate the currently 240GB+/- library (in effect, I created the "backup data" to an external first, and was planning to "restore" the backup data to a primary internal hdd).

However, a lightning storm cut the power this weekend, which NEVER happens here (well, almost never...) and upon reboot, the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex no longer automounts; in short summary, if I disconnect the device and reconnect the device, Ubuntu will mount it, but I cannot navigate the directory tree...Nautilus locks up, and the entire system must be rebooted. Ubuntu Disk Utility indicates that there are a significant number of "pending" and "reallocated" blocks on the Seagate.

The Seagate forum indicates that plugging the device into a Windows machine will re-initialize the UUID of the device, and then running a filesystem check will restore to operational functionality. However, Windows does not recognize the device and it "may not function properly"; the filesystem check hangs, and Windows must be rebooted.

At this point in time, I've spent MANY months ripping 300+ dvds and have over 240GB of movie files that I can't access, backup, nor more. In order of preference:

Is there a way to "save" the Seagate drive and make it functional again?
if not, is there a way to copy/move/backup the data to another device?

Or do I just have to suck it up and start ripping 300+ dvds all over again? Any and all suggestions are most appreciated! Thanks in advance guys!

 

What format is the drive?
If your using a Linux format Select [System][Administration] Disk Utility , and you will see the USB drive. Click on the drive. Then click on check and repair file system. I hope this helps.

 

thanks for the quick reply goodie!

Unfortunately, the drive is formatted NTFS, as I dual-boot (infrequently) into WinXP and I need the drive to be readable to both OS.

Even so, I previously tried the suggested procedure, but the machine locked up. Any other suggestions?

What about a live CD? Perhaps a live CD, running in RAM, would work better? Then again, maybe it would just crash quicker?

 

James,
Sure hope you can get the data back on the external. Let me suggest Parted Magic it will go through all connected drives (internal and external) and give you the option via a gui interface to mount them. Parted Magic runs in ram.
It also recognizes NTFS.

Another suggestion is KNOPPIX Live CD

Just make sure to download the correct language. First time I downloaded and ran the CD it was in Dutch. :-D


Keeping my fingers crossed brother!! Keep us posted.

All the best,

Ian

 

another option is maybe systemrescuecd, its a live cd, but if you need to it can run in your ram,

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

to run in ram just type

Code:

rescuecd docache

at the boot prompt at the bottom of the screen, wait for it to load then type

Code:

startx

to get the gui if you don't like old school

 

I GOT IT!!! Hawk, once again, you are the man who has saved my bacon!!!

I couldn't follow your instructions to the letter, but you provided the critical piece of information that served as the bridge to the solution. To help anyone else who may experience this issue, the solution was as follows:

Having a SystemRescue LiveCD laying nearby, I booted up and was able to mount the usb disk and fire up GPartEd for an analysis. While GPartEd identifed the disk as "having warning errors", it would not allow me to fix them. Perusing the rest of the tools on the LiveCD, I found a program called TestDisk, which purported to test the health of your disk and fix any errors it may find. TestDisk identified the drive as NTFS formatted and mentioned NTFS-3G as a tool being used to analyze and repair. TestDisk unmounts the disk and 12-14 hours later, the disk has been scanned, analyzed, and repaired; and the drive indicator light flutters back on without my manual interference. This is a good sign!

We power down the LiveCD, reboot the PC, and VOILA...the disk has been recognized by the system and is automounted. Disk Utility still identifies several hundred "reallocated sector" and "pending sector" errors, but I am able to browse the drive directory with nautilus. I quickly slammed a newly purchased usb Hard drive into a port and rsync the entire dvd movie directory onto the backup drive. 9 hours later, mission critical is accomplished and the drive has been backed up!!!

At this point, the previously faulty drive is now plugged into my Windows machine, which promptly recognizes the drive and allows me to browse the directory again. I'm now able to check the drive for errors, using "automatically fix file system errors" and "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" options; this is the GUI equivalent of chkdsk /f. Upon finish, I should reboot 2x (not sure the significance of that, but I'll be damn sure to do it!) and all should be good.

Lastly, I have also learned of a Windows program called EXT2READ to read EXT formatted drives. This WOULD have been a very simple repair in Ubuntu IF the drive had been EXT formatted. Now that I'm safely backed up (to an NTFS formatted drive, in my haste to back up), I'll leave the backup drive formatted in a Windows friendly NTFS format and install the Windows EXT reader program. I'll also be reformatting the original drive to a Linux friendly EXT format (with journaling!) and rsync the backup to the original!

Not quite finished yet, but when done, I'll have an EXT formatted "movie drive" on my Ubuntu server that is automatically rsynced to an NTFS formatted "backup drive". Lastly, I'll have an EXT reader installed on my Windows machine, so I'll have ALL my bases covered. Thanks guys!!!

 

glad you are on your way to getting sorted,

just a note though,

as you know windows cannot read ext2 and ext3 without help ext2 ifs, linux needs help to read ntfs, but its built into the kernel so its there by default,

but they can both read fat32

windows has a limitation of only formating around 32gb to fat32,
linux does not have this limitation, you can format any drive or partition to the maximum fat32 allows (which i believe is 2tb, but never tried it)

worth bearing in mind i think

 

I'm not a huge fan of FAT and CIFS disk formats, as I have a few virtual machines I like to backup on occasion, and these machines routinely exceed the 4GB(?) file limit.

That leaves NTFS and EXT formats. Since I've been learning about linux, I've preferred the EXT format, as it seems the most user-friendly with almost no downside, except Windows compatibility. As a linux user in a Windows world, this sometimes presents a problem, so I've accepted the NTFS formatting that is typically provided by default. Now that I've learned of a Windows EXT file reader/writer, the equation has changed a little, and I'm reconsidering my personal preferences!

For anyone else who cares, the link provided to me is:

I would recommend formatting the drive to Ext4, then install this on your Windows machine.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/

Also worthy of note, the project page states that "Ext2Read is an explorer like utility to explore ext2/ext3/ext4 files. It now supports LVM2 and EXT4 extents. It can be used to view and copy files and folders. It can recursively copy entire folders. It can also be used to view and copy disk and file"

I haven't installed it yet, as I'm still cleaning up my crash, but this could be a game-changer for me. If I can have all the benefits of EXT formatting, and the tools that accompany that format, AND Windows machines can read/write in that format, is there any reason to use NTFS formatting? Other than Windows compatibilty, is there any other benefit to using this format that EXT cannot provide?

 

with not having a windows machine to test, does your application link support write access ?

i've always used ext2 ifs when i need to as it supports read and write

 

hmmm, not sure yet hawk, as I haven't installed yet. I read the support page of ext2read and saw the reference to read & copy files, directories, and recursive...the copy function made me think "write", but I see your point. It may not write new files to EXT formatted drive, it may only read and copy existing files, kinda like CD-ROM versus CD-RW of file management programs. While this isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me, a program that can also write to EXT drives would be preferable....more tools are always better than less, right?

Do you have a link to ext2 ifs so that I can learn more about it? Perhaps your suggested program is what I'm really looking for?

 

http://www.fs-driver.org/

its called ext2 ifs and the link was in post 7