Re: Fwd: [debian-knoppix] hd corruption
I don't know if this helps anyone, but I just suffered
a partition table corruption after runing lilo. Very
scary seek errors and the whole bit. So I went to bed
and thought about it, then realized all I have to to
was rewrite the partition table. It turned out to be
very easy I just booted with knoppix, ran sfdisk -l to
confirm the problem. Yup, all the partition table
entries where missalined, but sfdisk could also tell
what the correct values should be. So I ran cfdisk and
rewrote the partition table, problem fixed.
I have no idea how this happened, but I am glad I
followed by better instinks and didn't do anything
until I knew how to fix it.
-good luck with your problem
-tim
--- North London John <northlondonjohn@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
> Duh! Replied to one, not all.
> I keep on getting caught out by that.
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: North London John
> <northlondonjohn@yahoo.co.uk>
> > Date: Fri Jan 31, 2003 2:16:00 am Europe/London
> > To: knopper@linuxtag.org (Klaus Knopper)
> > Subject: Re: [debian-knoppix] hd corruption
> >
> > Hi Klaus,
> >
> > Thanks for Knoppix!
> > It's been my only taste of Linux, and a lot of fun
> to play with.
> >
> > The bad news is, my computer seems to be
> completely fucked.
> > Can't install anything. Scandisk just runs into
> problems, and quits.,
> > I think that it is the hard disk, but I'm having
> so much trouble
> > getting any info, I can't be sure, or more
> detailed.
> >
> > (I haven't installed extra ram, btw, so I doubt
> that's the problem.)
> >
> > I'm going to talk to the manufacturers tomorrow,
> but I don't hold out
> > much hope. They make junk, I get stuck with junk.
> Seriously, I have
> > had hd problems before - they just replace one
> dodgy disk with > another.
> >
> > Anyway, for references sake, this is almost
> certainly a hardware
> > problem, and so is not a knoppix hd-install bug.
> >
> > (PS: Christian - thanks for your email as well.)
> >
> > If anyone could give me some tips on using the
> knoppix cd to
> > investigate hd problems, I would be very thankful.
> >
> > John
> >
> >
> >
> > On Friday, January 31, 2003, at 01:06 am, Klaus
> Knopper wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> On Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 08:57:02PM +0000, North
> London John wrote:
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> I have installed Knoppix 20/1/2003 twice on my
> hd - and both times,
> >>> after a couple of days, the hd partitions have
> become corrupted, and
> >>> knoppix has refused to boot.
> >>
> >> Did you enable DMA for the harddisks after
> installation? KNoppix uses
> >> DMA for harddisks when running from CD, but not
> for CD-Roms, because
> >> there are some problems, namely with VIA
> controllers concerning DMA.
> >>
> >> Harddisk corruption can have several reasons:
> >>
> >> 1.) The aforementioned DMA problem (only with
> certain controllers, and
> >> you usually see a lot of errors with "dmesg").
> But after HD
> >> installation, DMA support is no longer turned on
> by default.
> >>
> >> 2.) Defective RAM (which is more common than you
> may think, and the
> >> errors are not even detected until a file or swap
> is read again). If
> >> you copy a
> >> big file, and the md5sum checksums of those two
> files differ, you may
> >> have defective or overclocked RAM.
> >>
> >> 3.) Harddisk errors (hardware), or cable
> problems, or simply wrong
> >> BIOS
> >> settings for the transfer modes.
> >>
> >>> The second time, I think my win98 partition was
> also corrupted - not
> >>> fatally, but an unusually large amount of mb was
> being used.
> >>>
> >>> I am not sure whether this is a hardware problem
> - scandisk doesn't
> >>> report any problems,
> >>
> >> scandisk neither detects defective RAM, nor
> hardware errors. It is a
> >> basically useless program, and can only repair
> windows filesystem soft
> >> errors.
> >>
> >>> Knoppix from cd identified everything correctly,
> >>> but I've had a very difficult time trying to
> install Linux, and
> >>> Knoppix
> >>> was the first to actually work. (Red Hat 8 and
> Mandrake 9 seemed to
> >>> install, but both stalled on booting, after the
> message
> >>> Freeing unused kernal memory
> >>> {Mandrake:] 136k freed
> >>> [Red hat: 212kb freed]
> >>
> >> This is normal, depends on what is compiled into
> the kernel.
> >>
> >>> I'm using an AJP (generic) laptop, from circa
> 1999, 10gb hd, 128k
> >>> ram,
> >>> Celeron 500mhz.
> >>
> >> Looks OK to me. Have you ever had a RAM upgrade
> that could explain a
> >> memory error?
> >>
> >>> The question in a nutshell: has anyone had
> similar problems with hd
> >>> corruption?
> >>
> >> Only with hardware errors, to the best of my
> knowledge.
> >>
> >>> If it is a bug, it is pretty serious - but is it
> likely to be one?
> >>
> >> It is very likely a hardware bug, either wrong
> BIOS settings or
> >> physical
> >> errors on the harddisk, or wrong RAM
> settings/chipsets. I know the
> >> latter error from an Athloin XP that I bought,
> the error would have
> >> been
> >> impossible to fund under Windows, even a
> memtest86 reported no error,
> >> but the file copy and checksumming showed clearly
> that the RAM did not
> >> fit the board.
> >>
> >>> As I say, I can't rule out a hardware problem.
> >>
> >> Please try the file copy and md5sum method, with
> files that are larger
> >> than your available RAM.
> >>
> >> Regards
> >> -Klaus Knopper
> >> --
> >> Klaus Knopper Technical
> Solutions & Finances
> >> knopper@linuxtag.org
> http://www.linuxtag.org/
> >> Phone +49-(0)631-3109371
> Fax +49-(0)631-3109372
> >> LinuxTag 2003 - Europes largest Linux Expo
> Where .com meets .org
> >>
> >
>
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