Recovering ext3 files *with* their names (btw, 1 million files)
I would like to recover as many as possible of my more than 1 million
files in a corrupted ext3 directory, *along with their filenames*. I
don't mind losing half the files, as long as the other half come with
their names. Without the names, the contents are useless.
Presumably this means recovering the directory itself, somehow.
Any ideas? Please reply to the list, not to me.
The history is:
I am using 2.4.19ac4 and have 2 60GB disks with software RAID
mirroring running ext3.
I just upgraded from debian woody to debian sarge, and in the process
of trying to fix an X Windows problem caused by that (still not
working: screwy mouse, weird pointer, no gnome-terminal :-(), I probably
pressed the reset button once. fs checking only runs every few reboots.
Upon rebooting (which FWIW is done via a GRUB floppy because my kernel
doesn't load for some reason) filesystems were checked.
/dev/md3 had problems, and I was advised to run fsck.
Upon running fsck, I was warned in capital letters, didn't know what I
was doing, so typed n to exit. But fsck continued anyway, apparently
thinking that no means yes. (In any case, I'm pretty sure the fs was
not mounted.)
It informed me that there is a problem with a directory that I happen
to know contains more than a million files. My answers were probably
inconsistent because I didn't know what I was doing, but I think I
said no to the directory and yes to a bunch of files. Eventually,
knowing that the files would go on forever, I hit ^C.
lost+found contains several files, presumably those I answered yes to,
but the files are numbered. The contents of the files are useless to
me without the original filenames, because the whole directory is a
cache. It would take a month of continuous running to replenish the
cache, so I would like to recover the filenames and contents together
(although I don't mind losing a bunch of files if I get most of them).
The directory is visible when the fs is mounted, but it causes an error
when it is entered.
How do I do this? Or should I give up and just run fsck with the
force option and answer yes to everything, then just delete the
million useless lost+found files -- perfect contents, perfectly
useless without filenames?
And for the future, should I have let the directory grow that large?
Or does ext3 have a limit to bug-free operation? Should I mess with trying
other filesystems (reiser? i'm afraid to create a new partition or try a
new fs after these upgrade problems) just for this directory?
Thanks!
(P.S. Anybody know why the default mga driver doesn't work with an LCD
screen and how to debug an X problem? I see some error about glide2, FWIW.
I just run regular gdm and regular gnome.)
--
judy m. down
<judy0@blackburnmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Get your own FREE local e-mail address at http://www.blackburnmail.com/
Reply to: