Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: help my hard drive & diDiskSalv problems Keywords: dh1: not a dos drive disksalv headonfire Message-ID: <14249@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 6 Sep 90 18:55:57 GMT References: <1990Aug30.191714.10892@cbnews.att.com> Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 97 In article <1990Aug30.191714.10892@cbnews.att.com> itch@cbnews.att.com (richard.m.brack) writes: >DiskSalv 1.42 problems: > So I used DiskSalv 1.42 to recover my files from dh1: to floppies. > It took me about 5 trys to get disksalv to work. OK, so CLI-based programs aren't as user-friendly as Intuition-based programs. This gets fixed in DiskSalv 2.0, which is ever-so-slowly on the way. > It would start counting blocks, and then just hang. I've never seen that happen. If you find a problem I can reproduce, you have found a problem I will fix. > It finally worked with this invocation: 'disksalv dh1: df0: ffs format > nodos' . I'm sure it wasn't the first time I tried those arguments > either. At this point disksalv wouldn't even format the floppies. Was > this because of the 'nodos' argument? My format command is > sys:system/format which is where I thought it was supposed to be. It sounds to me like most of your problems stem from your system disk (the one SYS:, L:, C:, S:, LIBS:, FONTS:, and DEVS: points at) being the one you're trying to recover. DiskSalv V1.42 counts on various operating system things, like the Format program and the Disk-Validator being present for formatting and similar functions to work correctly. There's really no good way around this, doing what V1.42 does. The V2.00 release solves the same kinds of problems in a totally different way, and thus won't need anything from SYS: once its up and running. Currently, I know of two significant bugs in DiskSalv V1.42: - The Out Of Memory trapping function actually needs memory to run correctly. If you trap to this routine in very low memory situations (where, at this point, the salvage operation is aborted anyway), the trap winds up trapping itself, and you get an unending loop of "ERROR: Out of Memory" or some-such echoing at your console. - DiskSalv gets confused in a rather complicated situation in which it locates still-recoverable files on a disk which belong to a directory node that has been overwritten by a file node. This case could result in a crash or possibly a hangup. There's also one problem we recently encountered at Commodore. Someone here accidently formatted the start of a hard disk that wasn't supposed to get formatted. DiskSalv V1.42 seemed to get real confused about that disk; it would chug for awhile, start restoring, crash, and upon reboot, all of the files it found were of 0 length. The problem here was actually that the Format command had overwritten block 0 of that disk, so it didn't appear to be an FFS disk anymore. Salvaging an FFS disk in SFS mode, or visa-versa, is a bad idea and may even crash the program. The FFS/NOFFS switch can force DiskSalv into the right mode if it can't properly detect the mode from your damaged disk. V2.00 may grow a more robust filesystem typing routine if I get around to it. >What now??? > I'm not sure what I need to do now. Please don't tell me I have > to reformat the entire drive. I don't think I can format just > a partition, can I? My drive manual says something about 'zeroing' > my drive or partition. This sounds like what I should do but the > manual really doesn't say that much about what 'zeroing' is. You can certainly reformat just the partition that's damaged. For example, "Format Drive DH1: ..." will only format the DH1: partition, not the whole disk (unless the DH1: partition occupies the whole disk, of course). >My questions: > 1) What might have caused my dh1: to no longer be a dos drive? A few things. Some program bugs can damage a hard disk, though it's rare. Using the mg1a program in text wrap mode managed to clobber a hard disk in my system once. Usually a crash, powerdown, or other reset condition while the disk is being written to is the most likely cause of a disk error. Such a crash can damage a file or directory header; if the directory header is your root directory, the filesystem may have trouble reading you disk at all upon reboot. > 2) What was the deal with DiskSalv? Explained above. You seem to be having more trouble than most folks. The GUI-based DiskSalv should make things a bit more foolproof. > 3) Now what do I do to my hard drive? If you have examined your output floppies, and they all look good (eg, files are there that you expect, they seem the right length and all), you can reformat. You may wish to try a fix-in-place tool like FixDisk, or even DiskDoctor, since you should have nothing to lose if you files are safe on floppy. Or you can wait a few months for DS 2.00, and see if it can fix you up any better... >RichBrack -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy Get that coffee outta my face, put a Margarita in its place!