Excito B3 Filestructure (pictures, videos, music)

[Hausflur]

Hi all,
I´m new in this forum and searched already for the relevant information but did not find the right topic.
Before I start I´ve to say that I´m an average skilled IT person but I´ve totally no Linux exprerience.

ISSUE DESCRIPTION:
Unfortunately my EXCIT B3 (WD Red 3TB) does not boot anymore (worked well the last 2 years).
I do not have a backup of the files on the harddisk and I do not want to install a new image which deletes all files...
I´ve tried several times to access root but was not sucessful. Even thouh I would not know what to do after I´ve access...

What is possible is that I´ve inserted my 3TB harddisk into an external USB drive and got access to the folders with a LINUX PC (open SUSE).

QUESTION:
I´ve opened allmost all folders but could not find my personal data (pictures and videos).
What is the typical file structure or do you have another recommendation how to get access to my files?

Thank you in advance !!

[Gordon]

Hi and welcome.

The disk typically holds three partitions, with the second one being configured as a softraid device. This is the one that holds your user data. The system that you use to access the drive should have mdadm to mount the volume inside it and THIS page may help you in case something is wrong with it.

Good luck.

[Hausflur]

I was not sucessful...

I´m not able to mount the softraid under mdadm.
Ist there another way to get access to my files.
I´ve a MAC and Windows PC.
I can see the 3 partition when using the software "Paragon or the LinuxReader" ... I can see also that 2TB is used and only 1 TB is free... but I cannot open the folder with my media files...

Is there an easy way to get access to my files...

[fredrikj]

I was not sucessful...

Please be a bit more detailed with what you tried and how it failed. This is a great community, but I'm pretty sure none of us are mind readers.

I'd say your own proposal, to remove the disk and try to mount the partition on another computer is good. Though not easy, it is the best I can imagine.

Personally I would have installed some modern Linux dist on the PC, and try to mount the drive there. If you can, connect the drive using sata rather than usb. Usb works but performance will drop and it's another layer of indirection that you'll have to consider while identifying the underlying problem.

Then when that's done, tell us which command you've run to try to mount the partition, and what kind of error message you see?

BTW, is the disk ok? Have you checked with some kind of smart tool?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.

[Gordon]

No need to install linux on any PC. Simply stick a Live CD/DVD in the Windows PC and boot from it. You can then run any linux application you like and when you're finished you can remove it and start the original OS again.

I found a tip on something called foremost. Poster said it helped him recover files from a softraid member disk that he never managed to mount.

[fredrikj]

No need to install linux on any PC. Simply stick a Live CD/DVD in the Windows PC and boot from it.

Of course. And if the PC supports it, no need to waste a blank CD/DVD either, just load linux from a bootable usb-memory.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... on-windows
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_c ... e_Live_USB
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... 03.html.en

Though there is something to be said for installing Linux as a way to get a sensible os on the PC too.

[Stryker]

uh.. does the default excito image not use LVM for the data-partition and therefore you have to use lvm2 to mount it and not mdadm?

If you managed to acquire a live-linux-system (Ubuntu preferrably), I would recommend you check whether it recognizes an lvm-partition.

This "installs" the lvm2-drivers in the live-system that you will need in case it is not installed by default.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install lvm2

use these three commands to check for lvm-partitions:

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sudo pvdisplay
sudo vgdisplay
sudo lvdisplay

The first one should list a physical volume existing on the disk.
The second command should display the bubba volumegroup
And the third command should list a logical volume called bubba-storage which might be marked unavailable
If that is the case, you have to activate the volume-group first:

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sudo vgchange -a y bubba

The lvdisplay-command mentions a path for the logical-volume, like "/dev/mapper/bubba-storage" or something similar.
Try mounting that device to /mnt.

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/mapper/bubba-home /mnt

If that worked, you should be able to find your files at /mnt in the live-linux's filesystem.

[Gordon]

You are correct sir. I forgot about needing to open the LVM group first. AFAIK you still need mdadm to mount the home partition, but this will be transparent unless a second node was added to it.