Hello Fellow Linux Users,
I thought I'd never qualify for a newbie question, I guess I am ripe for one now. I did a backup of text, binary, and ogg files on a 4.4 GB DVD using K3B (filling only 4.2 GBs). All the files previously resided on a reiserFS partition, so I am optimistic that there may be a way to replay the journal, in spite of the fact that soon thereafter, I reformatted the HD to ext3 and installed Linux Mint. Lo and behold, I love Linux Mint, so I do not miss the 90% of the files that are alas up until now unrecoverable. The files inside "nested" directories, those that are 2 or more levels deep, do show a magic number in kilobytes when I click on the properties. They are
not 0 byte files attached to directory names. When I try copying them or opening them with their respective apps, I get I/O error. The text files that are nested only 1 level deep, I can open and copy. Say,
Code:
/media/cdrom0/hosts --> opens fine
/media/cdrom0/Recipes/ApplePieCrust.txt --> I/O error, opens 0 bytes [read only][READ ERRORS] (in gvim)
I inspected the problem on another file /media/cdrom0/Java/AbsoluteLayoutDemo.java using "mc," midnight commander. I see the file name in the directory, but K3B (God rest it's soul) has "truncated" the file name under Joliet extensions and so it reads 1959 bytes in size but is showing as 'Absolute~mo.java', and the screen is blank. When I try to open in gvim using the full path /media/cdrom0/Java/Absolute~mo.java, I end up opening a new file, and using TAB completion populates the original file name. The files exist (hopefully), but I get the same result on another system with another DVD/CDROM drive. The machine tries to read the file name (but cannot). So I tried to verify that the short name files should be fine, and I tried opening 'Alpha.java'. I get I/O read error again, whereas 'mc' is reporting 291 bytes and the file is the file Alpha.java. My theory is the file(s) start/offset table is not 'correcto mundo' due to their being truncated. How can I read and copy them and eventually restore them to their glory, or should I use the DVD as a coaster? Maybe it is time to do a little binary snooping with a hex editor. Maybe I could use the Disk Druid to copy them to the new partition and remount them as reiserFS? Luckily none of the files were compressed, tared, or zipped. Any suggestion will be most welcome. If my boss finds out, I am going to end up on the chopping block.
With warm wishes for a happy solution,
plumm
