How to access data on corrupted installation

Mi82 · 03-17-2016, 12:46 PM

So I have had some sort of corruption hit my HD running Debian Wheezy installation with whole disk encryption. What do I need to do to access the data from a LiveCD? I tried mounting the HD using a Debian-lxde LiveCD but it wouldn't mount after requesting the password. I still am able to boot the crippled HD, but it only allows a few operations before crashing the system (e2fsck comes back clean each time) and this does not leave enough time to copy much. How should I proceed?

aragorn2101 · 03-18-2016, 02:09 AM

Do you have some free space left on the HD? If yes, you could put a small distro in there and get access to your Debian on the other partition.

rknichols · 03-18-2016, 10:56 AM

The Debian-lxde LiveCD doesn't seem to include cryptstup, which is needed to unlock the encrypted volume. I suggest you download SystemRescueCD and use that to access your disk. Sample session with an encrypted Debian Wheezy install on /dev/sdb:

Code:

root@sysresccd /root % blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" 
/dev/loop1: UUID="df7879ce-c31c-418c-ade4-2b2a4135c735" TYPE="ext3" 
/dev/sda1: LABEL="resccd-bs" UUID="a7765963-1e30-4e37-94cd-3f4c1edb836d" TYPE="ext3" PARTUUID="90b22297-01" 
/dev/sdb1: UUID="2f6ad1e8-6683-40d7-bb47-70ad479a06a6" TYPE="ext2" PARTUUID="00028b2f-01" 
/dev/sdb5: UUID="606de3d1-bb0d-4d63-999b-ecb8158a9662" TYPE="crypto_LUKS" PARTUUID="00028b2f-05" 
/dev/sr0: UUID="2016-03-11-21-15-28-00" LABEL="sysresccd-4.5.2-mod" TYPE="iso9660" 
root@sysresccd /root % cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdb5 myStuff
Enter passphrase for /dev/sdb5: 
root@sysresccd /root % pvs
  PV                              VG       Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree
  /dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-myStuff debian-7 lvm2 a--  19.75g    0 
root@sysresccd /root % lvs      
  LV     VG       Attr       LSize   Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  root   debian-7 -wi-a-----  18.90g                                                    
  swap_1 debian-7 -wi-a----- 872.00m                                                    
root@sysresccd /root % mkdir /mnt/tmp
root@sysresccd /root % mount -r /dev/debian-7/root /mnt/tmp
root@sysresccd /root % ls /mnt/tmp
bin   etc         lib         media  proc  sbin     sys  var
boot  home        lib64       mnt    root  selinux  tmp  vmlinuz
dev   initrd.img  lost+found  opt    run   srv      usr
root@sysresccd /root %