Hello to all,
I have a server system which is configured with raid5 software (mdadm) . It is composed by 4 HDD SCSI each 37GB.
I have installed on it RedHat Linux 9, in the default configuration (so /boot a separate partition and the other ones with LVM)

My problem is that one of the partitions configured with raid 5 (Linux raid autodetect) i believe that it is on degraded or faulty state,

my system does boot up but it shows on the screen "Kernel panic , cannot find initrd"

I have very sensible data in there, and the problem is that I didn't make a backup. I want to just retrieve some of the data files there.

I managed to boot into the rescue mode with CD1 of RH9 and the commands which I tried to do:
# mdadm --examine --scan /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 > /etc/mdadm.conf
#mdadm -A -s
#cat /proc/mdstat --->>> it showed the raid array but only with three partitions exactly /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1

I have lvm so I entered:
#vgchange -a y vol0 (because volume group was not active)
#mount /dev/vol0/lv0 /mnt/lv0 -->> which I think is the / partition, and I couldn't copy my files (not all of them but the important ones),

it gave some I/O errors in copying (transfering with scp in another server).

so I gave:
#fsck /dev/vol0/lv0 and responded with Y (yes) to all of the questions (a huge number of inode problems)

and now again I can't copy my files.... :-(

My question is how can I recover my files, is there another way?

Your help would be very appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Please post your thread in only one forum. Posting a single thread in the most relevant forum will make it easier for members to help you and will keep the discussion in one place. This thread is being closed because it is a duplicate.