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Old 05-27-2008, 01:55 AM   #1
spamwax
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Registered: May 2008
Posts: 4

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Mounting a raw dump (using dd) of a removable media


Hi everyone

I am trying to recover some data from Jaz drives.
I am starting with the Jaz disks that are not bad and can be mounted. After the mount I can easily use 'mkisofs' to create a .ISO image of the disk and mount it on any other linux box using:
Code:
>> mount -o loop -t iso9660 jaz.iso /mnt
Using the same Jaz disk, I want to try and do the same thing but this time use 'dd' command instead.

Try 1: (after unmounting the Jaz drive)
Code:
>> dd if=/dev/jaz of=jaz.img bs=2048 conv=notrunc
>> mount -o loop -t msdos jaz.img /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so
Try 2:
Code:
>> dd if=/dev/jaz of=jaz.img bs=1 conv=notrunc
>> mount -o loop -t msdos jaz.img /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so
>> mount -o loop -t vfat jaz.img /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so
When I check 'jaz.img' file using 'file' command, I get:
Code:
jaz.img: x86 boot sector; partition 4: ID=0x6, active, starthead 1, startsector 32, 2090976 sectors, code offset 0x2e
Obviously I am doing something wrong. My guess is that I need to change the size of the blocks that 'dd' uses to read my device.
I am sure that my Jaz disk is formatted using msdos because this is the output of the 'mount' command on the machine that Jaz drive is connected to: (It's Octane machine running Irix 6.5)

Code:
/dev/rdsk/dks1d4vol on /jaz type dos (rw,partition=4,nosuid)
The reason I do not want to use the straightforward 'mkisofs' command is that some of my Jaz disks are not mountable due to I/O error and I was hoping that 'dd' might help me to recover the data!

Any input is really appreciated.
thanks in advance,
spam.wax
 
Old 05-27-2008, 04:21 AM   #2
jschiwal
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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Fargo, ND
Distribution: SuSE AMD64
Posts: 15,733

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I don't understand why you want to create CD images. You can create a fileimage of a different filesystem.
Look at the jaz.img file with the "/sbin/fdisk -ul jaz.img" command. If the filesystem has partitions, then you need to add an offset to the losetup command to be able to mount it.

Here is an example where I just used dd to copy the first 2 partitions from a disk:
Code:
fdisk -ul sdi.img
You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.

Disk sdi.img: 0 MB, 0 bytes
216 heads, 32 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa4cd3ef1

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
sdi.img1              32      241919      120944   83  Linux
sdi.img2          241920     2204927      981504   83  Linux
sdi.img3         2204928     7831295     2813184   83  Linux
hpmedia:~ # losetup -s -f sdi.img -o $((32*512))
/dev/loop4
hpmedia:~ # losetup -s -f sdi.img -o $((241920*512))
/dev/loop5
hpmedia:~ # file -s /dev/loop4
/dev/loop4: Linux rev 1.0 ext3 filesystem data (needs journal recovery)
hpmedia:~ # file -s /dev/loop5
/dev/loop5: Linux rev 1.0 ext3 filesystem data (needs journal recovery) (large files)
I used the -u option to fdisk to get the offsets listed in 512 byte blocks. This seems to work better for me.

If you know the offset, you can do this from the mount command. The losetup command is used by the mount command. Example:
mount -t ext3 sdi.img sdi -o loop,offset=$((512*32))

Last edited by jschiwal; 05-27-2008 at 04:35 AM.
 
Old 05-27-2008, 10:00 AM   #3
spamwax
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Registered: May 2008
Posts: 4

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by jschiwal View Post
I don't understand why you want to create CD images. You can create a fileimage of a different filesystem.
Look at the jaz.img file with the "/sbin/fdisk -ul jaz.img" command.
Thanks for your reply.
I really don't care if it's CD image or not. As long as I can mount the dd dump, I will be extremely happy.

Following what you showed helped me mount the raw image and I can see its content
Although doing:
Code:
file -s /dev/loop1
only gives me:
Code:
$ file -s /dev/loop1
/dev/loop1: writable, no read permission
Now I need to try the Jaz disks that can not be mounted cleanly and using dd gives me I/O errors.

Thanks again.
 
Old 05-27-2008, 07:49 PM   #4
jschiwal
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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Fargo, ND
Distribution: SuSE AMD64
Posts: 15,733

Rep: Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682
http://users.rcn.com/hsd/HOWTO/Jaz-HOWTO-4.html#ss4.1

Here is a link to a Jaz Disk HOWTO for Linux. Iomega provided disks use the fat32 filesystem. The data is contained on partition 4 for Mac compatibility. So if your system detects the drive, you can simply try mounting the forth partition on the device, e.g. "sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb4 /mnt/jaz -o uid=<yourusername>,gid=<your-default-group>,fmask=117,dmask=007".
These options are just an example. So creating an image may not be necessary. However the important part is to use partition 4 and the vfat filesystem when mounting them. If partition 4 shows up in the devices, e.g. /dev/sdb4, you can use "file" and verify the filesystem.

You may have a problem if you used an offset for a different partition. If you created an image of a entire Jaz disk, then use fdisk to print out what the offset to the 4th partition is and use that in your losetup command.
The file command should mention the filesystem.

If you have a disk that has damage, you might look into ddrescue or dd_rescue. They are similar but won't quit if there is a read error. If you have two disks, and one is a copy but both have errors (maybe they are 20 years old), you can use these programs to read what they can from the good parts of one disk and reread from the second disk, overlaying the good information from the second disk to try to fill in the gaps from errors reading the first disk.
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue

The ddrescue and dd_rescue are distinct programs. They both do something similar , and have very similar names.

---

Another thing to try, in the case where the damage is to the partition table, is to use the offset information from a good disk (for partition 4); use losetup to setup a loop device at that offset and see if you can mount that loop device. Look at the offsets given for the good disks. I'll bet they are identical.

---

There were different sizes of Jaz disks and a Jaz disk preformatted by Iomega may have had been repartitioned and reformatted differently. Be careful of course. when in doubt, mount the device read-only. If you won't be writing to any of the disks, you can set up the loop devices read-only as well. Also remember the loop and offset options for mount if you are working on an image, or a disk with a bad partition table.

Last edited by jschiwal; 05-27-2008 at 08:05 PM.
 
Old 05-27-2008, 08:39 PM   #5
spamwax
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Registered: May 2008
Posts: 4

Original Poster
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I am sincerely grateful for the time you have taken to provide me with these information... wow!

Quote:
Originally Posted by jschiwal View Post
http://users.rcn.com/hsd/HOWTO/Jaz-HOWTO-4.html#ss4.1
Here is a link to a Jaz Disk HOWTO for Linux. Iomega provided disks use the fat32 filesystem. The data is contained on partition 4 for Mac compatibility. So if your system detects the drive, you can simply try mounting the forth partition on the device, e.g. "sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb4 /mnt/jaz -o uid=<yourusername>,gid=<your-default-group>,fmask=117,dmask=007".
The problem is these Jaz disks, formatted under fat16, have been used in a drive connected to an IRIX machine.
IRIX can detect some of them and mount them but some of them don't seem to have any partition information.
Although, I think some of it can be my fault because I didn't know about the partition 4 issue and I have created the images using only the 4th partition as the argument for dd:
Code:
dd if=/dev/rdsk/dks1d4vol ...
So basically I don't have 1 real 1:1 image of the jaz disk.
(Just curious about what's the reason behind using partition 4 under Mac )

I am waiting to receive a SCSI-to-USB interface so I can hook these to my Linux box and see if that makes any difference.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jschiwal View Post
If you created an image of a entire Jaz disk, then use fdisk to print out what the offset to the 4th partition is and use that in your losetup command.The file command should mention the filesystem.
Unfortunately it seems I've lost the partition info on the bad disks. This is what I get checking them:
Code:
$ sudo fdisk -ul jaz-7.img 
Disk jaz-7.img: 0 MB, 0 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk jaz-7.img doesn't contain a valid partition table
Though for a mountable jaz disk I get this:
Code:
$ sudo fdisk -ul okjaz.img 
You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.
Disk okjaz.img: 0 MB, 0 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc4f9014e
    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
okjaz.img4   *          32     2091007     1045488    6  FAT16
I will definitely give ddrescue and dd_rescue a try as soon as I hook my drive to a Linux box, as it seems they are not available for IRIX.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jschiwal View Post
Another thing to try, in the case where the damage is to the partition table, is to use the offset information from a good disk (for partition 4); use losetup to setup a loop device at that offset and see if you can mount that loop device. Look at the offsets given for the good disks. I'll bet they are identical.
Very good tip, I will try this tomorrow

Quote:
Originally Posted by jschiwal View Post
Also remember the loop and offset options for mount if you are working on an image, or a disk with a bad partition table.
Can you please explain why I need to use loop and offset options if I am working on a jaz disk (not image) with a bad partition ?

One last question: Do I need to be concerned about byte orders (big-endian, little-endian) when using dd command ? Will it affect the partition info ?
thanks again
spamwax
 
Old 05-27-2008, 09:50 PM   #6
jschiwal
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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Fargo, ND
Distribution: SuSE AMD64
Posts: 15,733

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Quote:
dd if=/dev/rdsk/dks1d4vol ...
I went on Google for the "dks" manpage:
Code:
Parallel SCSI and FC-AL

          /dev/rdsk/dkscontroller#ddrive#{spartition#|vh|vol}
          /dev/rdsk/dkscontroller#ddrive#llun#{spartition#|vh|vol}
          /dev/dsk/dkscontroller#ddrive#{spartition#|vol}
          /dev/dsk/dkscontroller#ddrive#llun#{spartition#|vol}
So you have controller# = 1; ddrive# = d4
I think that the 4 in dks1d4vol has nothing to do with the partition on the disk. I think that they are both 4 may be a coincidence. If it had been /dev/rdsk/dks1d4s4, then I think that would be a device for the 4th partition. Do you know what the "vol" signifies? {spartition#|vh|vol}.

Code:
/dev/rdsk/dks1d4vol on /jaz type dos (rw,partition=4,nosuid)
The partition to mount was in your mount option (partition=4). Linux doesn't have this kind of option. It looks like using the rdsk device, the raw drive device is used. Someone using Irix may chime in if this is the wrong info.

---
Quote:
Unfortunately it seems I've lost the partition info on the bad disks. This is what I get checking them:
Code:

$ sudo fdisk -ul jaz-7.img
Disk jaz-7.img: 0 MB, 0 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk jaz-7.img doesn't contain a valid partition table

Though for a mountable jaz disk I get this:
Code:

$ sudo fdisk -ul okjaz.img
You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.
Disk okjaz.img: 0 MB, 0 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc4f9014e
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
okjaz.img4 * 32 2091007 1045488 6 FAT16
It seems to me that okjaz.img was repartitioned and formatted so that it contains a single partition. Although there is a 4 in the device name (okjaz.img4). This may mean that the first three partition entries in the MBR are blank and the 4th entry is used. Maybe this is what gives Mac compatibility.

On one of the images such as jaz-7.img try creating the loop device with same offset as a good disk:
sudo /sbin/losetup -s -f jaz-7.img -o 16384
/dev/loop1
Then examine this device with the "file" command.
sudo file -s /dev/loop1

If that doesn't work, try to determine if the good disks were pre-formatted or reformatted. If someone hasn't reformatted them, then my best guess is that they are simply bad or there was a problem when you copied them. See of you can mount them on the Irix system. If not, I'm guessing that they simply are bad. Maybe it's time to look at ddrescue or dd_rescue in that case. Use these programs on the device for the disks and not on the image files.

Good Luck!
 
Old 05-28-2008, 02:53 PM   #7
spamwax
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Registered: May 2008
Posts: 4

Original Poster
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I just got my scsi-to-usb1.1 adapter and hooked up the drive to a Ubuntu box (It was recognized as sdb)
I inserted a cartrdige that neither Irix nor Vista could mount. This is the output of fdisk:
Code:
$ sudo fdisk -ul /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb (SGI disk label): 33 heads, 62 sectors, 1022 cylinders
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 bytes

----- partitions -----
Pt#    Device  Info     Start       End   Sectors  Id  System
 8: /dev/sdb1            3072   2091007   2087936   a  SGI xfs
 9: /dev/sdb2               0      3071      3072   0  SGI volhdr
11: /dev/sdb3               0   2091007   2091008   6  SGI volume
----- Bootinfo -----
Bootfile: /unix
----- Directory Entries -----
 0: sgilabel   sector    3 size     512
So it seems that the someone has re-formatted the Jaz cartridge from the preformatted vfat to SGI.
Next, I tried to make loop devices and mount them, with no success
Code:
$ sudo losetup -s -f /dev/sdb -o $((3072*512))
/dev/loop0

$ sudo file -s /dev/loop0
/dev/loop0: data

$ sudo mount -t xfs /dev/loop0  /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so
I did try another loop device but this time with no offset and it gave me the same error.

Based on what I found, partition 9 is where Irix would look for kernel and partition 11 is the whole volume of the disk.
Also It seems that my partition table is messed up. For example this is what other users had reported:
Code:
---- partitions -----
   Device  Info      Start       End   Sectors  Id  System
/dev/sdb1  boot         5      3424   1846576   a  SGI xfs
/dev/sdb2  swap      3425      3804    205408   3  SGI raw
/dev/sdb9               0         4      2620   0  SGI volhdr
/dev/sdb11              0      3804   2054604   6  SGI volume
----- bootinfo -----
Bootfile: /unix
----- directory entries -----
 0: sgilabel   sector    2 size     512
 1: sash       sector    4 size  140800
 2: ide        sector  558 size  977920
As you can see, I don't have any directory entries but doing a hexdump reveals the file/folder names I am expecting to see on the Jaz drive.
I can only guess that either the partition table is messed up or xfs on SGI/IRIX partitions the media differently than xfs on Linux expects it ?!!!
 
  


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