FSCK - A guide for idiots please.

[konkon]

I am very sorry if these are dumb questions, but I have spent a weekend and 3 nights of sheer frustration on this, I just want my media back.

I have gone from and old FreeNAS 7 something (due to a hardware failure) to FreeNAS 8.04,

Only 4 of my 8 HDD's imported, manually via the GUI "Import Volume" as they did not show up in auto-import.

The other 4 show up in the "Import Volume" drop down box, but will not import, I get the error "The selected disks were not verified for this import rules." So I am assuming this is the issue from the guide - NOTE: FreeNAS™ will not import a dirty volume. If your existing volume does not show in the drop-down menu, you will need to access the console in order to fsck the volume.

All disks are single UFS drives (Not RAID)

I have searched for this and read a lot but it seems all answers are aimed at people who understand line commands. So can someone please post an idiots guide on what I need to do.

For example one drive is called ada5p1 (according to the GUI) what exactly do I need to do please, verbatim.

Step 1 - Open Console - I assume this is on the NAS server itself using option "9) Shell"

Step 2 - HELP!

Thanks in advance, I am sure there are others with a similar issue form time to time. Wow FreeNAS 8 has far too many options, and sharing OMG that's over complicated, bit . If you need more information please ask.

 

[louisk]

Typically, you do something like:
fsck /dev/ada5p1
It may want lots of confirmation of things, some people do:
fsck -y /dev/ada5p1
This will answer yes to any question asked. You may want to be careful with this.

Repeat for all disks and then you should be able to go back to the gui and import them.

 

[konkon]

Thank you, unfortunately it came back pretty quickly with the message "Could not determine filesystem type" for all the drives. I have a feeling that's not a good message.

So possibly my next question might be, is there a UFS file recovery program? Hopefully Windows based.

 

[konkon]

All is maybe not lost. I tried the same command on a drive that was working OK and got the same message "Could not determine filesystem type", so that's good I guess as there may still be hope for my drives.

FYI I ran the command fsck /dev/ada5p1 (without the Y option)

I assume I am in the correct place as the prompt is only a % sign, is that correct?

Once again thanks.

 

[louisk]

Hmm.

Try running: gpart show /dev/ada5
paste the output. You may be dealing with a corrupt partition table.

 

[konkon]

Thanks I'll give it a go. Silly question, how do I copy the screen dump to a (txt?) file? If its not too long I could type it in or take a photo.

 

[konkon]

OK, Not much to type at all.

Firstly there are a couple of oddities. Using the gpart show /dev/ada* command, the results for disk sizes do not match those shown in the GUI - Storage - View Disks - Name. For example According to the GUI my disk ada2p1 is a 1.8TB yet in the console using part show /dev/ada2 is a GPT 932G neither of these fields are editable so I didn't screw that up. Is it possible the console ada numbers differ from the GUI ada numbers?

Anyway, the results. All drives, bar 1 have come up as - ada* GPT ("size") and only one came up as corrupt.

I may have a solution. I found a windows app called "UFS explorer" http://www.uf***plorer.com/ it seems legit as there is a lot of documentation and a comprehensive guide on the site. It's not cheap at 40Euro (about US$55) so if anyone else knows an alternative please let me know. The trial version can read all my drives no problem. So my option is to buy more drives and start afresh and copy the stuff back to the server.

But given thus far I can't even get a single share CFIS to work as I can't even see the freeNAS server on my network yet, if I go this path I'll ditch FreeNAS as the new version 8 is just so complicated for sharing lots of drives, the old 0.7 was soo easy it rocked. Just way too slow on network speeds. Please developers make it simple again - while I appreciate all the additional settings suit the experts the mass market wants plug and play simplicity.

 

[konkon]

Just to clarify the web GUI does work, so the network is working. I just can't find the freeNAS server from any of my Windows machines using explorer or the network map in Windows 7.

 

[ProtoSD]

Anyway, the results. All drives, bar 1 have come up as - ada* GPT ("size") and only one came up as corrupt.

It would be more helpful for us if you posted the output from gpart show. I'm not implying you don't understand it, but sometimes details get missed or interpretations are incorrect.

You could try "gpart recover adaXX" where you need to change XX to the device of the disk that was corrupt. That should repair the partition table.

Also, an important detail that Louis forgot to mention is that you should rarely if ever run fsck on a mounted partition. I'm sure he didn't mention it because you are having trouble mounting your disks, but just for future reference.

I've heard of UFS Explorer, but don't have any personal experience with it. It does seem reputable and it never hurts to have something like that around for times like this or some accident down the road.

 

[konkon]

Hi, I haven't given up. I'm just so angry with it all, I need a break or I''ll end up throwing my machine out of the window. I had pulled out all the non reading drives with the plan to go back to having an Win XP system but then realized it does not spin down drives like FreeNAS - the only reason I use freeNAS. Even typing this I am feeling angry, the FreeNAS love affair is on the rocks.

Is there anyone in Auckland NZ who would be keen to help me please. Please PM me, I can bring my machine to you. Bourbon, Scotch or Beer for time? I just need help to mount my dman drives - of find out what is wrong with them. And get sharing to work, another major hassle with FreeNAS 8.

 

[gpsguy]

For your sharing issue, read protosd's tutorial: http://protosd.blogspot.com/2011/12/general-permissions-sharing-folders.html After following it, I have 3 shares viewable from XP, Win7, and Server 2003.

 

[konkon]

Thanks GPSGuy , I hadn't enabled CIFS sharing. There are so many settings in FreeNAS 8 it's crazy.

 

[Kokken31]

Hi,

I know this is very late to reply on this post, but i never saw a solution to the problem.

I have almost the same error.
I have gone from FreeNas 0.7 to the 8.2 version. 4 Pcs of harddisk which is UFS formatted... all worked fine in the earlier version, but now i can only import 3 of the hardisks. It States "The selected disks were not verified for this import rules"

I have tryed installing 0.7 again and i can import all disks again. OK!!

So i tryed again with version 8.2 and got the same mistake.

To make it Quick now. I did as written above... fsck /dev/ada1p1 ---- Could not determine filesystem type

So i tryed gpart show /dev/ada1 and it gave me alot of possibilities.

Please help i got 1Tb of pics and docs

\\Kokken31

 

[JaimieV]

Kokken, why not boot up in 0.7 again, and copy the 1Tb off to somewhere else? Then copy them back after re-initialising the disk. It'll take longer, but it's safest.

Also, this means you have no backups of the things on your NAS. This is a bad situation to be in.

 

[cyberjock]

I agree with JaimieV... or try NAS4Free. NAS4Free is technically the successor to FreeNAS before version 8.0. NAS4Free might be able to import your disks with no problems. You'd have to check out NAS4Free though because I have never used it.

You should have backups. Especially if it's important data.

 

[Kokken31]

Ok thanks

This was my last option.
Version 7 was great but playing movies over the network has proven to be a lot faster in my case anyway.

But thanks for the answers.

Cheers

 

[konkon]

I gave up in the end, FreeNAS has just got too hard to set up. I've gone to NAS4Free, it is awesome and a lot like FreeNAS 0.7 I strongly recommend the change. FreeNAS has become too featured, so you need an IT degree if you have any issues. NAS4Free seems to have stuck with keep it sweet and simple. I just want stuff to work, not have to spend hours on it, I wasted 40+hrs of my life. The Forum support for FreeNAS is still much better though.