problem restoring Linux partition in dual-boot setup
I was able to backup and validate an image of a Linux partition, but when I try to restore it the target partition is greyed out in the target partition choice list. I created the backup image and validated the image while running ATI in Windows, and also tried to do the restore in Windows as well. Didn't try using the boot disk yet, since the image and validation progressed fine while in Windows, I figured the restore would too. Is this something that has to be restored using the boot disk, or is there some other issue going on? The partition has not been resized since capturing the image, and the partition type is LVM.
Also, Disk Director shows the partition as being 100% full, even though it is only 35-40% full. Is DD only able to read Windows partitions?
Hi Mark,
Its a new Fedora 12 installation so I'm not too worried about getting this to work at all, but have a few questions you might be able to answer.
I first let the Linux installer disk create its own partitions from unallocated space. It created a boot partition and a swap partition, I think it used ext3 or ext4 for the boot partition. DD claimed that partition was corrupt, even though it booted and appeared to work normally. Also, TI was not able to image that partition, claiming it was corrupt.
Tried Ubuntu 9.10 and 9.04 and the same thing keeps happening, at least one partition shows up as corrupt in DD, but it boots and runs normally. The first 3 tries I believe the partition type was always ext3 or 4, when starting from unallocated space.
So I used DD to start over and created an ext3 partition along with a swap partition. Then pointed the Fedora installer disk at those two existing partitions and did another install. Now DD claims the swap partition is corrupt, but the boot partition seems OK other than the fact that it appears 100% full to DD (but that's due to the non-support for LVM I assume). Fedora boots and runs OK from it and says its 39% full. Also appears that the installation changed the partition type from ext3 to LVM, not sure why it would do that, I seem to recall seeing ext3 type in the Fedora disk menu during the install process but I'm not 100% sure. Definitely was ext3 when I created it in DD.
Any clues as to
1. why I keep seeing corrupt partitions even though the installations appear to be OK? (didn't checksum the iso files yet, but even if they are bad, disk corruption usually indicates a problem with the disk media itself, right?)
2. why an existing ext3 partition would be changed to LVM by the installer?
3. why if Acronis doesn't support LVM partitions it was able to image and verify? It would seem reasonable that when I did the imaging it would have greyed out that partition to let me know it wasn't supported, but that wasn't the case.
I'm going to create a new NTFS partition in that space and chkdsk it just to make sure there isn't an actual disk problem in those sectors that's just now showing up. It was in an area at the far end of a partition that was never more than 50% full.
Doug:
1. Disk Director does not support ext4 nor does it support ext3 with 256-byte inodes. Most of the newer Linux distributions are using the larger inode size and/or ext4 now. DD will not recognize the file system so it will report it as "corrupt". When viewing the graphic image of the partition you will see a little red "C" on the graphic.
2. Was the partition changed to LVM or is TI/DD just reporting this incorrectly?
3. I suspect that you don't have LVM partitions but do have ext4, which TI does not yet support. TI will allow you to create an image of an unsupported file system but the image will be created in sector by sector mode. You may also have run into an issue that appears occasionally on the forum where TI thinks the destination partition is too small to contain the restored image, even though it isn't (this may be because of a size calculation error when the file system is not recognized).
Your best bet at the moment (until Acronis supports the newer file systems) is to use Disk Director to create your partitions. Format them as ext3 and they will be created with the older 128-byte inode size. Then point the Fedora installer to the partitions but do not allow the installer to format the partitions; just tell it to mount them.
If you do this you should then be able to fully utilize Disk Director and True Image with your Linux partitions because both programs support ext3 with 128-byte inodes. Fedora will be happy although you won't be using the latest and greatest format (I'm not sure what the advantages of ext4 are, but it's an update to ext3 so there have to be some advantages).
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Doug:
1. Disk Director does not support ext4 nor does it support ext3 with 256-byte inodes. Most of the newer Linux distributions are using the larger inode size and/or ext4 now. DD will not recognize the file system so it will report it as "corrupt". When viewing the graphic image of the partition you will see a little red "C" on the graphic.
Bingo, as usual you are exactly correct. Did not know about the two different flavors of ext3, so that explains it. Tried it again with DD-created ext3 partition, disabled the LVM conversion, but let the Fedora installer reformat ext3 because it defaults to that mode, and got the corruption again. When I tried once again without the Fedora ext3 reformat the corruption is gone.
2. Was the partition changed to LVM or is TI/DD just reporting this incorrectly?
This was another default of the installer in the mode I selected, it did in fact change it to LVM, and DD reported it correctly. Turned this option off for the last couple of installs. I'm guessing DD can't really read the partition, but knows the hex code for that partition type so it can correctly report on what it is.
3. I suspect that you don't have LVM partitions but do have ext4, which TI does not yet support. TI will allow you to create an image of an unsupported file system but the image will be created in sector by sector mode. You may also have run into an issue that appears occasionally on the forum where TI thinks the destination partition is too small to contain the restored image, even though it isn't (this may be because of a size calculation error when the file system is not recognized).
I was aware of the lack of support for ext4, so I purposely avoided that format all along, so that wasn't the problem. I tried to stay in ext3, but didn't know about the 256-bit vs. 128-bit inode. I also didn't notice the LVM conversion in one of the installations until after the installation was finished. Now that I've done it a few times I'm getting familiar with all the options at install time, I was using a lot of defaults before because I didn't really know what I wanted.
So with my first corrupt ext3 installation I had to do sector by sector backup because the corrupt partition was the main partition that I wanted to back up. In the next installation the main partition wasn't corrupt, but the swap partition was. That's the one that imaged and verified without incident, but it just wouldn't restore. I'm still of the opinion that if Acronis doesn't support a particular partition type they shouldn't let you image it at all, its confusing to the user and leads to a false sense of backup coverage. Since I imaged and verified the LVM partition all seemed well, fortunately I did a trial restore and found it wouldn't support that operation at all. If I had waited until I actually needed to do a restore to find that out I'd have been hosed at that point.
Your best bet at the moment (until Acronis supports the newer file systems) is to use Disk Director to create your partitions. Format them as ext3 and they will be created with the older 128-byte inode size. Then point the Fedora installer to the partitions but do not allow the installer to format the partitions; just tell it to mount them.
did that, and the corruption problem is gone, thanks for the suggestion. Now the restore process works as it should.
If you do this you should then be able to fully utilize Disk Director and True Image with your Linux partitions because both programs support ext3 with 128-byte inodes. Fedora will be happy although you won't be using the latest and greatest format (I'm not sure what the advantages of ext4 are, but it's an update to ext3 so there have to be some advantages).