Ext3 problem - lost files/directorys

[Stephen C. Tweedie]

Hi,

On Wed, 2004-03-03 at 22:24, bill root wrote:

> e2fsck 1.34 (25-Jul-2003)
> Group descriptors look bad... trying backup blocks...
> Superblock has a bad ext3 journal (inode 8).
> Root inode is not a directory.  Clear<y>? 

Bad news --- looks like the start of the inode table has been stomped
on.

> When i re-create then filesystem (with  -S) and e2fsck i have all files in
> lost+found (all with <number>, not one file with his real name)
> 
> So some questions : 
> - There are no way to recover with filename ?

No, if the directories are lost then there is no way to recover
filenames.

> - Where are stored files name / directory's name ?

In the parent directory.  There is absolutely no record of the filename
in the file itself --- there can't be, because when you have hard links,
it is possible to have many names for the same inode.

> - why, where i try another superblocks i got same results ?

Because the superblocks don't hold any directory information, they just
contain the overall description of the filesystem such as how large it
is, the block size etc.

> And last question, there are not backup of journal stored like superblocks?
> I mean backup stored on harddrive ?

The journal is a dynamic data structure being updated all the time; the
data in it is only valid for a very short time.  Having a long term
backup of the journal contents just doesn't have any value.  (Backing up
the journal metadata --- where the journal is --- would make sense,
though.)

But ultimately, everything in the journal eventually makes it back to
disk, so losing the journal shouldn't be a complete disaster for the fs
(that's why fsck could still work after nuking the journal and
converting to ext2.)

Cheers,
 Stephen