[comp.sys.apollo] Give me back my floppy files, please.

GELINASJ@CMR001.BITNET (05/03/90)

      Yes, i have lost two math exams on an APOLLO floppy
drive conected to a DN3500 runing SR10.1. The bits must
still be there, though! Could someone kindly and with
all the details, explain how i can get the tex files back?
Note that i deleted the "lost$found" file since i could
not see what it was used for.
      Nobody dares to use the floppies here anymore.
We have an old AT connected to a sio port, and use KERMIT...

 ---------------------------------------------START OF LOG
% mtvol f floppy
Volume needs salvaging.  OK to mount? y

% ls -l floppy
floppy/103a2.tex not found                      <== HEY! WHAT!
floppy/103f2.tex not found                      <== HEY! WHAT!
total 27
-rwx------   1 gelinas      2549 Sep 25 12:00 103a1.tex
-rwx------   1 gelinas      2631 Sep 25 12:00 103f1.tex
-rwx------   1 gelinas      2101 Oct 23 09:07 113a2.tex
-rwx------   1 gelinas      2164 Oct 23 09:07 113f2.tex
-rwx------   1 gelinas      3557 Oct 22 21:46 461f1.tex
drwxrwxrwx+  1 root         1024 Dec 31  1969 sys
-rwxrwxrwx+  1 root        10240 Dec 31  1969 sysboot

% ls -s floppy
floppy/103a2.tex not found
floppy/103f2.tex not found
total 27
   3 103a1.tex     3 113a2.tex     4 461f1.tex    10 sysboot
   3 103f1.tex     3 113f2.tex     1 sys

% ls floppy
103a1.tex       103f1.tex       113a2.tex       461f1.tex       sysboot
103a2.tex       103f2.tex       113f2.tex       sys

% ls -i floppy
1570713089 103a1.tex    1724328517 103f2.tex    1715242190 461f1.tex
1724329562 103a2.tex    1715243987 113a2.tex    1545123302 sys
1570715667 103f1.tex    1715244726 113f2.tex    1545122787 sysboot
% dmtvol f floppy
% salvol -c f -v
Salvol, revision 10.1, October 26, 1988  12:33:12 pm
    Preparing file list...
    Salvaging...  % complete 20 40 60 80 100
    Verifying reference counts...
<---   Salvage complete on logical volume: 1 --->
Summary:
1188 free blocks, previous free count: 1188, total blocks: 1220
11 objects were found using a total of 21 blocks, avg len is: 1 blocks
5 directories; 0 links; 2 catalogued objects not found
Salvage complete (ly useless...)
 ---------------------------------------------END OF LOG

dente@els.uucp (Colin Dente) (05/03/90)

In article <900503.01112832.003105@CMR.CP6> GELINASJ@CMR001.BITNET writes:
>
[That he has lost some files on a floppy]

>Note that i deleted the "lost$found" file since i could
>not see what it was used for.

Not entirely a wise move...;-(

> ---------------------------------------------START OF LOG
>% mtvol f floppy
>Volume needs salvaging.  OK to mount? y
                                      ^^^
Here it is - numero uno big mistake.  NEVER mount something that needs
salvaging.  I dunno where it says it in the SR10 docs, but at SR9, on 
page 9-1 of 'DOMAIN System Utilities' - formerly Appendix 9 of the Domain
System Command Reference Manual:
	...Although you can proceed after AEGIS's "Disk needs salvaging"
	message, we strongly encourage you to take the time to salvage
	the logical volume.
	...If you mount the volume without running SALVOL, AEGIS
	incorrectly assumes that the block allocation information is
	correct.  Extensive damage may occur to files that would otherwise
	be intact.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Remember - when you mount a floppy on an Apollo it is part of a *real*
file system - not a mickey mouse one like MSDOS (yuk! spit! blergh!) so
you should treat it with a bit of respect - like remembering to dismount
it before you take it out of the drive...

Anyway - this is all rather shutting the stable door after the horse has
bolted - so lets get to them real problem...

>[SALVOL output]
>Summary:
>1188 free blocks, previous free count: 1188, total blocks: 1220

The fact that Salvol still thinks that the stuff is there means that maybe 
all is not lost.  I'd try sticking the disk in the drive, and doing something
like:
	dd if=/dev/rfl0a of=foobar

I know that this is capable of reading a good disk - but I've never tried it
on one that is, so to speak, fubar.  If it works, you'll get a file full of
rubbish, with your text hiding somewhere in it - an hour with emacs might
see things recovered.

Alternatively, knowing the i-numbers for the files might enable you to do
sexy things with rwvol, or fixvol, but it's beyond me to advise you on that - 
I only resorted to fixvol once in a moment of extreme despair with a dodgy
winchester - it worked, but I didn't have a clue what I was doing ;-)

>Salvage complete (ly useless...)
A little unfair, perhaps - I've never said this before, but you really
would have done well to have RTFMed first (I don't mean this nastily - 
just read it in a stern, fatherly voice, with just a hint of a frown ;-))


Colin
 Colin Dente                      | JANET: dente@uk.ac.man.ee.els
 Dept. of Electrical Engineering  | ARPA:  dente@els.ee.man.ac.uk 
 University of Manchester         | UUCP:  ...!mcvax!ukc!man.ee.els!dente 
 England                          | These might work now, but then again...