Well, I'm at a bit of a wall here. The SSD apparently shows up, but does not mount. Since it won't mount, I can't use rsync or gparted. Yet it will still begin to boot windows before it hits the corrupted AVG file making it hang.
So I know there has to be some way to get the files (including folders and filenames, etc.) back, but I don't know how. Does anyone know how to do this? Or how to delete AVG from the drive so I can try to boot?
If the file system is corrupted, then it will be very difficult to impossible to get those filenames back.
Can you post the full error code?
If you made it that far once, then use photorec to save your files to a safe partition and comb through them carefully. ( Ive recovered many drives like this, but there are other ways too, some more difficult to use without prior experience or knowledge of error codes prohibiting the OS from booting )
Very difficult without being able to mount the drive...
p.s rsync is only good if you mounted the SSD, rsync wont read the drive at block level like /dev/sda2
It would fail to load avgidsha.sys, reboot, and keep cycling like that. I followed the directions from AVG to fix it, but that didn't work.
Yeah, I used photorec to copy all the files over to the Raid6 in the server, and the few I tested seem perfect, but of course they don't have the file names so it's a mess. If I can't get the file structure back then I guess I'll start sorting, but I'd rather restore the names if possible.
Can you explain how I mount a drive, just to make sure it isn't user error?
What distro are you using? Is it a LiveOS or your running pc? There are 2 ways to go about this, The Terminal or through the DE ( Desktop Envirnoment: Gnome, Cinnamon, Unity etc )
p.s What online solution did you try to fix the windows partition?
I had the SSD plugged directly into my openmediavault machine. OMV is Debian, and I was going through the terminal since it only has a WebGUI.
I can't find the exact instructions now, but it was basically to use the AVG Rescue CD to rename the avgidsha.sys file to avgidsha.old.
what is the drive letter for the SSD?
/dev/sda2?
if so you can sudo mkdir /media/ssd then sudo mount /dev/sda2 /media/ssd
The drive is /dev/sda, but it has two partitions on it and /dev/sda/sda2 is the big one, so I assume I want to mount that partition and not the whole drive? And if that is true, then I would use the full path sudo mount /dev/sda/sda2 /media/ssd correct?
If by 'The Big One' you mean that is the SSD, then yes.
On a side note, Are you doing this with an LiveOS or did you attach the ssd to your desktop? The reason is, I find it weird that a drive you attached to a running system shouldn't have a derive letter like /dev/sda2 can you for sake of sanity and good practice type fdisk -l in the terminal and make sure the ssd is /dev/sda2 because fdisk -l will show you all the drives on your system
No, the SSD itself is /dev/sda, but it has two sub-directories (is that the right term?), /sda1 and /sda2. Based on the sizes for each directory I'm assuming /sda1 is the recovery partition, and /sda2 is the main Windows C: partition.
You do not mount a drive, you mount partitions on the drive to a mountpoint.
If we have /dev/sda we shall mount its partitions /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, and so on, to a directory within /mnt usually.
if you do lsblk and look at your drive, the largest NTFS partition should contain your root filesystem for windows. Then you just mount that.
mount /dev/sdxy /mnt/ssd
So the path to the partition is just /dev/sda2, not /dev/sda/sda2, just to be clear?
I used lsblk before, so that's why I was saying I know sda2 is the main partition.
Anyways, I'll have to try all this tomorrow, it's 1am for me.
Correct.
lsblk lists logical drives is a tree-style view to make it easier to read partitions.
There is usually 2 or 3 partitions on a windows system, the EFI, Recovery, and Root.
The root will be the largest of the 3, and the filesystem type will be NTFS or ReFS.
I work nights on the weekends but are free during the day. So if you have further issues I might be a day to get back to you; just FYI.
So I'm almost certain I did the mounting process correctly, but it returned a blur of errors.
Line after line of [ 763.********] end_request: critical target error, dev sda, sector ********* with the *'s being different numbers for each line. So I'm guessing this means it's not happy with the corrupt drive?
If the drive is corrupt to the point where the partition table is gone, then you cannot remount the drive.
sounds like photorec is the only option now...
Damn... That's both what I was afraid of and what I was expecting. I've already used photorec to get the files back, so now what? Would a data recovery company be able to do anything with this, or is my only option basically format the drive, sort all the files from photorec, and learn my lesson about backups?
Yeah they could get files off, but it won't restore the drive to working order.
Since you already got the files, throw that drive away and start fresh; with backups in mind.
I wouldn't recommend using that drive any further.
Basically only option
remember the Filesystem is broken...
@Jeremy1998 The files were recovered off of the disk because it was a direct access mode, which bypasses the filesystem entries and pulls the raw data straight off the disk.
The filesystem itself is what records the names of files and their placement on the disk.
Since the filesystem on the drive was corrupted, there is no possible way to recover the actual filenames as that is what is lost.
You are very fortunate that the files were able to be recovered.
Okay, I submitted an RMA with Corsair since I still have 3 months on the warranty. I'd Imagine this should be a reason for a return.