OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Storage => Topic started by: Moises08 on May 31, 2018, 11:07:32 pm

Title: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on May 31, 2018, 11:07:32 pm
Hello, i am an os/2 newbie. Installed ecs 2.1 at the begining of the week. And i have run into some serious trouble.
I use an HPFS 5gb partition. My machine is thinkpad x41 upgraded to 2gb ram.
I needed to have a wifi connection, but i couldnt put in the hpfs partition any file - windows doesnt see it, ecs wont read Fat32 flash drives (why? It should be by default, afaik) and ecs dont recognize any ntfs partition (question is the same - why? I have  ntfs installed, and it even is in installed ecs's drivers list).
So i tried to install pinball.sys on windows xp from some abandoned 1998 site.
Result is - xp sees the existence of ecs partition, but cannot access it without reformating, AND!
I have a 15 gb ntfs or fat32 partition (i dont remember which fs though). It is totally disappeared in windows file explorer, file system is unknown, cant change drive letter to use it in windows. But it is not formated - there ARE 5 gb data on it, as partition utilities say.
Help me please! I need this partition!

Ps. Found this thread, but first, i dont want to delete partition and second - ecs did never recognise it, let alone use it.
www.os2world.com/oldforum/index.php?topic=4834.0
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Pete on June 01, 2018, 12:05:44 am
Hi

If I understand correctly you have a 15Gb ntfs or fat32 partition that cannot be seen since installing an old version of pinball.sys.

Have you tried uninstalling pinball.sys?

If that does not help I suggest you look into using DFSee - http://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/index.php - to see if you can recover the partition. If you can figure out how to use DFSee to do the job it is free - but you may find you need to Register and ask for Jans help.


With regard to eCS - and other OS/2 based systems - accessing fat32 usb drives you do need the correct drivers installed and configured. Also any drive larger than 2GB is treated as a large floppy and is inaccessible unless LVM information is added to the drive - something else DFSee can do without trashing existing data.

You may find USBcfg useful for checking and reconfiguring your current USB setup
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/USBcfg082.wpi - Warpin package
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/USBcfg082.zip - Zip package with install.cmd option


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on June 01, 2018, 12:11:50 am
i've managed to delete the pinball.sys driver - nothing changed.
Reinstalled the whole windows now - you know what? - It still sees Windows drive C, an HPFS partition as unrecognized RAW filesystem and not my semiformated 23gb - sorry, misspelled at the beginning, not 15gb - partition.
How can one this explain? I have wiped Win XP partition and installed new windows on it, so no spoiled pinball.sys data should ever be.
Tried DFsee to change letter, it gives me "access denied" error. Hmmmm
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: guzzi on June 01, 2018, 01:07:27 am
eCS does not recognize NTFS partitions unless an NTFS IFS has been installed. The IFS is read-only. USB sticks have to be partitioned to be usable. Easiest is with DFSEE. If your fat32 drive is no longer accessible it is might be because windows xp changed something. Best to ask the DFSEE author for help, but have to register DFSEE for that. Or post the results of dfsdisk.cmd here.
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: David Graser on June 01, 2018, 01:20:48 am
Hello, i am an os/2 newbie. Installed ecs 2.1 at the begining of the week. And i have run into some serious trouble.
I use an HPFS 5gb partition. My machine is thinkpad x41 upgraded to 2gb ram.
I needed to have a wifi connection, but i couldnt put in the hpfs partition any file - windows doesnt see it, ecs wont read Fat32 flash drives (why? It should be by default, afaik) and ecs dont recognize any ntfs partition (question is the same - why? I have  ntfs installed, and it even is in installed ecs's drivers list).
So i tried to install pinball.sys on windows xp from some abandoned 1998 site.
Result is - xp sees the existence of ecs partition, but cannot access it without reformating, AND!
I have a 15 gb ntfs or fat32 partition (i dont remember which fs though). It is totally disappeared in windows file explorer, file system is unknown, cant change drive letter to use it in windows. But it is not formated - there ARE 5 gb data on it, as partition utilities say.
Help me please! I need this partition!

Ps. Found this thread, but first, i dont want to delete partition and second - ecs did never recognise it, let alone use it.
www.os2world.com/oldforum/index.php?topic=4834.0

Did you run chkdsk.exe in windows on the unrecognized drive(s)?  If the drive is dirty, it won't allow you to see it.
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on June 01, 2018, 06:10:14 pm
I recall if you use pinball.sys and the code pages do not match, the HPFS drive is munged. Do I remember that correctly?
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on June 01, 2018, 10:44:53 pm
Ok, will chkdsk fix my partition without wiping?
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on June 02, 2018, 12:59:55 am
I ran mountvol in windows just to be able to use chkdsk, and there is no unmounted volume mentioned!
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Dave Yeo on June 02, 2018, 01:25:49 am
I recall if you use pinball.sys and the code pages do not match, the HPFS drive is munged. Do I remember that correctly?

I munged my HPFS partitions with it. Seems that you really don't want to use it with partitions over 4.3 GBs or so. In my case I recovered my HPFS partitions by doing a quick format and then a chkdsk /F:3.

@Jaroslav, there are Linux based rescue disks that might help you, perhaps some Googling will help.
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on June 08, 2018, 02:06:37 am
Why in file manager of ecs the only drive available is npfs drive, and NTFS are not there, while ntfs driver IS installed, for sure?
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Pete on June 08, 2018, 02:39:39 am
Hi

Have you used lvm to create the volume for the ntfs drive?

I am not sure if you should really be trying to use the ntfs.ifs driver - long time since I last tried it but I seem to recall it does not work very well and could muck up the ntfs drive.


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: xynixme on June 08, 2018, 10:04:28 am
Quote
my semiformated 23gb partition.
When you start DFSee, without doing anything, what's the (logged) output of DFSee's automatically executed map and fdisk commands?
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on June 15, 2018, 10:33:52 am
The problem with lost partition was solved by unhiding it in windows DISKPART with a command
set id=7 override

How can i fix ntfs disks not appearing in os/2? Is the ecs 2.1 ntfs driver faulty?
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on June 15, 2018, 10:42:48 am
And guess what? I rebooted the windows, and partition is hidden again! Should i copy all the data and wipe partition , or is there any more simple way?
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: ivan on June 15, 2018, 07:58:58 pm
May I make a suggestion. First make a backup of all the data you don't want to lose (remember if you don't have at least two copies of the data you don't have a backup).

Now, am I correct in assuming you want to be able to run both windows and OS/2 (eCS or ArcaOS) on your Thinkpad.  As you have found it is not easy and does require preparation (the eCS NTFS FS is not ready for prime time use as far as I can see).

First thing you are going to need at least three partitions on the hard disk. first a NTFS partition for windows, second an HPFS partition for OS/2 and third a Fat 32 partition to enable data transfer between the two operating systems, all of these are standard partitions for the operating systems.

On the two computers I have with this setup (an Acer Aspire 9300 notebook and an ASRock AM1H-ITX based desktop, both using AMD processors) I used DFSee to do the disk partitioning then installed win 7 first which took the first primary partition, then installed ArcaOS on the last logical partition (there are 5 logical JFS partitions on the desktop machine as well as the HPFS boot partition).  The 16 GB Fat 32 partition is at the end of the drive.

This setup has worked for the last 12 years on the Aspire without any problems and is working well on the Mini ITX and should work better when we get USB3.1 drivers.

I don't know if any of the above will help you but it might give you some ideas on how to solve your problem ( note my experience is only with AMD processors - no Intel here).
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Fahrvenugen on June 15, 2018, 11:13:52 pm
I agree that the last time I tried the NTFS driver in OS/2 it did not work very well and is read-only.  I would not recommend it.

As suggested the best-case situation is to make your common data partition a FAT32 partition.  Then you can see it from both OS/2 and Windows.  It works but you do have to jump through a few hoops to make it work.

The other option - if the system is going to be used in a home environment (not a mobile environment) is to put your data drive on a network drive, build something like a NAS.  There are a few benefits to this:

1. If Windows, OS/2, or any other OS you might run (Linux, BSD, etc) can see your NAS then you can likely access your files.
2. If you have more then one computer at your location, you can access your files from any computer
3. If a end-user computer happens to crash or die - due to either hardware or software failure - your files should still be safe if your NAS is still safe
4. It is easy to backup a NAS - either build another NAS as a backup for your files, or use any of the "cloud-based" backup options and have the NAS automagically backup/sync your files to a server somewhere on the internet
5. If you want to test another OS, you can safely wipe your computer without having to worry about your files - they're on another system after all.

I know for many people running a network share at their home would be overkill, but depending on the situation sometimes it is a better option then storing files on a local PC.
Title: Re: Help! I don't want losing my data.
Post by: Moises08 on June 20, 2018, 11:35:12 pm
I have got my files copied to a usb drive, and managed to completly wipe the drive and install both os'es again. Strangly enough, now windows recognize ntfs drives, and even OS/2 recognizes windows ntfs drives! Hurah!
My advice - NEVER EVER experiment with old, untested on the current os driver' stuff.