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rescue tools

Started by Garmin, 2009.05.10, 21:28:23

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Garmin

I've been using OS/2 since 1992.   I currently run Warp 4.52 FP15 on an AMD machine with 2 GB RAM. 

A BKAC error caused 1.9 MB of my 40 GB JFS partition to be overwritten.  I have Jrescuer, but can't install it because now the machine won't boot at all because CHKDSK hangs.  (I've left it O/N and it's still doing the ...|... thing.)  I've tried booting to CD, but that also hangs saying it can't read disk or diskette.  I then put in the Install disk 0 with the CD.  Then it hung complaining that it couldn't find a:\country.sys.

I'd like to edit CONFIG.SYS to rem out the CHKDSK line, but I'm stuck as to how to do that.  I could boot to FreeDOS, but I'd need a text editor that could read/write to HPFS.  I've ordered DFSee, but it would really help to get this resolved ASAP.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to play with the computer (that's why I have OS/2- reliability).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Garmit


mobybrick

I would suspec the harddisks integrity.

See if the HDD vendor has a SMART tool or surface scan utility.

Or, attach the disk to another (working) eCS installation or machine, and use the smartmon tool (Hobbes) to check for SMART errors.

Regards,
Moby

ivan

Garmin, I think you may have more than disk problems if you can't boot to a command line from the boot CD.

Reading your post again
QuoteI currently run Warp 4.52 FP15 on an AMD machine with 2 GB RAM.
as far as I know the highest FP for MCP/ACP is 05 or the 06 beta, so the question arises 'what do you have there?'

If you have the CP2 boot CD you should be able to get to a command prompt and use TEDIT to edit the CONFIG.SYS on your boot drive, assuming it isn't the JFS one. 
One thing to note re Jrescuer - if it isn't registered it won't work - I found that out a few weeks ago.  I ended up restoring from backup as the only way to solve the problem.

Garmin

#3
Ivan,

You're probably right about the FP.  I pulled that from (my) memory.  Frankly, I haven't had to do anything to this machine for over 6 years, so I only know it was 4.52+. 

I did register my jrescuer, but of course still have not had an opportunity to try it because I can't boot the machine.  Booting works if I use Linux or DFSee CD's and I can see that the HPFS partitions (eCS & Warp 4.52+) are OK.  However, the JFS has that overwritten spot... Hmmm, I wrote down the sectors, but can't find that scrap of paper now.

I'd also forgotten that I also had an eCS 1.2 partition on this machine.  It hangs during an Alt-F1 + F2 boot at the "Loading I20SOSM.ADD" stage.  I'm not sure if this is useful information, because I don't remember if this ever booted.  I only use the Warp partition(s).

(Boot blob) Alt-F1 + F2 at bootup doesn't work for Warp, because it still tries to chkdsk the JFS.

Thanks for your patience.  Family & job have taken away the time I spent fiddling with computers, so I don't remember much.

Garmin

ivan

Garmin,

Since you can boot the machine from a CD then use one that allows you to edit the CONFIG.SYS of the boot drive and remove the autocheck statement in the IFS=JFS.IFS line.  That should allow you to boot and use Jrescuer.

Since you have Warp 4.52 you should have the 2 CDs - boot cd and install cd - the boot cd will allow you to boot to a command window from which you can run tedit to edit the config.sys on the boot drive.  Only remove the autocheck statement from the ifs line or you won't be able to use Jrescuer - no ifs no see partition.


abwillis

Quote from: ivan on 2009.05.17, 16:56:24
Garmin,

Since you can boot the machine from a CD then use one that allows you to edit the CONFIG.SYS of the boot drive and remove the autocheck statement in the IFS=JFS.IFS line.  That should allow you to boot and use Jrescuer.

Since you have Warp 4.52 you should have the 2 CDs - boot cd and install cd - the boot cd will allow you to boot to a command window from which you can run tedit to edit the config.sys on the boot drive.  Only remove the autocheck statement from the ifs line or you won't be able to use Jrescuer - no ifs no see partition.
In case of an emergency you can also recover data from a JFS volume even if you don't have JFS.IFS loaded (the file system driver).
http://en.ecomstation.ru/projects/jrescuer/?action=desc

ivan

QuoteIn case of an emergency you can also recover data from a JFS volume even if you don't have JFS.IFS loaded (the file system driver).

I assume that only works with the registered version because it DID NOT work for me when I had a JFS volume go bad.  I booted from a bootable CD - without JFS IFS in the config.sys - and loaded Jrescuer from a floppy, it did not see the JFS volume but as always ymmv.

Garmin


Editing the config.sys file was exactly the thought I had as well.  Unfortunately, I >cannot< boot from the OS/2 CDs (only Linux or DOS).  If they can write to an HPFS partition, I don't know how to do it.

I got out some old OS/2 boot floppies from 2001.  The boot process made it through the first 2 disks, then crashed on the third at which point the screen displayed a message stating OS/2 couldn't operate my HDD or diskette drives while the machine emitted a continual beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

I have a registered Jrescuer, but no way to use it until I can get to a command prompt.

Garmin

ivan

I thought that might be the case but it needed checking first.  I have long since given up the normal floppy or CD boot and replaced it with several custom built boot CDs that use memdisk in the same way that bootable http://www.xs4all.nl/~hrbaan/  does and not the floppy emulation of the ACP boot CD.  A text only interface boot iso with several useful tools is about 20MB.  If you can give me more information about your system I should be able to build you one that will allow you to edit the config.sys on your HPFS partition.  My ISP has facilities to allow me to upload large files for distribution to others should your e-mail not like that size attachments. If you want me to do that let me know (ivanjt (at) free.fr)

RobertM

Try downloading and booting from the eCS Demo CD. From there you can edit the config.sys file on the computer or make other changes (such as replacing drivers, etc).

Best,
Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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Garmin

Quote from: Garmin on 2009.05.17, 23:27:14

I >cannot< boot from the OS/2 CDs

Garmin
That includes eCS CDs. 
Nevertheless, with this group's help- especially Ivan, I now can boot to the HPFS partition on the HDD.  I was able to install & run the registered version of Jrescuer.  It failed with inode errors.  The developers of Jrescuer at ecomstation.ru responded quickly to my first request for help, but since that also failed with a different inode error, they have been silent.

Sooooo... I am about to the point where I reformat the partition and start over.  Any last-minute suggestions before I do this?

Thanks again to all for the previous suggestions.

Garmit

jep

Hi,

Download DFSee and use i right away.

It allow you to recover the files from a JFS partition.

It helped me to extract +260 000 files from a partition that chkdsk couldn't handle. JUne couldn't handle it either, but DFSee munched on it for a while and didn't complain a bit. (Lost 94 small files though, but those where toasted anyway due to other circumstances)

If you have "diskinfo" use it to check the SMART (Self Monitoring And Reliability... or whatever it stand for ) first, to see that the drive report itself as ok.


//Jan-Erik

Garmin

Thanks, jep.  I even have DFsee and had used it to verify that the disk was still OK, but could not figure out how to use it to extract the files.  Unfortunately, I saw your post after the re-format.  (Arrgh!)

And why not reformat?  I had a trusty backup that was only a few days older than the day this problem started.  Now I find that the backup is also corrupted.  The CD is only readable by RSJ, no other computers or software (that I know of).  Furthermore, the two most important zip files I cannot extract due to a cyclic redundancy error.

Is there a way to get around this?  Is there a way to attempt extraction of a single file within a Zip archive in OS/2?  I know how to do this in Windoze with tools like WinRar, but since I am limited to OS/2 for this recovery, I'm stuck. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Garmit

The Blue Warper

Quote from: Garmin on 2009.06.21, 19:56:34
I know how to do this in Windoze with tools like WinRar, but since I am limited to OS/2 for this recovery, I'm stuck. 

You can run WinRAR in OS/2 with ODIN.

RobertM

Another option is to install something like eZip, and use that to extract single files from RAR or ZIP files (it runs pretty much just like the WPS folder classes or Windows' built in Zip Viewer folders).

Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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