U4 Disk Errors

[Pat]

Last night my U4 got stuck in a loop of disk error messages and reboot. It would go to a black screen with white text saying something and to send some log file to support, but then would auto reboot.

I powered off, left it, then powered on. It came back up, but when I went to my recordings it was blank. None of the time shift functions would work either. Powered off and back on again, this time the recordings were there but I could not play any of them. Time shift still didn't work.

I tried to run a check disk, but it didn't even start. It gave some error code, I did a search at the time but didn't find any results under Beyonwiz, only Linux error codes. (Sorry, should have taken better notes.)

Today I pulled the HDD out and plugged it into my Windows system via USB, installed Ext2Fst and successfully mounted the drive. I could see all my recordings and I could play them. Disk management was saying healthy partition, but I don't know how to run a check disk on an Ext2 partition from Windows.

I also noticed that there was a new firmware available, I was previously running the one from 17th of April 2018 (I think). So I downloaded the new firmware, put the drive back into the PVR, and loaded the new firmware by USB.

When it first booted up I was able to see all my recordings and even play them. But then a minute later I started getting time shift warnings "117 structure needs cleaning".

So I tried running check disk again, this time it started but then within minutes said "U4: Unexpected Inconsistency; run fsck manually. (i.e., without -a or -p options)".

I didn't know how to do that, so just rebooted. This time when it came up all my recordings were gone again.

I tried check disk again, but just gave the same error.

How can I run fsck manually? Or is there anything else I can try to recover the disk without losing all the recordings?

Thanks.

[Pat]

Ok, so I worked out how to Telnet in and played around until I got this:

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root@beyonwizu4:/sbin# parted /dev/sda 'print'

Model: ATA ST1000LM048-2E71 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name     Flags
 1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  ext4         primary

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root@beyonwizu4:/sbin# fsck.ext4 /dev/sda

e2fsck 1.44.3 (10-July-2018)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext4: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext4: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
 or
    e2fsck -b 32768 <device>

Found a gpt partition table in /dev/sda

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root@beyonwizu4:/sbin# mke2fs -n /dev/sda

mke2fs 1.44.3 (10-July-2018)
Found a gpt partition table in /dev/sda
Proceed anyway? (y,N) y
Creating filesystem with 244190646 4k blocks and 61054976 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 71b9155a-d9a0-48f6-8cc4-52c4cf39379d
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
        102400000, 214990848

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root@beyonwizu4:/sbin# e2fsck -b 32768 /dev/sda

e2fsck 1.44.3 (10-July-2018)
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
 or
    e2fsck -b 32768 <device>

Found a gpt partition table in /dev/sda

I went through every single superblock backup block number, but got the same error every time.

Any suggestions what to do next?

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Any suggestions what to do next?

You need to check the partition - /dev/sda1, see this post here from prl.
Read a bit further on from that post for my experience.
If you want to get an idea of the issues first, run it with the '-n' option ('Make no changes to the filesystem').

[Pat]

Thanks Geoff.

prl mentioned you should be using /dev/sda1 not /dev/sda. That seems to have been my issue too. The 'parted' command told me it was /dev/sda, so I didn't know I needed the 1 on the end.

It did a bunch of fixes.

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root@beyonwizu4:~# fsck.ext4 /dev/sda1

e2fsck 1.44.3 (10-July-2018)
U4 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inode 13826 extent tree (at level 1) could be shorter.  Fix<y>? yes
Pass 1E: Optimizing extent trees
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Unattached inode 287288
Connect to /lost+found<y>? yes
Inode 287288 ref count is 2, should be 1.  Fix<y>? yes
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences:  -(99840--100351) -(129024--130559) -(141312--143359)
-(208896--209919) -(404080--407551) -(690176--692223) -(747520--749567) -(751616
--753663) -(820240--820246) -(915456--917503) -(997376--999423) -(1042432--10444
79) -196116937 -196116974 -196184064 -(196184581--196184591)
Fix<y>? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #5985 (28959, counted=28961).
Fix<y>? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #5987 (3956, counted=3968).
Fix<y>? yes
Free blocks count wrong (46081129, counted=46081143).
Fix<y>? yes
Inode bitmap differences:  -287272 -287286
Fix<y>? yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #5984 (0, counted=1).
Fix<y>? yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #5985 (34, counted=35).
Fix ('a' enables 'yes' to all) <y>? yes to all
Free inodes count wrong (355975, counted=355977).
Fix? yes


U4: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
U4: 1767/357744 files (18.5% non-contiguous), 198109065/244190208 blocks

Did a reboot, and IT WORKS!!! All recordings are still there and time shift is functional.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Money on the fridge

[prl]

prl mentioned you should be using /dev/sda1 not /dev/sda. That seems to have been my issue too. The 'parted' command told me it was /dev/sda, so I didn't know I needed the 1 on the end.

parted is a device partitioning program. You give it the name of the whole device, and it creates or tells you about the partitions on the device.

The device name is in the form (for hard drives and things that behave like hard drives) /dev/sdX, and the partition name is in the form /dev/sdXN.

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root@beyonwizu4:/sbin# parted /dev/sda 'print'

Model: ATA ST1000LM048-2E71 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name     Flags
 1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  ext4         primary       <<<< The Number, "1" here, is added to /dev/sda to give the partition name: /dev/sda1

Partitions are the U*ix name for what are called volumes in Windows and Mac OS.

[Pat]

Thanks for the explanation Peter. I was kinda fumbling my way through it. It makes sense in retrospect.

[prl]

No problem. Unixoid boxes have a very different view of disks, partitions and file systems from Windows.