XFS Data Recovery – How to Recover XFS File System with ‘Superblock Read Failed’

data-recoveryfilesystemsxfs

I have a disk from a Buffalo LinkStation that has an XFS partition on it that I cannot mount.

Plugging the disk into an SATA->USB caddy on an Ubuntu box. I get the following:

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1              63      594404      297171   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2          594405     1590434      498015   83  Linux
/dev/sdb4         1590435   976768064   487588815    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5         1590498     1863539      136521   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6         1863603   976494959   487315678+  83  Linux

The problem partition is /dev/sdb6.

$ sudo xfs_check /dev/sdb6
ERROR: The filesystem has valuable metadata changes in a log which needs to
be replayed.  Mount the filesystem to replay the log, and unmount it before
re-running xfs_check.  If you are unable to mount the filesystem, then use
the xfs_repair -L option to destroy the log and attempt a repair.
Note that destroying the log may cause corruption -- please attempt a mount
of the filesystem before doing this.

So trying the xfs_repair -L option gets me to the situation I can't get beyond:

$ sudo xfs_repair -L /dev/sdb6
Phase 1 - find and verify superblock...
superblock read failed, offset 382252089344, size 131072, ag 89, rval -1

fatal error -- Input/output error

Using photorec I have been able to pull some files off that partition, so the data is there and the disk is physically working. However, there is a problem with the superblocks.

How would I recover this partition?

Best Answer

After the XFS replay error, try to MOUNT the partition again, as per the error message.

If all gets too messy, I highly recommend downloading UFS Explorer to help with deep file recovery from another system.

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