starting sector number, 4532393984 exceeds the msdos-partition-table-imposed maximum

[GreyGeek]

I'm sure, but that wasn't my point, I'm a reader, I can burn through books(insomnia helps) but 22,000 ebooks?

That's reading only one book a day for 60 years!

Actually, I'm not surprised.

In my Documents subdirectory are folders that contain over 12,000 documents of various types. 3-5K of them are emails and documents of the CRU, obtained from the 2009 & 2011 FOIA zip files on global warming. I have read every one of them. I can scan them easily for words or phrases in just a few seconds and rapidly scan the result set for cogent information. I don't really have to read the entire document, even though I used to be able to read at up to 1,500 words per minute for content and a page at a time when scanning. Now, probably half that fast. I can still easily start and finish a 300-400 page book in a single day.

During the 40 years before I retired I averaged reading 1-2 technical books a week, with every 10th one or so being a scifi book. I did that to maintain proficiency in the five areas I have degrees or major hours in. I quite that schedule between 2000 and 2008, but don't remember exactly when. I still read 1 or 2 technical or scifi books a month. I also read dozens of short pdf every year, mostly related to Linux and computing. For six month, 2.5 years ago, I read and stored everything thing I could find on Btrfs, and that amounted to dozens of pdf's and html pages. For the last week I've been reading storing pdf's about IPFS and ZeroNet in anticipation of setting up a node.

Just before I retired in 2008 I hauled hundreds of paper bound books from my technical library out onto the driveway with a "Free" sign taped on the stack, which was about 8-10' long, 3' wide and 3-4'' tall. All of them were gone before 5:30PM. I kept a couple dozen or so of the better technical books: Gray's Anatomy, CRC Handbook on Chemistry and Physics 57th edition (won in my freshman chem class for top grade), Starting Forth, Sky and Sextant, Euclid's Elements & The Bones, Chemical Cycles and the Global Environment, my research papers and thesis, and a couple dozen books on Linux. They are on the bookshelf above my computer station. Down stairs, in my garage, is a book case about 20 feet long with five shelves full of books left over from the big give-away 10 years ago.

So, yes, 22,000 or more ebooks is not out of the question, especially with the power of a computer to help you search through them.

[SpecialEd]

I believe him. Photorec is THAT good. I've used it.

I'm sure, but that wasn't my point, I'm a reader, I can burn through books(insomnia helps) but 22,000 ebooks?

[GreyGeek]

22,000... seriously?

I believe him. Photorec is THAT good. I've used it.

[SpecialEd]

... recovering well over 22,000 ebooks for me, ...

22,000... seriously?

[GreyGeek]

I believe you'll come to regret putting Btrfs onto such a small partition. It's like jamming a GE90 Turbofan onto a Cessna Skyhawk frame. A 1Tb Btrfs partition would have been better. I'm assuming you made the Btfs partition as "/".

You won't be able to snapshot anything on the EXT4 partition so you will be forced to use old paradigms to back up or restore any data you have on it.

[rwbehne1]

Success at last! I now have a small albeit working system installed and running, and it's running better than it was on the USB drive. Thanks everyone, ESPECIALLY OSHUNLUVR AND GREYGEEK! You guys were very helpful, teaching me new ideas. I couldn't have solved these many problems without you guys! Thank you so much! Now I want to figure out how to create those subvolumes you were talking about. I'll figure it out.

[rwbehne1]

Ok, no advice so far, so here's a question:

I get this far into the installer, but wonder, how do I tell it to install exclusively to sda2, and to leave sda3 alone?



I cannot set the flag on sda2 to have it format that drive. I click, but nothing happens, the checkbox remains empty. I'm worried that if I continue beyond this point the installer will trash sda3.

NEVERMIND, I found it. It's sure different from other installers!

[rwbehne1]

I guess we aren't understanding each other, and clearly we aren't communicating.

I thought you said you moved the calibre folder from your old home and you old home was untouched since this began. I suggested you undelete it in that partition using extundelete. You choose to attempt to run "undelete" which does not exist, and then you tried "ntfsundelete". Was there a discussion about an ntfs partition that I missed?

Yes, I agree, the miscommunication has been multi-directional.

Yes, I did say a couple days ago that the old home was untouched since this began, but then after I said that time didn't stop. It was then suggested to use either photorec or dd to recover the files, and photorec did work, recovering well over 22,000 ebooks for me, but I'll have to sort and bulk rename them, When I was told to use photorec I wasn't told to continue not touching /home, and since I needed a place to put the recovered files I put them there.

Had I been told to NOT use photorec or dd to recover, but to "undelete" the filesfrom sda3, AND had I been told how to do so, AND had I been told before using photorec, I then would have done so. But nobody told me two days ago, and yesterday I got no responses, so figuring that photorec files from sda4 to /home was what was expected, therefore I did so. (I don't like sitting idle, I need to get things done.) So I go in which direction I am pointed. I was pointed in one direction, then after having gone there, you're now telling me two days later to go here instead.

The files have been recovered as well as I can expect. With that I am done. I have copied everything from the recovered partition to

/media/root/_home/_usr_local/, and deleted all no longer needed partitions. Here's where I am now:

Device Start End Sectors SizeType
/dev/sda1 34 2047 2014 1007K BIOS boot
/dev/sda2 2048 209922047 209920000 100.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3 209922048 4075401215 3865479168 1.8T Linux filesystem

I am satisfied with this (as I have to be now,) and next want to install a basic system in sda2. Since discussing anything besides this impending install would, at this point, equate to beating a dead horse, I wish instead to take a moment to collect my thoughts, and wait for any good advice from you on proceeding with this install from this point onward. Then I will do the install, so I can boot from the hard drive instead of from the USB drive.

[oshunluvr]

I guess we aren't understanding each other, and clearly we aren't communicating.

I thought you said you moved the calibre folder from your old home and you old home was untouched since this began. I suggested you undelete it in that partition using extundelete. You choose to attempt to run "undelete" which does not exist, and then you tried "ntfsundelete". Was there a discussion about an ntfs partition that I missed?

[rwbehne1]

I don't understand why you won't take the easiest route. Undelete the calibre folder in your old home folder - or at least try it.

Well gee, that might have worked if nothing ever got written to that partition. sda4 still hasn't been touched except to run photorec on it, so it's likely still there and intact. The problem is that something mysteriously changed its fs from ext4 to btrfs, so maybe something else can change it right back. I'm getting a migrain headache reading the different suggestions I'm getting, and trying to figure out how to do what, when I've never had to do any of this before. I really wish someone could help me change the btrfs back to ext4.

I also don't understand why nobody told me what was the easy route on sda3 two days ago instead of directing my attention to using photorec or dd on sda4.

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=monospace]root@kubuntu:~# [B]undelete[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[FONT=monospace]undelete: command not found[/FONT]
[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]root@kubuntu:~# [B]apropos undelete[/B][/COLOR]
ntfsundelete (8)     - recover a deleted file from an NTFS volume.
root@kubuntu:~#
[/FONT]

[oshunluvr]

I don't understand why you won't take the easiest route. Undelete the calibre folder in your old home folder - or at least try it.

[rwbehne1]

I'm monitoring the progress of photorec in Dolphin. So far, looking into /media/root/_home/lost+found/recup_dir.22/ has proved that my Calibre directory really is in sda4, unfortunately it's recovering everything piecemeal - just fractions of books. A real mess. I'm wondering if dd could do any better.

[rwbehne1]

Assuming you didn't write anything to the old /home partition, the calibre folder and it's contents are likely still intact there. extundelete should be able to restore the original folder.

As far as the new sda4, try running sudo parted -l and see what it lists as the file system. To attempt mounting it as ext4, try sudo mount /dev/sda4 -t ext4 /mnt/somewhere

* As I indicated, the old /home is ok. No need for any more work there - for now.

* As to the old /usr/local, which used to be where sda4 now is, and which we have recovered,
BUT of which I had previously moved to where sda5 is and renamed to "tail", mysteriously has been labeled as btrfs when it was and still should be ext4,
AND of which still contains my Calibre directory with the entire database of my ebook collection, testdisk reports:

TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB - CHS 364801 255 63

The harddisk (3000 GB / 2794 GiB) seems too small! (< 3275 GB / 3050 GiB)
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...

The following partitions can't be recovered:
    Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>  MS Data               4532524928 5860663167 1328138240 [tail]
  MS Data               5069264768 6397403007 1328138240 [tail]

So apparently the only possible way to recover my Calibre directory from there is by using photorec. Or dd. Unless there's another method.

PLEASE: I don't want to hear another word about off-line backups from ANYBODY - unless it's to hear that someone has bought me a brand new WD 3T drive and is shipping it overnight to me. THAT will solve many problems at once. I simply cannot do what I do not have the resources to do. I have to work with what I have got, and my too-small external drive is one of SIX, of which FIVE are useless (input/output error) and this one remaining is FLAKEY. I formatted it to btrfs, but when I tried to copy files to it, it took an hour to copy what should have taken three minutes. It keeps stalling.

So I need to try to recover the Calibre directory from sda4, period. That has to be done before screwing with anything else.
Then, I want to install a small system, exclusively to sda2, without damaging anything else!

So, without any more diversions to other topics, Please everyone, one thing at a time, focus! At this moment the priority is recovering the Calibre directory, until the new drive from GrayGeek (or whoever insists on me first doing a backup) arrives here.

So now I have to learn how to use photorec.

Ok, I am running photorec now. Since the only space large enough is on sda3 I am putting the recovered files there, in the Lost & Found directory (apropos, I think.)

[GreyGeek]

....

The primary thing when something goes wrong with accidental deletes or partition table troubles is to stop using the disk immediately. IF you do that, your chances of at least a partial recovery are very good.

The first example I mentioned was about a Xerox Unix imaging system that created 50Kb (IIRC) images of documents citizens gave to state employees (tax returns, etc...). The clerks kept getting errors on the system and rather than reporting them the supervisor, who knew nothing about computers, just told them to reboot. They did that for awhile (days? weeks?) until the system refused to boot. Since I was the "Unix" (Linux) expert I was given the HD to attempt to recover the files. I plugged it into my SuSE 6.3 PostgreSQL server and used dd to create a 1Gb image on my server's 2Gb drive. (BIG disks in those days ) I let the program run over night. Time stamps indicated it took about 10 hours to do the scan.

[oshunluvr]

Assuming you didn't write anything to the old /home partition, the calibre folder and it's contents are likely still intact there. extundelete should be able to restore the original folder.

As far as the new sda4, try running sudo parted -l and see what it lists as the file system. To attempt mounting it as ext4, try sudo mount /dev/sda4 -t ext4 /mnt/somewhere

Also, sudo file -sL /dev/sda4 may reveal some info...