Just corrupted? live usb, ramdisk error on boot, files question [SOLVED]

[Member mrpieceofwork]

I smacked the ‘puter in frustration and the power got cut and I assume usb was being written to at that moment and now it boots to that error…

obv. I have to do it all over now, but is it possible to save the files off of it b4 I reformat the usb? I looked at what is on it through Windows and it looks like they are stored in one big file? Can I just save it to cloud then, uh… what? help lol thanks

• This topic was modified 4 months ago by mrpieceofwork.
• This topic was modified 4 months ago by BobC.

[Member iznit]

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now it boots to that error

Explain the exact error. Use phone or camera to screenshot the error screen if it is too much info to copy by hand. Also provide background context. Did the power outage happen during a live boot session? What is the format (((fat32?ext4?))) of the boot partition? Was persistence enabled? If yes, which form of persistence ((( home persistence, root persistence ))). What is the name of the “one big file” (((guessing rootfs))).

Even without hearing the full details, probably the first step should be to use another usb drive or hard drive to boot to a linux system then insert the “corrupted” usb drive and the perform use fsck command to check (((and potentially fix))) the filesystem on the usb drive.

[Member mrpieceofwork]

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I have no other usbs nor any way to make an image of the error. See below.

It’s a root persist I believe (no disk access with it afaik) FAT32 The big files are homefs and rootfs, home was modified around the time of the incident.

I was typing something into a comment field on YT… or trying to, to be exact… and it was lagging hard, so I smacked the side… this computer (an old 2006 laptop with a dead battery) has a very dodgy power connect, and it’s very easy to “unplug it”. Which I did with the smack, and IDK if it was being written to, maybe it may have been since I was playing a vid, also. Thing is, it’s lost power MANY times before with no issue, until now.

After I hit the usual boot command in the boot screen, it throws up a black screen with the RAMDISK error and an address range, then a list of a bunch of “panic” and “failure to sync” errors, about 20 or so

I checked it with a Windows utility and it found nothing, and that… no, this OS lol can see everything on it, doesn’t balk at accessing it.

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by mrpieceofwork.

[Moderator BobC]

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There are options on the boot screen to check the drive. I’m not real optimistic that they would even run, let alone fix the drive, though.

If you had another USB, you would have more options.

I think you probably need to start over unless you would lose a lot, in which case it would be worth buying another flashdrive.

[Member Xunzi_23]

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@ Mr*, you wrote I looked at what is on it through Windows and it looks like they are stored in one big file? Can I just save it to cloud then.

You can rescue what you can read with windoze, or another live stick, or any other system which can mount and read the drive.
Once you have rescued your important data you may try and fix the drive, do not do so before as (unlikely) it may become completely unreadable !.

Should that worry you, encrypt your data, but know in the case of accidents, or desasters you will probably not be able to or at least easily rescue
your information.

As BobC wrote a second USB drive is a really useful asset.

Better to Get the power connection fixed, it is usually a reasonably quick job. If the socket is partialy detached and you wait too long the mother board
can take damage, it is often multi layer so a repair will then be much more difficult. But not impossible in most cases.

You could also hot glue the plug in a connected position as an interim solution.
Dont use superglue, it can kill the connection as it creeps and fumes deposit elswhere.

For HotGlue just use a medium blob and hold the connection until cooled. Degrease surface before usage.

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by Xunzi_23.

[Member mrpieceofwork]

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I failed to mention that I did try to boot into Failsafe, and received the same exact error.

Anyway, I’ve pulled the homefs and rootfs off the usb and put them on a storage server, and will try to recover what I can later. Thanks. I suppose you can mark this resolved, I don’t seem to have the option.

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