Use latest xfs_repair on older file systems

[Eric Sandeen]

On 4/8/16 3:37 PM, Chris M Moser wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a file system that experienced issues and would not mount. The
> system would not boot either as this file system was listed in
> /etc/fstab. I booted to a debian image with xfsprogs 3.2.1 and ran
> xfs_repair
> 
> The host OS now boots and the file system mounts but has only a
> handful of the original files. I unmounted and ran xfs_repair 2.9.4
> form the host OS a few more times. (I read somewhere that running
> xfs_repair multiple times can find more files) I still see the same
> handful of files.
> 
> A previous thread
> (http://oss.sgi.com/archives/xfs/2014-06/msg00204.html) suggests
> running the latest xfs_repair as it may be able to reattach more
> files.
> 
> I booted to a fedora 23 live image and updated xfsprogs to 4.5.0.
> (openSUSE Tumbleweed has xfsprogs 4.5.0 but I was not able to get
> their live image working) When running xfs_repair on the file system
> it complains: xfs_repair: V1 inodes unsupported. Please try an older
> xfsporgs.
> 
> Is it reasonable to assume that xfs_repair has done all it can and I
> should now use photorec from the testdisk package to recover what I
> can?

Yes, unfortunately.

In general, using the latest xfs_repair is a good idea.  And in general,
a single pass of xfs_repair should be enough.

In some cases, there are features which only newer xfs_repair understands - 
but older versions should simply refuse to run in that case.

Obsolete features do occasionally get dropped upstream, as well - witness
your V1 inode message.  However, that was likely just some other form of
corruption, seen as V1 inodes, unless this really was a very, very old
filesystem (created prior to 2007), which seems unlikely.

It sounds like you experienced some very severe corruption; if that is the
case, you might start by making sure your storage devices are in decent
shape.

Oh, and look in lost+found, if most files seem to be "gone" - they may
be there.

-Eric

> Thank you for your feedback.
> 
> -Chris
> 
> -- 
> Christopher M Moser
> 
> Seagate Technology LLC
> Cluster Lab Administrator
> NRM Bldg A/A1-3
> chris.m.moser at seagate.com <mailto:chris.m.moser at seagate.com>
> 952-402-8269
> 
> 
> 
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