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HDD corrupted, please assist
Hi all - so after working flawlessly for over a year, suddenly found my VPS was inaccessible. Contabo support were unable to assist me, saying it's my problem, as from their end they can see VNC is reponding, but pings and requests were timing out.
So I booted into one of Contabo's rescue images, attempted to mount the Windows partition, and was greeted with this "The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).
Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount.
Falling back to read-only mount because the NTFS partition is in an
unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully (no hibernation
or fast restarting.)"
After research, I was advised to run ntfsfix /dev/sda2 which I did, and it fixed the issue, or so I thought.
a day later it happened again, I ran the same process, and I once again was able to get access.
This time, I did a full on system check, and it found no violations - so thought the issue had been resolved.
This morning however I wake up, and see the system is completely stuffed - attempting to mount the NTFS with r/w causes the system to freeze, and I am thrown off my SSH session. I was advised to use chkntfs by paragon, but attempts to set this up have been in vein......
So currently sitting with unusable system, I can still access the files via read only so I suppose recovery will be possible, but that is a last resort, I want to restore access to this system if possible.
One avenue I am exploring is to boot the contabo VPS with a Windows ISO, and accessing the image via VNC. I know it was possible to install Windows with an ISO, but just not sure if it's possible to boot into an ISO once Windows has been installed.
If anyone can provide further info, it will be much appreciated.
Thanks
Comments
Yes it is possible to load the iso and run startup diagnostics / startup repair to see if that works or go to command prompt and see if the installation is accessible. For example this link shows as example of what to do if your install is Windows 10. Similar steps for 11 or Windows Server: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-startup-repair-fix-boot-problems-windows-10. Only difference is this assumes you can get to the windows install to reboot into safe mode. Once you have the VPS configured to boot from ISO (you may need the provider support in this) then the other steps should work.
can you boot a windows iso and open command prompt and hit it with a chkdsk /f C: - chkdsk is always the best at fixing corrupted data from what I've seen vs linux rescue disks
If it's not a hardware issue, you can simply reinstall the system, which would instantly return it to working order.
On the reinstallation page:
"All data on this VPS/VDS will be deleted!"
I didn't get a chance to back my data up...
If only I could boot the VPS into a ISO file without losing data, I could then do the chkdsk command
Okay but you did mention
You can just take an image of the system over SSH and then take whatever files you need, before erasing.
backup before running ANY command.
also: ntfsfix just tells your linux system "allow WRITING, not only READING on this partition", windows doesn't care about this at all.
Windows already has a separate partition with system restore utilities so i have no idea why you used linux
Running checkdisk, especially with the /f switch, is one of the worst ideas possible when trying to recover the data.
Tbh this sounds like a dying disk or stressing the disk too much with limited IOPS to the point it gets corrupted. ntfsfix is needed when NTFS becomes in a dirty state. I'd just back that thing up while you can and reinstall it to a clean state
Are you talk about dedicated server or about virtual server? Virtual server usually used virtual disks so i little confused about problem with "HDD corrupted" subject.
I'd second @lowenduser1 Chances are something is failing (and even if not it's better to safe than sorry - especially since you state that you don't have a backup), so quit trying to duct tape the problem and copy anything you value off that disk and store it somewhere safe. You could also just use
ddto safe a complete image of your drive (if you have somewhere to fit it) but as @lowenduser1 says stressing the disk to much might break the last straw, so probably best to just do the absolute minimum of accesses needed to backup your data. Once your data is safe you can do any kind of voodoo to get the disk back in a working state but before that randomly applying stuff is seriously mental.You should be backing up routinely but backing up the moment you had the issue resolved (even if it turned out to be only a temporary reprieve) would have been wise.
You should back up now, immediately, before you do anything else.
I agree with @totally_not_banned that I'd make this a two-pass approach. First, get off anything vital, then attempt to get everything off.
I managed to come right - I was lead here https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/11qezjd/correctly_checking_ntfs_partitions_dont_use/
and managed to get this app on rescue mode, and scanned the NTFS drive - it found a ton of system errors, that the built in NTFS checker failed to detect and and after it it corrected them, the system booted as normal, and it's now been 2 days of uptime, and no more system crashes - but am going to implement backups over the weekend..
My Contabo VPS also has similar issues this week. Couldn't access its own main storage for several hours. Not while booting and not from the rescue system. Generally it will resolve itself after a few hours, but sucks if you host anything important, which I wouldn't on Contabo.
BACKUP NOW!! At least the important data. You danced on the edge, we all thought you learned your lesson.... But you're right back with no clue about how close you are to the edge again. Backup. Now!