[SunHELP] Problem with External scsi Drive / Can no longer boot

[velociraptor]

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 17:47:28 -0500, Barry Skidmore
<skidmore at worldvenue.org> wrote:
> Yes, I was in the process of trying that when I received your message.
> Here is where I am:
> 
> ok boot cdrom -s
> # fsck -F ufs /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0
> BAD SUPER BLOCK: FRAGS PER BLOCK OR FRAG SIZE WRONG
> USE AN ALTERNATE SUPER-BLOCK TO SUPPLY NEEDED INFORMATION;
> eg. fsck [-F ufs] -o b=# [special ...]
> where # is the alternate super block.  SEE fsck_ufs(1M).
> 
> I looked at that man page on the web, but am not sure how to
> proceed.  I just ran the above command earlier today when fsck
> failed during a boot, without receiving that error message.

>From the fsck_ufs man page:
" b=n   Use block  n as the super  block  for  the  file
           system.  Block 32 is always one of the alternate
           super blocks.
           Determine the  location of other  super  blocks
           by running newfs(1M) with the -Nv options speci-
           fied."

So, try:

fsck -F ufs b=32 /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0

If that fails, run newfs -Nv on /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0 and 
copy down a few more alternates.

Caveat: I have never seen using fsck with an alternative
superbloc work, but YMMV.

As a hedge, I'd start getting my backup tapes together.
 
> After fsck runs successfully, I was going to restore the boot program
> from the installation cd as follows:
> 
> # cp /platform/`uname -i`/ufsboot /mnt/platform/`uname -i`
> 
> Any comments about this?

Not having a cd around at the moment, I'll have to defer to
someone else.  I haven't installed from cd for quite a while,
either, having always had a jumpstart/netboot set up in
place.  But, at first glance that looks reasonable.

> > I'd suggest that you try putting the disk which is acting squirrelly
> > onto a separate scsi chain (so it does not have other drives to
> > interfere with) if possible; that will give you a better idea of
> > whether you can get it mounted and get the data off of it.
> Unfortunately, I do not have another scsi chain on which to do this.
> I would need to install another scsi card -- maybe a good idea at this
> point.

I don't recall what model of Sun you indicated you had?  If
it's PCI based, there are a couple of Symbios (iirc) SCSI
cards that work in PCs as well as Suns.  That's probably
the cheapest route.

Of course, if these two disks were on the same chain, it
seems kinda suspicious to me that they would both go at
the same time unless you have had some kind of power
issue with the computer or your location.  You may want
also want to try slapping these disks into another Sun 
box if you can, just to make sure it's really disk issues.
You could possibly be looking at a controller problem.

=Nadine=