Linux Community Magazine

Modern distributions of Linux operating systems use UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) to uniquely identify hard drive or other data storage devices, in place of the conventional block names like /dev/sdb and /dev/hda1. It is due to the fact that UUID is never modified, even if the hard drive is switched. It is stable as compared to traditional methods, and prevents system failure and need of Linux Data Recovery solutions.

UUID is a 128-bit string that is used for making the Linux hard disk management simple. If you look at /etc/fstab file in your Linux computer, you find the entry in the following format, in place of the familiar hard drive designation:

UUID=62fa5eac-3df4-448d-a576-916dd5b432f2

In comparison to the traditional hard drive identification techniques, UUID is quite easy and reliable. For instance, in the traditional Linux systems, when you try to insert a new hard drive in a system that already has two hard drives, the drive is inserted between existing drives. At this point, 'mount' command attempts to mount the newly inserted drives as home.

In such situation, you need to log on as a single user for resolving the problem. However, when you log on, it gives you some error message and in the worst case scenario, you may encounter kernel panic. You can fix this issue using UUID.

UUID creates a unique entry for each hard disk volume in the Linux file system tree. Using UUID offers easy management of your Linux hard disks and creates less complication while adding or removing the disk.

Although, UUID is quite useful and it provides various advanced features, but it also has some faults. Sometimes, you may encounter the below error message when you attempt to access a UUID based Linux hard drive:

"Fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-200fsck.ext3: Unable to resolve 'UUID=d8533154-cef1-4cce-a823-9f3f74aab65b'"

After the above error message, you can not access the particular hard drive. All the data stored on your hard drive become inaccessible and you come across critical data loss. At this point, Linux Recovery Software come for your rescue.

The applications perform absolute Data recovery linux in most of the logical data loss situations, using advanced scanning algorithms. These tools enable you to perform Linux Recovery on your own as they have self-descriptive and simple graphical user interface. With read-only and non-destructive behavior, the applications are completely safe to use.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most comprehensive application for perfect recovery of all lost data. The software is compatible with all Linux distributions including SUSE, Debian, Red Hat, and Fedora. It recovers lost data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes.