Linux Community Magazine

Linux is a popular and widely used operating system among millions of users around the globe. Due to its open source code, it has been so popular among the users. The open source code signifies that the underlying source code can be modified and redistributed in both commercial as well as non-commercial applications. Despite of having numerous application based functionalities and massive popularity, Linux operating system suffers from data loss problem. The data loss may come forward in the form of partition deletion, hard drive corruption or attack of malicious software.

While working with Linux, you may face several instances of data loss caused due to data deletion or harsh system crash. Some of the commonly found instances are listed below:

1) Accidental/intentional deletion

2) Accidentally formatting the hard drive while resolving some Linux disk error

3) Re-installation of the operating system by formatting the drive or volume

4) File system corruption

5) Operating system malfunction

6) Any software/hardware contradiction resulting in the crashing of the Linux system

When data corruption happens in Linux operating system, some usual or unusual errors prompt within its script. A good remedy to avoid such situation is to keep backup file and update that file regularly. But, people often forget to maintain backup files and badly face data loss situation. Some of the errors that typically appear are as follows:

* Define ESRCH 3. No such process.

* Error - Mount wrong fs type. Bad option. Bad super block on /dev/hdb2.

* Error - Operation not supported on transport endpoint.

* Grub Error 17 - Cannot mount selected partition.

* Grub Error 12 - Invalid device requested.

These are the common errors which appear when Linux operating system gets corrupted or damaged by some means. To get the data back to their working state, you need to repair the operating system and recover the data.

The first step in Linux data recovery is to run the "fsck" command, which can be treated as the aid for finding and fixing Linux data corruption. The process must run in single user mode. After running this command, you have to unmount your system's partition, if it is not already part of the root file system. If the unmounting step is skipped, then you may lose your data. After completion of the above process, check on the root file system by booting in single user mode and again running "fsck" with a "-b" option. This will make your system to run in read-only mode. This is completely the manual recovery procedure and works successfully when the intensity of corruption is minor. For severe corruption issues, this manual method fails and a need of third party software is felt.

The Kernel for Linux is capable Linux recovery software that efficiently deals with Linux corruption issues. It supports data recovery from Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS and JFS partitions. It recovers lost data from accidentally deleted or formatted partitions and provides easy mechanism to retrieve the data. You can easily download the software from the net and evaluate its performance and update later on for continued service.