[linux-lvm] Broken hard disk

[Bryn M. Reeves]

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Martin Wilmes wrote:
> Now I installed the old, hopefully still working disk in a different computer 
> and booted with Knoppix 5.0.1 to get some of my data back but vgscan -v comes 
> back with nothing at all.

It's a bit strange that it outputs nothing at all. I'd expect to see
something like:

$ sudo vgscan -v
    Wiping cache of LVM-capable devices
    Wiping internal VG cache
  Reading all physical volumes.  This may take a while...
    Finding all volume groups
    Finding volume group "scratch0"
  Couldn't find device with uuid 'ZpQI30-qpx3-Cm54-YcSR-5Ho4-rlUx-uCxGBi'.
  Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group scratch0.
  Couldn't find device with uuid 'ZpQI30-qpx3-Cm54-YcSR-5Ho4-rlUx-uCxGBi'.
  Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group scratch0.
  Volume group "scratch0" not found

If there's a PV missing from the volume group.

You can add move 'v's to increase the verbosity of vgscan to see what
it's scanning - do you have any device filters configured in /etc/lvm.conf?

It'd also be good to see what pvscan shows, for e.g.:

$ sudo pvscan
  Couldn't find device with uuid 'ZpQI30-qpx3-Cm54-YcSR-5Ho4-rlUx-uCxGBi'.
  PV /dev/hda2        VG d800_vg0   lvm2 [34.18 GB / 760.00 MB free]
  PV unknown device   VG scratch0   lvm2 [60.00 MB / 0    free]
  PV /dev/loop1       VG scratch0   lvm2 [60.00 MB / 52.00 MB free]
  Total: 3 [34.30 GB] / in use: 3 [34.30 GB] / in no VG: 0 [0   ]

Once you find the volume group, activate it without the missing PV using
the --patial option, e.g:

vgchange -ay --partial <vgname>


Cheers,

Bryn.
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