I cannot get further than GRUB except to rescue mode, when I attempt to boot the main Fedora OS it gets stuck on searching for a disk indefinitely. Gets stuck on Job dev-disk-by\<many symbols>.device/start running (1h / no limit) in the console.

I have a Windows partition on same drive, it also doesn’t boot, it’s rescue command prompt (from where you are instructed to open notepad to rescue files) doesn’t “see” any disk but C: and X: (emerg boot).

I tried booting this machine with two live OS USBs: Fedora and SystemRescue. Neither of them list the SSD (or anything but the USB drive FS itself) in lsblk or the file manager.

Due to lack of storage mediums, I haven’t done a backup in a while. How can I rescue the files? Many passwords are also stuck there, in Firefox manager I wasn’t able to sync due to losing access to the 2FA email.

  • Pumpkin Escobar@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Like others said, sounds like hardware. But before you toss the drive, you said SSD, if it’s an ssd try different cables connecting to different ports. If it’s nvme try reseating it at least, moving it to another port if you have a 2nd. Just saying that sometimes ports and cables fail, so make sure you rule those out before losing hope.

    Also possible it’s a bios thing, like maybe the port itself on got disabled in bios or controller got switched to raid mode.

    • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtfOP
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      3 hours ago

      As I wrote, GRUB with all customisations and rescue modes stored on this drive for both Windows and Linux work fine, so I find it unlikely to be a connector problem. Unless such a problem may lead to part of drive working fine and the other not. When SSD is out of socket, BIOS refuses to boot at all and makes loud sounds.

  • mvirts@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    I’m a btrfs noob, so I’m skipping any tools that may fix the disk, try those first.

    If the media isn’t dying, try a file carving tool like photorec. Idk if testdisk supports btrfs but it’s worth a try, it’s my go-to for undelete and finding lost partitions.

    Edit: missed most of your post. First you need to check the kernel logs using the dmesg command. Look for errors that may explain why the disk doesn’t show up, especially if it lists scsi or sata in the message.

    Edit again: you may want to check the disk’s self reported heath using “smart” data. Many bios menus show this info, and there are programs to get it on Linux. If there are too many read or write errors, you need to decide how important the data is. Professional recovery can probably get all of your data if you stop using the drive now and send it in. DIY recovery using a file carving tool would work best if you have another disk to make an image of the failing one with. ddrescue would be the tool for the job to create the image. If you don’t have another disk large enough, and the files aren’t super important, you can run file carving on the failing disk directly, but the more you use it the greater chance the disk will corrupt more data.

    • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtfOP
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      4 hours ago

      Latest DMESG logs are several days old, I’m not sure I had this problem back then. Nothing seems to be useful there, standard USB connect/disconnect stuff.

      I enabled S.M.A.R.T. in BIOS, it seems it doesn’t see an issue with the drive (PredictFailure in wmic is FALSE)

      PhotoRec and TestDisk do not see the disk when booted from live media, only the 15GB drive itself and 804MB loop0.

  • talkingpumpkin@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    What you describe sounds like a hardware failure (one where btrfs plays no specific role).

    If that’s indeed the case, you can only bring the drive to a data recovery service and see what they say (if it’s a spinning disk, they’ll probably recover the data for an exorbitant fee, if it’s an SSD idk).

    PS: this is unlikely to work, but… you can try cleaning the drive’s contacts to see if it makes any difference, and also try moving the drive to a different connector (or use it on another computer)

    • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtfOP
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      3 hours ago

      I already removed the drive, contacts seemed clean. Connecting to another computer is the next thing I’m going to try.

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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    5 hours ago

    If they don’t see the drive at all it’s fucked. If they see the drive but not partition I normally use testdisk to try and recover the partitions, photorec to look for files if that doesn’t work and it’s not encrypted.

    If it isn’t visible at all then you are looking at drive repair, if you are asking this question that probably isn’t something to attempt. Try another set of cables and port just in case that is the issue though.

    • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtfOP
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      4 hours ago

      External live OSes don’t see the drive, but some things on drive when it is operating (like GRUB) work. DiskPart on Windows partition sees all partitions.

      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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        2 hours ago

        Every live OS I have ever run can see physical drives if they exist, sounds very odd to not be able to see it from there and yet grub loads.

        If grub loads can you boot a recovery image from there? Are you sure grub isn’t installed anywhere else too

        • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtfOP
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          1 hour ago

          You mean emergency console image? Yeah, that’s what I’ve been working with. Older kernels also don’t work.

          For the second one, I checked by removing SSD from slot, it refused to boot to GRUB, BIOS gave an error. So it’s on SSD. Plus, Windows partition console sees all it’s files, ~200GB.