[WBEL-users] Fwd: Server crashed

[Allen]

> Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 11:49:43 -0500
> From: Ganeshram Iyer <gri0941@exchange.uta.edu>
> To: WhiteBox Users <whitebox-users@beau.org>
> Subject: [WBEL-users] [Fwd: Server crashed]
>
> As my luck would have it, I managed to crash my Whitebox server. The X
> server just never starts up. And this happened after I installed Firefox
> 0.9.3 to/usr/lib/firefox. As soon as I did that my server crashed. With
> the number of problems I am encountering with my Linux server I think I
> am just going to reinstall everything. My gnome-desktop has crashed
> atleast a dozen times in the last month (and the machine has been
> running only for that long). I have never been able to install
> j2re-1.4.2_05. Samba although working, could never get it to work as a
> PDC with single sign-on. Setting up LDAP was beyond my grasp. Even the
> detailed guides did not help me.
> But I was even having many unclean shutdowns after which the system
> check told me that there were bad blocks on my HD. So I am just
> scrapping my install and restarting all over.
> Does anyone have any good suggestions for a tool which I can use to
> check the HD before I install? I thank all of you in advance for any
> help you may offer. I am currently desperate as I had promised my lab
> that I would have this server up and running by the end of last month.
> They are starting to question if Linux is worth all this trouble
> especially since the XP install on this machine has never caused
> problems. Please help. I love LINUX and really want to stay with it if
> possible with my setup.
>
> Thanks
> Ganesh

The ultimate drive recovery software that I have seen and used is called
SpinWrite from http://grc.com/ .  It can fix almost anything that is fixable
but it costs $89, which can be a little high for many of us.
The alternative is to use the tool from the drive manufacturer's web site.
They all have one that you can download that will give you a pretty good
idea whether you want to keep the drive or abandon it.
The good thing is that many drives are under warranty and I've had good luck
sending them back for replacement with every drive manufacturer that I've
ever dealt with.

AG