Lost files from PFS3-AIO partitions on PATA SSD

[Firestone]

Hi everyone!

Got a strange problem with a Kingspec PATA SSD-drive on my A1200. Something probably went terrible wrong when working on some partitions above the 4 or 8GB limit, who knows.

The system crashed and I got the kickstart-screen. The drive totally failed and I actually sent it to a recovery-company which replaced the controller on the SSD-board. Found an identical controller from a donor drive.

Got it back and it's readable again, and the drive actually work fine. But files are missing from almost every partition. This seems to be newer files from 2016 and 2015. Everything else seems to be intact.
From partitions above the 8GB limit there are only a few directories left.

System was patched this way:
1. Loadmodule with scsi.device 43.24
2. Latest setpatch
3. Latest NSDPatch
4. PFS3-AIO on all partitions

Running on Kickstart 3.1 and AmigaOS3.1
It's a 64GB drive. Think it was partitioned around the first 1/3 of the drive.

It's been stable for years until this crash.
All partitions are readable, and I've tried to scan for partitions using rdbrecov even with the "cs 1" parameter (and of course with a higher number of cylinders.
Partitions show up, even a probably older partitioned "System:"-partition at the beginning. It only shows up if I change the "cs" parameter to 1 instead of the original value the drive was partitioned with.

I've tried PFSsalv to see if it can find the rest of the files, but it only comes up with the existing files on each partition.
PFSSalv seems to only be able to find anything with the Direct SCSI setting. Only gives error on each block when reading with the TD64 commands.

Also tried PFSDoctor with the "Check" or "Search filesystem" options with no other results. I have not been using one of those "fix in place"-options.

Anyone got any suggestions on what may have happened here?
I'm not sure the partitions recognized now are the correct ones, but rdbrecov can't find anyone else anyway, so I guess they may be right.

What will the PFSDEEP parameter do for rdbrecov?

Is it possible to just scan the whole drive for lost files regardless of partitions on the drive?

[Toni Wilen]

You can try http://www.winuae.net/files/b/pfsdoc...perimental.zip . It is pfsdoctor with directscsi/td64/nsd support (supports partitions outside of first 4G). It also has some other updates for future pfs3 versions, if they ever get finished... Note that it does not have any GUI.

It is possible drive got too confused and wrote over in use blocks or its block translation table (LBA to flash location mapping) was also partially corrupted.

[Firestone]

Thanks a lot, Toni!

Tried your version of pfssalv with both directscsi and nsd, but it seems to find the same files as the old version did. The ones already accessible on the drive.

Will it make a difference to put the drive into a real Amiga? I've just tried this in WinUAE, and I can't see any reason why it should make any difference.

It's been added to WinUAE as a whole disk with RDB-block and everything, and I've selected A1200/A4000 as IDE interface too.

What happens if the drive wrote over its block translation table? Will the whole drive be corrupted, or maybe just parts like this?

[Toni Wilen]

Better mount it with UAE controller, less unknown variables, no need to have any updates or patches to access >4G drives. (You are not trying to match A1200 config but to recover the data using easiest possible solution)

I also recommend creating back up hdf image file before attempting recovery, some recovery programs may cause more damage. (But it may be too late now)

[apex]

There are rumors that a SSD can lose files after a long term without power.

I am using SFS and an Transcend 120GB PATA SSD.

[Firestone]

This is not the case here since the drive has been powered on for years. It's running av BBS system