Re: [tlug] Mac OS X: bad super block has become Unsupported sector size (0)

[Simon Cozens <simon@example.com>]

On 21/05/2011 11:22, Jean-Christian Imbeault wrote:
> First I tried to fsck the HDD and it complained about a bad
> superblock. It tried to use alternate superblocks but couldn't find
> any suitable ones. I manually forced it to use the first alternat
> using fsck -b 32 but it still complained, same for trying to use the
> last one.

Oh dear. OS X's fsck is not particularly filesystem-aware. It is what linux
would call fsck.ufs - i.e. it assumes that everything checks is a UFS
filesystem. Since you're later trying to mount it as MSDOS, I suspect this
will have trashed your data.

> I then did a newfs on the HDD thinking this would regenerate the
> superblocks.

If the fsck didn't trash your data, the newfs most certainly will have done.

> macmini:~ jci$ sudo /sbin/mount_msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/ELEMENTS/
> mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (0)

It's not MSDOS any more. Who knows what it is.

> I'd be happy at this point if I could just mount the drive so I can
> move my files off it to a new HDD.

It's probable that there aren't any files left to move. Sorry. :(

My advice would be: get it into a Linux box. Image the filesystem *now* before
doing anything else with it. Try fsck.vfat and hope for the best, although
probably the FATs have already gone. :(