On 19 Jul 2023 at 11:45:38 BST, "SH" <i.love@spam.com> wrote:

> I have a CCTV recorder with 5 hard discs.

First thing I'd suggest is find out what version of XFS is running on
the recorder.

Then use a VM to install an appropriate version of old (possibly very
old) linux that can run the same version of XFS.

Also, now you have a clone of the drive... you could try slapping it
back into the recorder.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"If you can't make fun of it, it's probably not worth taking seriously"
-- http://survivingtheworld.net/Lesson494.html

On 19/07/2023 13:28, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> On 19 Jul 2023 at 11:45:38 BST, "SH" <i.love@spam.com> wrote:
>
>> I have a CCTV recorder with 5 hard discs.
>
> First thing I'd suggest is find out what version of XFS is running on
> the recorder.
>
> Then use a VM to install an appropriate version of old (possibly very
> old) linux that can run the same version of XFS.
>
> Also, now you have a clone of the drive... you could try slapping it
> back into the recorder.
>
> Cheers - Jaimie

the trouble with the clone of the drive, the new drive was formatted
using a later version of XFS that no longer supports V1 inodes so I am
not sure the DVR would support this drive if dropped back in.

Plus the clone it contains a single test.img file as opposed to loads of
txt files and avi files.

I guess I could restore the TEST.IMG using DDrescue to another disc.....?

On 19/07/2023 19:11, SH wrote:
> On 19/07/2023 13:28, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
>> On 19 Jul 2023 at 11:45:38 BST, "SH" <i.love@spam.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I have a CCTV recorder with 5 hard discs.
>>
>> First thing I'd suggest is find out what version of XFS is running on
>> the recorder.
>>
>> Then use a VM to install an appropriate version of old (possibly very
>> old) linux that can run the same version of XFS.
>>
>> Also, now you have a clone of the drive... you could try slapping it
>> back into the recorder.
>>
>>      Cheers - Jaimie
>
>
> the trouble with the clone of the drive, the new drive was formatted
> using a later version of XFS that no longer supports V1 inodes so I am
> not sure the DVR would support this drive if dropped back in.
>
> Plus the clone it contains a single test.img file as opposed to loads of
> txt files and avi files.
>
> I guess I could restore the TEST.IMG using DDrescue to another disc.....?
>
>

UPDATE!

I discovered that GPartEd is available as a Live CD download and that
previous versions were still available.

So I downloaded GPartEd Live v0.23.0-1 which had support for XFS with v1
inodes.

So I booted up this via Ventoy with the pulled 4 TB disc and another 4
TB disc (formatted to XFS with inode version > 1.) as this disc had the
IMG image of the pulled disc via DDrescue.

GPartEd could see both hard discs.

There was no yellow exclaimation marks against the pulled disc in
GPartEd but it was unmountable.

So I ran xfs_repair sda1 and xfs_repair sdz2.

Both proceeded well and then I was able to mount both partitions and
view the files within both partitions in a file explorer.

GPartEd Live v0.23.0-1 reported it could not recognise the partition on
the 2nd HDD.

That is hardly surprising as this version of GPartEd live was compatible
with v1 inodes, and thie version of GPartED Live v0.23.0-1 predates any
later versions of XFS supporting inode versions > v1.

(The 2nd HDD had been formatted to a later version of XFS using inode
version > 1)

I then put the pulled disc back into my DVR recorder and lo and behold,
the 17 days of footga ei snow available!

Several lessons from this:

What caused the XFS superblock corruption in the first place? A failing
PSU or momentary main supply glitch? I shall investigate puttign a UPS
on it.

The DVR clearly is unable to do its own hard disc housekeeping with
xfs_repair or even FSCK and just reports check disc or failed disc.

The DVR clearly running a version of Linux that predates 2007 (as thats
when XFS with inode version > 1 came out.

Theer is currently no means of backup from the DVR to say a Network NAS
or an eSATA hard disc so that there is footage available should a HDD
fail again. So I will have to investigate this.

As it happens the DVR does have some eSATA ports on the back, so with
the 5 x 4 TB drives within, I'm looking at a 20 TB external eSATA drive
or working out how to get the DVR to back up over a network to a NAS.
The video files within are of SSF format, but when backed up to CD/DVD
or memory stick become AVI or SEC files. SO I'm not sure what it will
get saved as if backed up to eSATA.