From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jan 9 16:18:54 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC131106564A for ; Mon, 9 Jan 2012 16:18:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gtolemans@gmail.com) Received: from mail-yx0-f182.google.com (mail-yx0-f182.google.com [209.85.213.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8D81F8FC18 for ; Mon, 9 Jan 2012 16:18:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: by yenl9 with SMTP id l9so1808153yen.13 for ; Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:18:54 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:subject:date:message-id :to:mime-version:x-mailer; bh=OiS2VL4FWgwDKmY3jX61AZSQluLcpO+TXDuhazdapaA=; b=SHD441G0ZAZgKLkEp4bEJTBbESnDqBhxMqPn+02kRgsfiQuMvypVt/gCYNu1mx2Trz RqOSY5l9u7v7OyclPP3jQ4cnaoIXn9wLIZ4IAWQCtZT8LrU2xKidIZrHqSIy4go6JTck y0ZOK4uizdQEWVWuG2uDftxhKLqvYfiSGQoHM= Received: by 10.236.9.33 with SMTP id 21mr20424041yhs.76.1326124359160; Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:52:39 -0800 (PST) Received: from [10.64.192.139] (campus.hartland.edu. [12.47.113.114]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id q40sm161565375anh.18.2012.01.09.07.52.37 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:52:38 -0800 (PST) From: Nathan Wehr Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 10:52:24 -0500 Message-Id: To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1251.1) X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1251.1) Subject: Lost geli metadata X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:18:54 -0000 I have FreeBSD 8.0 installed on a machine with geli encrypting one of = the hard drives. Most of what's on the drive I can live without, but = there are a few important items that, unfortunately, don't exist = elsewhere. When I try to attach the drive, I get the following message: [root@baxter ~/]# geli attach -k /root/ad4.key /dev/ad4 [root@baxter ~/]# Enter Passphrase: (I enter passphrase no problem, geli = seems to attach) [root@baxter ~/]# mount /dev/ad4.eli /private mount: /dev/ad4.eli : No such file or directory <-- This is the problem The rest of this sad story is really just a long list of me making = stupid mistakes. Here's a bit of history that might be helpful: Mistake #1: Store non-backedup data on a backup drive that's encrypted.=20= If I hadn't of made Mistake #1, losing all of my data would be far less = heart-wrenching. However - and unfortunately - my mistakes do not end = there. To start out with, I took out the CD/DVD drive from the machine = to install it in a different one. After I did that, the drive label for = the encrypted drive changed from ad4 to ad2. And of course geli wouldn't = attach the drive and so I tried to use glabel. Needless to say, glabel = didn't work. After that, I backed up the meta data (more like overwrote = meta data that was already backed up when I originally encrypted the = drive) that geli puts on the drive and then try to restore it after I = insert the CD/DVD drive.=20 This didn't work, and with a little bit of research, I found out that = both geli and glabel both write data to the same place on the hard drive = (the last sector). Which means that the backed up meta data which is at = /var/backups/ad4.eli now contains data for glabel instead of geli. I = read somewhere that the meta data for geli contains key information = which doesn't make sense to me because I have the key stored at = /root/ad4.key. So, my question... Is there any hope at recovering the = information on the drive? If so, how? And, if not, why? I would appreciate any help that you could offer, especially regarding = the failed mount command listed above.