subject: Use Of Mkfs Command On Raid-enabled Linux Computer May Cause Data Loss [print this page] RAID (Redundant Array or Independent Disks) devices are the virtual devices that are created from more than one real block devices. It enables multiple devices (generally hard drive) to be combined in single device to hold single file system. In Linux, MD (Multiple Devices) device driver is used to implement the software RAID devices. For this purpose, mdadm is used. It is a program, which could be used for creating, monitoring and managing MD devices. In some situations, you might come across RAID failure and data loss, if you run mkfs command while re-installing your system. In order to handle data loss scenarios, Linux Data Recovery is required.
If you run the mkfs command while re-installing your system from live CD on a RAID hard drive, you might come across critical situations. For example, if you run the following command on your Linux hard drive, complete data loss may occur:
mkfs.ext3
mkfs.ext3
In this case, you can easily install a new operating system without even formatting the hard drive because your system is installed on another hard drive.
After reinstalling the operating system, when you attempt to re-create RAID on your Linux computer and try to mount it, the RAID array doesn't contain even a single file. RAID array rebuilding may not be the actual cause of data loss. Data loss is causes by the mkfs command, executed on an unformatted hard drive. At this point, Data Recovery Linux is required to extract lost data from affected hard drive.
mkfs is a command-line utility in Linux operating system that is used to create a new Ext2 or Ext3 file system. In the syntax of this command, device is a particular file that is corresponding to device. You can create file system journal using this command by specifying -j option is specified.
In such cases of data loss, Linux Recovery Software come for your rescue. These are powerful, effective and advanced applications that methodically scan entire hard drive and extract all of the lost data from it. The Linux Data Recovery tools have self-descriptive user interface with rich graphical support. The do not modify original data on the drive as they have read-only conduct.
Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most efficient tool to recover lost data in all possible data loss circumstances. It recovers data from all Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16 and FAT12 file system volumes. The software works well with all major distributions of Linux operating systems including Fedora Core, Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu and SUSE.
