Nix / NixOS

2166 readers

1 users here now

Main links

Videos

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

erlingur@programming.dev

ballmerpeaking@programming.dev

WhiteBlackGoose@programming.dev

Booting NixOS with a missing drive (self.nix)

submitted 1 month ago by leisesprecher to c/nix@programming.dev

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In very short, I have a NixOS install with an /etc/fstab using UUIDs. However, my bulk drive died. I have backups, the data is not the problem.

But I can't boot NixOS without the drive. It throws me into an emergency shell, in which I can't edit /etc/fstab (read-only FS) and since I'm in emergeny mode, nixos rebuild doesn't work either (seems to be mostly a network issue).

So, what's the best, non-reinstalling way to fix that?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Can I ask what kind of drive the failed drive is?

If by chance it's a Western Digital or Seagate spinning hard drive, I recommend to take the controller board off the drive and clean the contact traces with a pencil eraser.

You'd be surprised how many of those drives I've fixed that way. It's like they didn't even properly finish the manufacturing process, and those contact points corrode over time. Hitachi did their drives right though, they put solder beads on those contact points to prevent corrosion.

[–] leisesprecher 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's a Seagate, yes. And that might actually do work, but currently it looks more like about 2 bazillions bad sectors.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I can't speak for whether those existing bad sectors can or can't be recovered, but yeah, when there's bad connections between the controller board and the drive, then the actuator heads will have a less than stable current going to them and won't be able to reliably align over the tracks.

It still might be enough to get you back up and running long enough to change your fstab file to make appropriate changes to remove the failing drive from the configuration.