Recovering corrupted LVM data: No readable superblocks

Hi all. Not sure where to post this, so figured I'd start here. I have a LVM2 partition that has become unreadable. I've scoured dozens of threads about the topic and have hit a wall, so any advice is appreciated. Below is what I think shows what my major problem is:

First, a simple mount attempt gives me:

$ sudo mount /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 /fluffy_main/
mount: /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01 is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01: can't read superblock
$ sudo dmesg | tail -n18
[4396115.450550] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 153599984
[4396115.450553] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 153599984
[4396115.450557] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 153599998
[4396115.450559] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 153599998
[4396115.450563] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 0
[4396115.450565] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 0
[4396115.450569] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 1
[4396115.450573] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 153599999
[4396115.450577] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 153599999
[4396115.450579] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 153599999
[4396115.451072] EXT4-fs (dm-1): unable to read superblock
[4396115.451109] EXT4-fs (dm-1): unable to read superblock
[4396115.451136] EXT4-fs (dm-1): unable to read superblock
[4396115.451256] EXT4-fs (dm-1): unable to read superblock
[4396115.451284] EXT4-fs (dm-1): unable to read superblock
[4396115.451309] EXT4-fs (dm-1): unable to read superblock
[4396115.451337] isofs_fill_super: bread failed, dev=dm-1, iso_blknum=16, block=32
[4396115.451365] FAT-fs (dm-1): unable to read boot sector

I then tried checking the LVM through fsck:

$ sudo e2fsck -fv /dev/dm-1
e2fsck 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
e2fsck: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/dm-1
Could this be a zero-length partition?

with a similar dmesg output to above (Buffer I/O error...).

I found other possible superblocks to try and rebuild the filesystem:

$ sudo mke2fs -n /dev/sde2
mke2fs 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
43376640 inodes, 173505280 blocks
8675264 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
5295 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
    32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
    4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968, 
    102400000

But none of these are able to be read using e2fsck.

Low number superblocks give me this error:

$ sudo e2fsck -f -b 32768 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 
e2fsck 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
e2fsck: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
Could this be a zero-length partition?
$ sudo dmesg | tail
[4396348.465272] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 8192
[4396348.465275] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 8192
[4396348.465388] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 16384
[4396348.465391] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 16384
[4396348.465412] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 32768
[4396348.465414] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 32768
[4396348.465434] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 65536
[4396348.465436] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 65536
[4396348.465467] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 131072
[4396348.465471] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 131072

While higher numbered superblocks give me this error:

$ sudo e2fsck -f -b 20480000 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
e2fsck 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
e2fsck: Invalid argument while trying to open /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
$ sudo dmesg | tail 
[4396444.356681] quiet_error: 318 callbacks suppressed
[4396444.356684] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 5120000
[4396444.356687] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 5120000
[4396444.356860] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 10240000
[4396444.356864] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 10240000
[4396444.356896] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 20480000
[4396444.356900] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 20480000
[4396444.356929] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 40960000
[4396444.356933] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 40960000
[4396444.356966] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 81920000
[4396444.356970] Buffer I/O error on device dm-1, logical block 81920000

Anyways, I am stuck as to what I can possibly do from here or what else I should look for. If anyone has any other ideas or can point me towards a resource that can help me along, I would be most grateful!

This sounds more like an experts problem, so i move it to the appropriate forum. It would have helped, though, would you have told us which system you are on. I suppose it is some Linux flavour, but kernel version, etc.. might be helpful in tracking the error.

bakunin

That should have not given you any superblock output if it were the partition for the logical volume /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

The output would had been more in the order of:
/dev/sde2 is apparently in use by the system, blah, blah
even if it is broken

Question? Are you sure that /dev/sde2 is the partition of the LVM?

dumpe2fs /dev/dm-1 | grep -i superblock
dumpe2fs /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01 | grep -i superblock

Either of those two would output the proper superblocks if available, assuming for sure that /dev/dm-1 maps to the LVM.

What's the output of lsblk if available?

What's the output of pvdisplay?

Hi Aia, thanks a bunch for your response.

/dev/sde2 is the LVM partition I am interested in. Running mke2fs on /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 explicitly gives me the same thing.

$ sudo mke2fs -n /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
[sudo] password for ds229: 
mke2fs 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
38404096 inodes, 153600000 blocks
7680000 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
4688 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
    32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
    4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968, 
    102400000

Both dumpe2fs commands are not able to read anything

$ sudo dumpe2fs /dev/dm-1 | grep -i superblock
dumpe2fs 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
dumpe2fs: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/dm-1
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.

$ sudo dumpe2fs /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01 | grep -i superblock
dumpe2fs 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
dumpe2fs: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.

And here is the output for lsblk and pvdisplay

$ sudo lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 596.2G  0 disk 
sda1   8:1    0 196.1M  0 part 
sda2   8:2    0   596G  0 part 
sdb      8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk 
sdb1   8:17   0   500M  0 part /boot
sdb2   8:18   0 742.2G  0 part /home
sdb3   8:19   0  58.6G  0 part /
sdb4   8:20   0     1K  0 part 
sdb5   8:21   0  48.8G  0 part /usr/swr
sdb6   8:22   0  19.5G  0 part /var
sdb7   8:23   0  11.7G  0 part [SWAP]
sdb8   8:24   0  29.3G  0 part 
sde      8:64   0 698.7G  0 disk 
sde1   8:65   0     1G  0 part /run/media/marsluo/e08527a9-c875-4cc4-b83c-1158e07640c6
sde2   8:66   0 661.9G  0 part 
sde3   8:67   0    16G  0 part 
sde4   8:68   0     1K  0 part 
sde5   8:69   0    10G  0 part /run/media/marsluo/9c758ac5-3a6d-4181-a401-9dce5175144c
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
sr1     11:1    1  1024M  0 rom  
$ sudo pvdisplay
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sde2
  VG Name               VolGroup00
  PV Size               661.87 GiB / not usable 27.00 MiB
  Allocatable           yes 
  PE Size               32.00 MiB
  Total PE              21179
  Free PE               554
  Allocated PE          20625
  PV UUID               sqJHbZ-Udp4-OtHq-GQ38-Rkff-TSHQ-unS59g

FYI, the drive is currently sitting in a FC19 machine and was partitioned/written in a different Fedora box (18 or 19, I forget).