<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="disk-repair">
  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="disk"/>


    <credit type="author">
      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
    </credit>

    <revision pkgversion="3.25.90" date="2017-08-17" status="review"/>

    <desc>Check if a filesystem is damaged and bring it back into a usable
          state.</desc>
    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

<title>Repair a damaged filesystem</title>

  <p>Filesystems can be corrupted due to unexpected power loss, system crashes
     and unsafe removal of the drive.
     After such an incident it is recommended to <em>repair</em> or at least
     <em>check</em> the filesystem to prevent future data loss.</p>
  <p>Sometimes a repair is required in order to mount or modify a filesystem.
     Even if a <em>check</em> does not report any damage the filesystem might
     still be marked as ‘dirty’ internally and require a repair.</p>

<steps>
  <title>Check if a filesystem is damaged</title>
  <item>
    <p>Open <app>Disks</app> from the <gui>Activities</gui> overview.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>Select the disk containing the filesystem in question from the list of
       storage devices on the left. If there is more than one volume on the
       disk, select the volume which contains the filesystem.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>In the toolbar underneath the <gui>Volumes</gui> section, click the
    menu button. Then click <gui>Check Filesystem…</gui>.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>Depending on how much data is stored in the filesystem a check may take
       longer time. Confirm to start the action in the dialog that pops up.</p>
   <p>The action will not modify the filesystem but will unmount it if needed.
      Be patient while the filesystem is checked.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>After completion you will be notified whether the filesystem is damaged.
       Note that in some cases even if the filesystem is undamaged it still
       may need to be repaired to reset an internal ‘dirty’ marker.</p>
  </item>
</steps>

<note style="warning">
 <title>Possible data loss when repairing</title>
  <p>If the filesystem structure is damaged it can affect the files stored
     in it. In some cases these files can not be brought into a valid form
     again and will be deleted or moved to a special directory. It is normally
     the <em>lost+found</em> folder in the top level directory of the filesystem
     where these recovered file parts can be found.</p>
  <p>If the data is too valuable to be lost during this process, you are
     advised to back it up by saving an image of the volume before
     repairing.</p>
  <p>This image can be then processed with forensic analysis tools like
     <app>sleuthkit</app> to further recover missing files and data parts
     which were not restored during the repair, and also previously removed
     files.</p>
</note>

<steps>
  <title>Repair a filesystem</title>
  <item>
    <p>Open <app>Disks</app> from the <gui>Activities</gui> overview.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>Select the disk containing the filesystem in question from the list
       of storage devices on the left. If there is more than one volume on
       the disk, select the volume which contains the filesystem.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>In the toolbar underneath the <gui>Volumes</gui> section, click the
    menu button. Then click <gui>Repair Filesystem…</gui>.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>Depending on how much data is stored in the filesystem a repair may take
       longer time. Confirm to start the action in the dialog that pops up.</p>
   <p>The action will unmount the filesystem if needed. The repair action tries
   to bring the filesystem into a consistent state and moves files which were
   damaged in a special folder. Be patient while the filesystem is
   repaired.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>After completion you will be notified whether the filesystem could be
       successfully repaired. In case of success it can be used again in the
       normal way.</p>
    <p>If the filesystem could not be repaired, back it up by saving an image
       of the volume to be able to retrieve important files later. This can
       be done by mounting the image read-only or using forensic analysis tools
       like <app>sleuthkit</app>.</p>
    <p>To make use of the volume again it has to be
       <link xref="disk-format">formatted</link> with a new filesystem. All
       data will be discarded.</p>
  </item>
</steps>

</page>