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Any window program can read AIX data?

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by hdd2002

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Are there any window programs ( emulation ) to allow me to read the AIX hard drive?

I have a crashed IBM RS/6000 (AIX) hard drive. I want to get the data out.

Thanks

5 replies

by cerebusblack

Do you know what file system the dirve is formated in? ONce you know this, it should be easier to track down what you are looking for.

though, I must ask... Is the HD crashed or the RS/6000? Because a tool to look at a foreign file system that has blown up would seem like an even longer shot.

by stillatit

A lot depends on what you mean by "crashed."

If AIX cannot see the drive on the SCSI chain, neither will anything else.

If AIX sees the drive, claims it has problems, chkdsk is the tool to use to try a recovery. You may need to try various options ('man chkdsk' will show you the options). In particular, if the superblock is trashed, the -b option can allow you to select an alternate superblock.

If the drive is readable, you could conceivably put the drive in a PC (with a compatible controller) and use something like Norton Disk Doctor to read data sector by sector. I do not know of a utility that will read the unix file structure from Windows.

An expensive possibility is a data recovery service. Some of these companies can disassemble the drive in a clean room and grab data sector-by-sector from the platters. Check to make sure they can handle unix drives, and get a firm price quote. You can easily spend hundreds of dollars this way. Do a web search on 'data recovery' forcompanies that do this.

Good luck.

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