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From: Tim Watts <tw_usenet@dionic.net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Recovering an EXT3 FS - hopeless if inode list is overwritten?
Date: Fri, 22 May 2015 09:24:56 +0100
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On 22/05/15 09:05, Charles T. Smith wrote:
> I'm trying to recover an ext3 fs I blew away by dd(1)-ing to a flash
> drive - but the device name got changed under me  :(
>
> When I look at the alternate superblocks, it looks like the inode list
> starts at the 11th block of the fs...
>
> Is it safe to say that if I overwrite the beginning of a very large
> filesystem, there's no way to recover any of the data, because the inodes
> will likely all be gone?
>
> Or, is there also a redundant copy of the inode list somewhere?

I think the inode table only has one copy.

There are multiple superblocks at intervals and recovering a copy of one 
of those might be worth a try - but I suspect you've blown the inode 
table away:

https://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext4_Disk_Layout#Layout