unable to locate data after new proxmox install

[caymann]

I had 2 drives - 1TB (hdd) and 2TB (nvme, ext4)
proxmox 8.4 was installed in the 1TB HDD

The 2TB nvme has my various important data files (about 600GB of data)
I had mounted the 2TB drive (ext4 filesystem) as /mnt/sata as a directory under proxmox.

During a NVIDIA addition tp proxmox 8.4, proxmox got corrupted and won't boot - it just kept hanging.
I decided to do a fresh install of proxmox instead of sinking my time to find out the issues.
(Sorry it has been painful all these years for NVIDIA users, so i know how much time it sinks)

Prior to a fresh install, i moved the contents of /etc, /root and /var/lib/vz from 1TB drive to the 2TB drive.
This added an additional 340GB of data to the 2TB drive.
My plan was to access all these data (600GB + 340GB), after new install, by mounting the directory under proxmox.

During fresh install of proxmox, it moved (not sure why? I didn't ask for it) the proxmox install from 1TB to the 2TB drive.
I didn't think much of it and expected proxmox NOT to delete/destroy exiting data on the 2TB drive.

After install of proxmox to the 1TB drive, i wanted to add the 2TB drive. But i got an error.

ERROR : unknown filesystem type 'LVM2_member'

So i tried -
#vgdisplay
--- Volume group ---
VG Name sata
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 11
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 2
Open LV 1
Max PV 0
Cur PV 1
Act PV 1
VG Size <1.82 TiB
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 476675
Alloc PE / Size 476675 / <1.82 TiB
Free PE / Size 0 / 0
VG UUID TZdWVF-0OU5-azHI-2onJ-ef0R-phZn-QaCR77


#vgrename pve-OLD-2903F3F6 sata

#vgchange -ay
3 logical volume(s) in volume group "pve" now active
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "sata" now active

#lvscan
ACTIVE '/dev/pve/data' [<11.62 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/pve/swap' [3.75 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/pve/root' [13.62 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/sata/swap' [8.00 GiB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/sata/root' [1.81 TiB] inherit

#mount /dev/sata/root /mnt/sata/

But when i look under /mnt/sata, i only see the old proxmox files, but none of my actual data (600GB+340GB)

I am unsure, how to retrieve my stored data?

Here is some more info, after a reboot (lvm filesystem not mounted yet on 2TB drive)

# vgs

pve 1 3 0 wz--n- <31.00g 8.00m
sata 1 2 0 wz--n- <1.82t 0

# pvs

/dev/nvme0n1p3 sata lvm2 a-- <1.82t 0
/dev/sda3 pve lvm2 a-- <31.00g 8.00m

# lvs

data pve twi-a-tz-- <11.62g 0.00 1.58
root pve -wi-ao---- 13.62g
swap pve -wi-ao---- 3.75g
root sata -wi-a----- 1.81t
swap sata -wi-a----- 8.00g

 

[leesteken]

What is the output of lsblk --fs?
It sounds a lot like the wrong drive was accidentally selected in the installer and it wiped the 2TB drive. I do hope you have backups of your important data (in some other place).

 

[caymann]

# lsblk --fs
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda
├─sda1
├─sda2 vfat FAT32 EC5B-FCD8
├─sda3 LVM2_member LVM2 001 kFGtGs-1N26-UC3k-VFrk-sXB3-YWcV-c66imo
│ ├─pve-swap swap 1 1bbeedc4-81dd-4683-b2ff-0e7b5ea802dc [SWAP]
│ ├─pve-root ext4 1.0 8c3b1559-ac30-4d8b-b261-a2b22c0e8210 9.3G 25% /
│ ├─pve-data_tmeta
│ │ └─pve-data
│ └─pve-data_tdata
│ └─pve-data
└─sda4 ext4 1.0 data ab86202c-c903-46f5-8a88-5714a2251534
nvme0n1
├─nvme0n1p1
├─nvme0n1p2 vfat FAT32 3310-EF25
└─nvme0n1p3 LVM2_member LVM2 001 1POGf9-SqQP-CSze-mPlp-79jp-OkYA-WkqCiM

 

[leesteken]

# lsblk --fs
NAME               FSTYPE      FSVER    LABEL UUID                                   FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda                                                                                               
├─sda1                                                                                             
├─sda2             vfat        FAT32          EC5B-FCD8                                           
├─sda3             LVM2_member LVM2 001       kFGtGs-1N26-UC3k-VFrk-sXB3-YWcV-c66imo               
│ ├─pve-swap       swap        1              1bbeedc4-81dd-4683-b2ff-0e7b5ea802dc                  [SWAP]
│ ├─pve-root       ext4        1.0            8c3b1559-ac30-4d8b-b261-a2b22c0e8210      9.3G    25% /
│ ├─pve-data_tmeta                                                                                 
│ │ └─pve-data                                                                                     
│ └─pve-data_tdata                                                                                 
│   └─pve-data                                                                                     
└─sda4             ext4        1.0      data  ab86202c-c903-46f5-8a88-5714a2251534                 
nvme0n1                                                                                           
├─nvme0n1p1                                                                                       
├─nvme0n1p2        vfat        FAT32          3310-EF25                                           
└─nvme0n1p3        LVM2_member LVM2 001       1POGf9-SqQP-CSze-mPlp-79jp-OkYA-WkqCiM

Both drives don't look like they were (properly) setup by the Proxmox installer (sda has a fourth partition and the LVM2 on nvme0n1p3 appears empty). Did you break off the second install? Sorry, I don't know what to do here (except pay for specialized data recovery). Maybe it's just my inexperience with LVM and someone else here can help.

 

[caymann]

Both drives don't look like they were (properly) setup by the Proxmox installer (sda has a fourth partition and the LVM2 on nvme0n1p3 appears empty). Did you break off the second install? Sorry, I don't know what to do here (except pay for specialized data recovery). Maybe it's just my inexperience with LVM and someone else here can help.

The sda4 is fine, it is empty.
The nvme0n1p3 is in question. It had 600GB+340GB of data stored.
During proxmox install on sda (i chose 32GB for the filesystem (from the 1TB available for proxmox) ). Later i created the sda4 as an ext4 and added that to proxmox as a directory.

During the install proxmox detected existing install on sda and it moved that to nvme0n1....i had no choice of saying no...it just did it. This is really puzzling to me.

Did proxmox overwrite nvme0n1 and hence i lost all data?

 

[leesteken]

During the install proxmox detected existing install on sda and it moved that to nvme0n1....i had no choice of saying no...it just did it. This is really puzzling to me.

For me too. Moving old installations is not something the installer does. More likely the selected drive got changed by accident (or the NMVe became selected as part of the LVM but I don't have experience with that?) and the Proxmox installer is very simple (by design) and does exactly what it is told without caring for any existing data.

Did proxmox overwrite nvme0n1 and hence i lost all data?

It does not look like the installation completed successfully (to my untrained eye) but the data on the NVMe appears to be deleted (as far as I can tell). But your have copies/backups of important data, surely? Maybe a data recovery company can restore (some of) it? Maybe someone else here knows better than me.