Off-Topic > Off-Topic - Tiny Core Lounge

Linux and usb drive stability

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remus:
Thanks for all the great input all :)

The drive file system is fat32.
Its attached to a computer running windows xp, and is used as a backup share for 5 computers also running windows xp. Its never given us any trouble in this setup.

So I can test the drive with a tinycore boot disc, and check the dmesg for problems.

curaga:
Wait, fat32 as a destination for disk images? Does ping split them to 4gb chunks?

genec:
I'd lean towards issues outside of Linux.  Your USB controller, the USB-HDD controller or the HDD itself is likely heating up and failing.  I'd lean towards the USB-HDD controller is faulty unless there's a chance it's been hit/dropped/bumped while in operation.  As a result, I'm guessing you're getting corruption.  smartctl from smartmontools may help to see if the HDD has recorded errors but you'll likely need to remove the USB-HDD controller from the equation as it most likely won't pass the SMART commands.

Since you're starting from scratch, I'd recommend starting with running the long test and the offline test against the drive to attempt to detect errors before you reuse the drive at all.  I'd also consider running badblocks on the entire drive in write mode (which destroys everything).

remus:
PING spans images at 630mb limit by default.

I have not found any software that does a good job of checking a ext usb hd for errors. So yeah, I assumed the usb controllers were filtering out the hd diagnostic tools I tried.

We had this problem with the drive about 6 months ago actually, and since formatting and keeping it attached to a windows xp machine, its given us ZERO problems since. I have considered taking the drive apart to access the internal hard drive unit, but if its a sata drive, I do not have any connectors or adapters that could let me connect it to a ata laptop that I own.

I'm a volunteer for a non profit Community Center, and we have a very limited budget. Pretty much every computer in the building was donated to us, or rescued from the dump :)

I would like to setup a tinycore/samba/ssh linux file server with a remastered tinycore boot cd with all samba and required conf integrated. Which I've learnt how to do thx to this forum :)
I'd like to attach an ext usb hd to make it easy to swap it out incase of a failure, but I'm starting to think its not worth the trouble. Its probably better to use an internal drive that will work with proper hard drive diagnostic software.

Thx again to the most responsive and helpful linux forum i've ever joined :)

Rich:
Hi remus
I'd like to make a few suggestions. Go with an internal drive (or 2 or more), your data transfer rates
will be far superior over a USB external drive. Plan on some persistent storage for the operating
system. I recommend a USB thumb drive to keep system files separate from the internal data drives.
You'll want to backup system settings like /usr/local/etc/samba/smb.conf to it. You might as well also
put extensions on it to allow for easy upgrades. If the machine supports booting from a thumb drive,
you could remove the CD drive thus freeing up an IDE channel.

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