Hello everyone

I'm trying to use my Raspberry Pi as a Torrent downloader, and after a time downloading, it crashes witht this errors:

EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_wait_block_bitmap:445: comm transmission-da: Cannot read block bitmap - block_group = 4806, block_bitmap = 157483008
EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_discard_preallocations:3842: comm transmission-da: Error reading block bitmap for 4806

I couldn't find much information using google, so I ask if somebody can help me. I'm using a Rasperry Pi with Raspbian, connected by wifi, and a USB external drive formated in EXT3 and self powered.

Thank you in advance!

Can you try a different drive or format your drive as Ext4 ??
Some external drives are rather finicky and tend to drop the connection when connected for long periods of time. The hard drive might have a dodgy usb to sata converter in it.

few things to look at.

1. get are more reliable power supply for your RPi min specs needs to be 1mA and 5V, but a 2mA would be better

2. what is the brand/modle of your external USB drive. If it is a WD Passport you could be faced with the well know issue of WD power management turning off the external drive and not allowing Linux to wake it back up. therefore the drive is removed from your RPi as a location to store data and you could get the above errors.

If that is the case, mind you it is not limited to WD Passport drives but many WD external USB drives, you will first have to format the drive for NTFS, then use a MS Windows computer and install their WD management software. Once you have that accomplished you will then have to disable their "sleep" function. After all of that you can then format it back to ext3 or ext4 for Linux native access.

I have a WD My Book Essential, I think, and a 1A (I suppose you are talking about A and not mA) power supply.

Would you recommend me to start by changing the power supply, or by formatting and using WD tools? (it had some sofware on when it was new, I remember).

Thanks for your answer!

It does sound like your hard drive is disconnecting itself from the machine.

I would format it and turn off the sleep mode as suggested first and then see how it goes after that.

yes i did mean 1A, sorry 1000mA is what I was thinking. same thing.

with the WD external drives you will have to format to NTFS and use their tools to disable sleep mode. This is a known issue with WD drives and linux. If you do not disable the onboard BIOS's sleep mode it will remain active and linux will not be able to wake the drive to reconnect.

I formatted the HDD in NTFS, installed the WD tools and disabled the sleep option (it was enabled), but it doesn't work either. I get the same error after a while downloading at full speed.

EDIT: When it fails, I do a "mount" again, and it says that sda1 doesn't exist, so I have to disconnect the HDD and reconnect it.

From the answers before: I have a 1A power supply, and it is formatted in EXT3.

What do you think is the problem?

Thank you in advance.

if it is still dropping connection, then the external is the issue. as you have disabled the sleep mode the drive should never go to sleep.

try it on an other Linux system to see if it drops there as well. if it does, take it back as it is defective.