FSCK needed repeatedly from the busybox prompt

Janvanl · 04-24-2018, 04:19 PM

Hi,

just to be sure.

if I need fsck almost every day because Kubuntu 16.04 starts with a busybox prompt and I repair it with
fsck -fy /dev/sda1

returning a load of "fixed" messages on inodes then I guess the HD is breaking down, or are there other explanations?

Regards,
Jan

Timothy Miller · 04-24-2018, 04:32 PM

Do you have other OS's that you actively use on the same machine?

syg00 · 04-24-2018, 05:46 PM

Probably - or it could be just the system if it is really old. I replaced the harddisk on this laptop because of slow I/O, and not much changed. Run smartmon on the disk, it will indicate if the disk is having errors.

Janvanl · 04-25-2018, 01:47 AM

Thanks for the replies

@Timothy - I only use Kubuntu on the machine.
@syg00 - The system is only 1,5 year - thanks for the tip on smartmon in 20 years of linux I have not needed it (yet).

Regards,
Jan

Timothy Miller · 04-25-2018, 08:42 AM

Yeah, then if you're only using 1 OS, then I'd agree with syg, sounds like it is going bad.

Janvanl · 04-25-2018, 09:45 AM

I will put it in the service-department at Asus. See if we still have some form of guarantee.

Nowadays 10% or even more breaks down much too fast, nothing one can do about that.

Regards,
Jan

Janvanl · 04-27-2018, 09:33 AM

Ok
this is a case of guarantee, that is positive.

Now I need to make a copy of the 500 Gb HD.

I intend to buy an external 2 Gb usb HD.

I just saw that most of them are formatted FAT32 or NTFS
What do the linuxers here advise as a HD, and is the use
of clonezilla a good idea?

Please give me a hint, for with an OS as stable as Linux this is new to me.
I can still start Ubuntu 8.04 on HDs that are 10 years plus.

Regards,
Jan

sdowney717 · 04-27-2018, 10:55 AM

I would break off your home folder into a seperate new partition from the OS partition.

Do a new install into a 20gb OS partition and attach your new separate user partition as /home.

The advantage is great as you can easily reinstall an OS without worrying about losing your personal /home data.

You can save all your installed programs and reinstall them into the new OS. There is a program called apt-clone made to do that.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...es-4175626353/

Janvanl · 04-27-2018, 11:15 AM

Hi,
thanks for the reply.

That was not the question.

I need to copy the whole harddisk of 500 Gb. (before sending the machine to service)
I intend to that to a 2 Tb external harddisk.

Those external harddiks are delivered with fat or ntfs.
Does that matter?

I intend to use clonezilla, is that a good idea?

Regards,
Jan

sdowney717 · 04-27-2018, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janvanl

Hi,
thanks for the reply.

That was not the question.

I need to copy the whole harddisk of 500 Gb. (before sending the machine to service)
I intend to that to a 2 Tb external harddisk.

Those external harddiks are delivered with fat or ntfs.
Does that matter?

I intend to use clonezilla, is that a good idea?

Regards,
Jan

https://serverfault.com/questions/49...r-disk-cloning
Use dd. will copy the whole disk.
Boot first to a live usb so the drive is not in use when making the copy.

Clonezilla I have used, but I ended up with some problems, the drive was unbootable, maybe it is ok just for data.

There is also Ddrescue
https://www.linux.com/learn/intro-to...d-drive-rescue

Janvanl · 04-27-2018, 01:51 PM

Thanks for the links and the explanation.

I will start from CD and run GNU DDrescue.

Now one last question:

I need to buy an external drive, intend to buy an external usb-drive with 2 or 4 TB
that is enough to rescue a 500 Gb Drive.

Do I need to partition that drive new? Seems logical to me, just need a confirmation . . . !
A 1 TB free partition should do then.

When I have:
a distro on CD,
GNU DDRescue
a USB-HD with a free partition of 1 Tb

the prerequisites are met, aren't they?

Regards,
Jan

sdowney717 · 04-27-2018, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janvanl

Thanks for the links and the explanation.

I will start from CD and run GNU DDrescue.

Now one last question:

I need to buy an external drive, intend to buy an external usb-drive with 2 or 4 TB
that is enough to rescue a 500 Gb Drive.

Do I need to partition that drive new? Seems logical to me, just need a confirmation . . . !
A 1 TB free partition should do then.

When I have:
a distro on CD,
GNU DDRescue
a USB-HD with a free partition of 1 Tb

the prerequisites are met, aren't they?

Regards,
Jan

Yes, for me running from a cd makes for a very slow to boot system.
I would format the new drive with same scheme as the source disk, so if ext4, then ext4, but I wonder if that is necessary, dd might not need it.

ddrescue has advantage of if source disk has failures to read, it can keep on going quicker than dd. And it tries other ways to read which sounds good to me.

Janvanl · 04-27-2018, 03:06 PM

Thanks sdowney717

I have got something to do . . .

Kind regards,
Jan

syg00 · 04-27-2018, 06:15 PM

Sorry, I unsubscribed when I saw post #6.
Format the external as Linux native - ext4 is good, doesn't really matter. ddrescue will create an image file and a log. Make sure you save the log so you can restart later in need. Create 2 partitions on the external will probably be best - the second can be small for the logging, your notes, whatever.
Might take a while, just let it run - go take the dog for a walk, drive interstate ...

Janvanl · 04-28-2018, 06:14 AM

Thanks syg00

Thanks, a very clear answer, i will take a 4Tb one and use 2 partitions both formatted as ext4.

I will take the dog for a walk.

Kind regards,
Jan