A new issue on a Xubuntu 19.10 setup - OS is on an SSD, a 2TB HDD is divided into three NTFS partitions and used as primary storage. Each partition is mounted to '/media/NTFS1..2..3' at every restart via fstab.

When trying to transfer larger files from the SSD to HDD, the PC invariably hangs before the transfer completes, requiring a forced shutdown with the power button. Other than leaving the remnants of what was transferred before a crash, everything works as it should after the restart. Smaller files can be transferred successfully sometimes.

Does it sound like some kind of bottleneck causing the problem?

Curious why NTFS, are you sharing this drive with a Windows install?

Open top and see if it still reports especially memory and swap.

Thanks for the replies, both!

@sevendogsbsd - Indeed, a carry over from the Windows 7 install I had on the SSD since forever and until now. Although it's rarely connected, I have Windows 10 on a separate SSD for those tasks where I'm too lazy/stupid to learn how to do it on Linux - keeping the same NTFS partitions as they were seems to make this all work for my brain.

Might the different filesystems be part of the explanation for the crashes?


@jefro Should I be opening top immediately after one of these hang-and-forced-restart events? Doing so now (for the first time ever) before attempting any big transfers, shows as attached.

I won't pretend to understand this (particularly the distinction between "free" and "buff/cache"), but I do recognise the reported totals (the giant swap file is a result of my own first guess at fixing this, without success). Anything suspicious therein?

Attached Thumbnails

 

Check syslog for disk errors.

Are the devices both internal (i.e. not plugged in to USB) ?. What happens if you copy from the command line ?.

Not sure when you saw this top view but it shows two things. CPU isn't the issue. Ram is lowish. top ought to be viewed before and during the test. Watch also if top numbers fail to change.

Does the gui have a system information to add to this?