I get this error when coping data to a new drive. It will backup about 20Gig, then the copy will stop and I can't access anything on the backup drive, even a simple ls returns this error:
ls: reading directory .: Input/output error

That was on a brand new drive, I tried it with a second new drive, same error.

What could be causing that?

Is the new drive formatted, if so what filesystem and partitions? Have you checked how much free space is available before starting to copy? Try running after the drive is mounted to see what partitions are mounted and what free space is available.

Yes, ext3, lots of space free:
/dev/hdd1 294G 19G 261G 7% /backup

check the output of dmesg for (hopefully) more detail. I had
issues like that when we first got a MoBo with a brand-new
nvidia chipset. Went away with a newer kernel.



Cheers,
Tink

This is what dmesg is saying:
printk: 21 messages suppressed.
Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 625137215
Buffer I/O error on device hdd1, logical block 78142144
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 625137215
Buffer I/O error on device hdd1, logical block 78142144
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 223
Buffer I/O error on device hdd1, logical block 20
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 231
Buffer I/O error on device hdd1, logical block 21
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 239
Buffer I/O error on device hdd1, logical block 22
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 247
Buffer I/O error on device hdd1, logical block 23
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 255
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 263
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 271
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 279
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 287
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 295
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 303
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 311
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 625142272
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 625142272
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 32
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 40
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 48
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 56
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 12375
EXT3-fs error (device hdd1): ext3_find_entry: reading directory #2 offset 0
end_request: I/O error, dev hdd, sector 12375
EXT3-fs error (device hdd1): ext3_find_entry: reading directory #2 offset 0

This looks like a damaged disk drive, but it is quite odd that you would see the same error on two new drives.

Yep, pretty unlikely especially stopping after copying almost the exact same number of megs.

Im going to try a new drive, new kernel, new cable, and new power and sata port.

Thanks its working now, and I believe it was the kernel that was causing it to fail. I just backed up 300GB to the drive.