random file corruption on NTFS

[Tony Abernethy]

I wouldn't say that FAT32 is "lenient", HOWEVER
it is almost certain that NTFS is extremely dependent on there not being ANY
errors anywhere else, or VERY bad things will be done.
Cheap shot, if you can identify files (or clusters of files) is to rename
the stuff something like BAD-DATA
----and (very important this) NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT "DELETING" the stuff
(What happens is that deleting puts the clusters or whatever on the
free-track/whatever list)
sometimes they will be the first to get "re-used".

FAT32 is well-defined and well-known.
NTFS has some very strange goings on
Sufficiently strange that you always wanted to be able to boot early NT4
servers from FLOPPY!


  -----Original Message-----
  From: rsync-bounces+tony=servacorp.com at lists.samba.org
[mailto:rsync-bounces+tony=servacorp.com at lists.samba.org]On Behalf Of darrin
hodges
  Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 12:49 AM
  To: rsync at lists.samba.org
  Subject: Re: random file corruption on NTFS


  Hi Tony,
  the volume was previously a FAT32 before it was reformatted to NTFS.  I've
wondered
  about the drive being dodgy, is it that FAT32 is more leanient in terms of
file errors?


  thanks.
  Darrin.


  On 5/12/06, Tony Abernethy <tony at servacorp.com> wrote:
    Wild guess, but that sounds a lot like a disk drive going bad.
    An error message like The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
    There is essentially no way that an application (including rsync)
    can cause that kind of thing.
    You probably can cause that by messing with the controller registers
    or sticking strange stuff into the control or data lines.
    A bad place on the disk (and it has to be pretty bad or you will not
notice it)
    or cables that aren't really plugged in
    or a failing or very weak power supply are all potential causes.

    Probably no way to know, but does it happen on the same sectors every
time?
    FAT32 is probably on a different drive, but
    (essentially they are race conditions or timing errors)
    working on one and failing on the other doesn't mean much.
    Although,FAT32 is probably much less likely to lose you data
    (I've seen NTFS "fixed" by wiping out a directory that was unreadable)

    Curiously, backups have to be the standard place to discover you need
the backup.
    (while in the process of destroying the backup you need;)
      -----Original Message-----
      From: rsync-bounces+tony=servacorp.com at lists.samba.org
[mailto:rsync-bounces+tony=servacorp.com at lists.samba.org]On Behalf Of darrin
hodges
      Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 12:06 AM
      To: rsync at lists.samba.org
      Subject: random file corruption on NTFS


      Hi,
      We are using Rsync version 2.6.8  protocol version 29 on a winNT box
to backup a linux (RedHat 9.0) box (same version of rsync) and everynight a
different file on the NT server is reported as being corrupt, there are no
errors in the rsync logs on either side.  NT Event log records:


        Event Type: Error
        Event Source: Ntfs
        Event Category: Disk
        Event ID: 55
        Date: 12/05/2006
        Time: 3:05:19 AM
        User: N/A
        Computer: [ Deleted ]
        Description:
        The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable.
Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume TESTDATA.

        For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp .
        Data:
        0000: 00 00 04 00 02 00 52

      we use BrightStor ARCserve Backup as backup software on the NT server,
it reports:

        Unable to open file.
(FILE=F:\database\base_currency\country_list.frm, EC=The file or directory
is corrupted and unreadable.)


      The file reported is different every day, we have tried turning off
the 'z' option, as that was causing an error when attempting to transfer
large already compressed files but did not resolve  this particular problem.
We have noticed that the error does not occur on a FAT32  volume, is there a
problem with rsync interacting with the NTFS?.

      Thanks
      Darrin.








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