(Apologies for the OT nature, but for completness' sake, it should stay
on-list)
On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 07:29:05AM +1100, Felix Karpfen wrote:
Right at the start of the install Linux (Debian) asked if I wanted to
check the HD for faulty Sectors. To which I foolishly said No.
That's not necessarily a mistake per se, Felix. It's also conceivable
these errors were realised sometime after install. But, in general,
running badblocks (which is what that question was essentially asking)
is the more prudent course of action.
It appears that I have maligned both fvwm2 and Gnome. And, if the
problem is greater than faulty Sectors and cannot be fixed by fsck,
then I had better invest in a second HD.
Indeed. Given the HW symptoms, I'm more likely to make the assumption
that these played a part in the errors you were receiving with FVWM and
GNOME in this instance. If it does crash again, however, I would be
very interested in seeing a backtrace from a corefile.
The advice in the replies has helped to avoid total disaster. I am
fairly conscientious about making backups. But I usually leave them
on a separate partition of the HD; once every 3 months or so, I burn
This is perhaps OK in the short-term, but no so good in the long-term.
What happens if one critical partition goes -- or a specific sector is
beyond repair? That could have a knock-on effect in accessing the other
partitions on that drive.
the backups onto a CD. It looks as though I need to do that much more
frequently - while awaiting the arrival of the next crash.
*nods*. I also tend to (if you have the options) scp some of my
important files as well, as a backup. As well as a CD backup, both
locally stored here, and one remotely --- just in case. :)
-- Thomas Adam
--
I'm brutal, honest, and afraid of you.
