interesting file operation problem

[stefan]

hi,


sometimes when I copy files to an external storage device, the files are
not saved correctly. In fact, there can not be viewed. the files appears
correctly on my computer until I disconnect and reconnect the device.
and after that, the files are missing on my computer also.
This problem appears from time to time, so is not a constant issue.
is there a solution for fixing the file persistence? or some settings
are wrong related to file management?
I mention that I use vinux 3.2.1.

thanks,


stefan.

[Robert D. Crawford]

Hello stefan,

Not that I will definitely be able to help, but more info might be in
order.

1. How are you copying the files? mv or cp in the shell or from
nautilus?

2. What type of external storage device? I assume some sort of USB
mass storage device but I don't like to assume.

3. How much time elapses from when you copy the files to when you
disconnect the external device? Are you unmounting the device or just
unplugging it?

4. Is there anything else we might need to know?

I've never had this problem before but I am pretty sure that there is a
buffer the files get moved to before they are copied and deleted. Used
to be the case that you had to manually run sync a few times before
shutting the system down. I typically do a copy and then verify before
I delete the original file. I also never just unplug a device. I
always unmount or safely eject before removing though, perhaps, this is
a holdover from the past where you had to manually mount/unmount CDs,
USB sticks, floppy disks, etc.

Aah, you kids don't know how good you have it.

Best regards,
rdc

--
Robert D. Crawford robd...@gmail.com

[bando?ers]

There's a good over view on safely disconnecting usb storage devices on the how to geek site. I think it came out quite recently.
If I run across a link to same I'll post here. It may not solve the problem, but does help put things in perspective.

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[stefan]

thanks for the answers!
I use nautilus. Now I know what is the problem. I can not safely remove
some usb flash memory devices.
But another question> what is the difference between the eject option
and safely remove?
I wanted to post the error message which appears when I try to safely
remove the usb drive, but now it works. Will post it next time.

[Jeffrey Malewski]

Hi Stefan,
I've had issues with copying or moving files in nautilus myself, mine have
mostly been permissions issues and accessing the files on another system.
I've found that there is a dialog box that comes up while the files are
being copied or moved. Wait for the dialog box to close before disconnecting
your external drive. Also to unmount the drive go into System/Administration
and open the Disk Utility. Find the drive you want to unmount in the left
panel and click on it. The right panel should display a list of the drive's
properties (size, partitions, volume labels etc) Towards the bottom of the
panel you'll find a button to unmount the volume, click on it. It should
switch to "mount volume". Once it has you are safe to disconnect your
external drive.

I haven't used the eject option, but I'm assuming it means eject removable
media.

HTH,
Jeff

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-----

[Robert D. Crawford]

stefan <stef...@gmail.com> writes:

> thanks for the answers!

No problem.

> I use nautilus. Now I know what is the problem. I can not safely
> remove some usb flash memory devices.

The reason I've normally found for this is that the drive is "busy". If
you have a shell visiting that drive or a file open on the drive then
you cannot cleanly umount.

> But another question> what is the difference between the eject option
> and safely remove?

I have no idea. I tend to unmount from the desktop where I can right
click on the device icon and select one of the options. I get the eject
options from my android phone, USB memory sticks, and, I believe,
optical disks. I get the safely remove option from my external 1/2TB
USB HDD.

> I wanted to post the error message which appears when I try to safely
> remove the usb drive, but now it works. Will post it next time.

Just in case you didn't know, many times these messages get written to
the file /var/log/messages. I tend to start examining this file with
tail and then combine that with grep if necessary. The man pages for
tail and grep will lead you there but here is a really simple and
incomplete list:

tail <file> will print the last 10 lines of <file>
tail -n <number> <file> will print the last <number> of lines in <file>

grep <string> <file> will find all instances of <string> in <file> and
print the lines to stdout. If piping output to grep the <file> is
unnecessary.

grep -v <string> <file> will print all lines that do NOT match the
<string>

grep -i <string> <file> will find all instances of <string> in <file>
but does so with no regard for case.

Now, we combine for a few examples:

I want to see all instances of the string "acpi" in the last 50 lines of
/var/log/messages without regard for case:

tail -n 50 /var/log/messages | grep -i acpi

which gives this output:

Jul 24 05:59:45 e6410 kernel: [1694002.370218] ata1.00: ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:a0 (NOP) rejected by device (Stat=0x51 Err=0x04)
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341070] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Returned by Handler for [EmbeddedControl] (20100428/evregion-474)
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341128] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.ECDV.ECR1] (Node ffff880216c54d80), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341195] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECBT] (Node ffff880216c54e60), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341227] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECG2] (Node ffff880216c54f20), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341258] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECG6] (Node ffff880216c54fe0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341292] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.BAT0._BST] (Node ffff880216c565e0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341332] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Evaluating _BST (20100428/battery-442)
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788633] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Returned by Handler for [EmbeddedControl] (20100428/evregion-474)
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788706] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.ECDV.ECW1] (Node ffff880216c54dc0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788781] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECWB] (Node ffff880216c54ee0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788809] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECG6] (Node ffff880216c54fe0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788839] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.BAT0._BST] (Node ffff880216c565e0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788912] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Evaluating _BST (20100428/battery-442)

Now, let's exclude instances of the word "Exception"

tail -n 50 /var/log/messages | grep -i acpi | grep -v "Exception"

Jul 24 05:59:45 e6410 kernel: [1694002.370218] ata1.00: ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:a0 (NOP) rejected by device (Stat=0x51 Err=0x04)
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341128] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.ECDV.ECR1] (Node ffff880216c54d80), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341195] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECBT] (Node ffff880216c54e60), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341227] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECG2] (Node ffff880216c54f20), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341258] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECG6] (Node ffff880216c54fe0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:46 e6410 kernel: [1694003.341292] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.BAT0._BST] (Node ffff880216c565e0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788706] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.ECDV.ECW1] (Node ffff880216c54dc0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788781] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECWB] (Node ffff880216c54ee0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788809] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\ECG6] (Node ffff880216c54fe0), AE_TIME
Jul 24 05:59:47 e6410 kernel: [1694004.788839] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.BAT0._BST] (Node ffff880216c565e0), AE_TIME

You can search for strings of multiple words by enclosing in quotes.

Perhaps this will help.

Best regards,
rdc