HDD failure imminent. What to do?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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bigpup
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#21 Post by bigpup »

As I recall, there is no option in the savefile dialog to put it on a USB thumb drive.
If you do what I said about changing pmedia=cd to pmedia=usbflash.

It for sure will offer saving to USB.

To make sure any save you have made for the USB thumb drive is not an issue.
Delete it and start with a fresh save, after making the pmedia change.
And booting fresh with no save.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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bigpup
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#22 Post by bigpup »

I would say there is a problem with boot order in BIOS.
That is why I suggested checking settings in the bios and making sure all settings look correct for your setup.

Bios's can hick up and sometimes need setting checks and resets.

Just something to make sure is correct.

Boot device order, is something that always needs changed in the bios, if you are changing the normal boot device to use.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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bigpup
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#23 Post by bigpup »

On acting up hard drives.

do not overlook the possibility of corrupted or fragmented file system.

Gparted can check Linux formats.

Have to use Windows chkdsk and defrag programs to check ntfs or fat32 formats.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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nubc
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#24 Post by nubc »

Even though I deleted the savefile, there exists a mounted directory by the same name in the upper level of directories. Now deleted.

Can you be more specific about the location of that pmedia setting. Is pmedia limited to the USB drive, or does it relate to the entire session? I did a pfind search for pmedia, got nothing.

Except for sda1 (mounted) all the directories in the upper level of the USB are empty.
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#25 Post by bigpup »

This is about making the USB flash drive install of Puppy, boot in the proper pupmode, for running Puppy from a USB flash drive.
On the USB flash drive will be a boot config file.
The file should be one of these:
isolinux.cfg
OR
syslinux.cfg

If Grub4dos bootloader is on the USB flash drive and used to boot it.
menu.lst is used.

In Rox file manager navigate to the file you have.
Left click on it to open it in a text editor.

Example:
isolinux.cfg
default puppy
display boot.msg
prompt 1
timeout 50

F1 boot.msg
F2 help.msg
F3 help2.msg

label puppy
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.gz pmedia=cd
Change pmedia=cd to pmedia=usbflash.

That tells the Puppy boot process that it is on a USB flash drive and to operate for running from a USB flash drive.

If Puppy is installed by using the Puppy Universal Installer.
The installer would have made this change based on what you installed Puppy on.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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nubc
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#26 Post by nubc »

There is no such boot file on the thumb drive. Maybe a file gets created during the process of creating the savefile. So perhaps I have to go through the motions of creating the savefile, and then go back and edit some file that was created. But as I recall, there was no such file on the thumb drive when I created the first savefile, or at least I didn't see one, and I was looking. By the way, the process of creating the savefile was very lengthy, like 20 minutes. Is that normal? This is a frugal install that boots from a CD. As far as I kmow, I'm not booting a USB drive. I'm only storing the savefile there.
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bigpup
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#27 Post by bigpup »

Sorry, somehow I got the idea you where booting from and running Puppy installed on a USB flash drive.

This is a frugal install that boots from a CD. As far as I know, I'm not booting a USB drive. I'm only storing the savefile there.
the process of creating the savefile was very lengthy, like 20 minutes. Is that normal?
The read write speed of the USB flash drive and the USB port you have it connected to, controls the speed.

So, unless both are USB 3.0. Writing a save to the USB flash drive can be slow.
Even USB 3.0 is not as fast as a hard drive.
Also, how much needs to be written to the save, can affect the time it takes to initially make the savefile or update it.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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nubc
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#28 Post by nubc »

Okay, this time the USB savefile worked. When I reacquired Desktop there was a floppy disc icon, named save. I clicked it, and got this message

Code: Select all

Saving RAM to savefile...
What is this? What did I do?

EDIT: For some reason, every other reboot is a live CD rather than the frugal install.
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#29 Post by bigpup »

Usually if the save file or folder is on a USB flash drive.
A save icon is placed on the desktop.
Use it to manually save any time you wish.

Normally, to keep the number of writes to the flash drive as low as possible. Saves are only updated at shutdown or reboot.
Suppose to make the flash drive last longer, because they have a limited number of writes before failure.
USB flash drives can withstand between 10,000 to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the memory technology used.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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#30 Post by bigpup »

For some reason, every other reboot is a live CD rather than the frugal install.
Do not have the live CD in the CD player when you boot.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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nubc
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#31 Post by nubc »

When the computer reboots to live CD, it does not read the /slackosave.3fs file, but instead reads only puppy_slacko_5.7.0.sfs main file. When the computer reboots to frugal install, it reads the /slackosave file, and then the puppy_slacko.sfs file.
Last edited by nubc on Sun 10 Sep 2017, 20:15, edited 2 times in total.
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nubc
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#32 Post by nubc »

bigpup wrote: Do not have the live CD in the CD player when you boot.
That doesn't work. The frugal boots from CD.

EDIT: Maybe if I remove the CD just before "Searching for Puppy files..."
Nah, that's too tricky. Every other reboot, it does not load the slackosave file. In the case where it boots to live CD, it may be getting the Puppy files off the CD instead of the USB. When it boots frugal, it gets the slackosave file and the sfs files off the USB, probably.
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bigpup
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#33 Post by bigpup »

nubc wrote:When the computer reboots to live CD, it does not read the /slackosave.3fs file, but instead reads only puppy_slacko_5.7.0.sfs file. When the computer reboots to frugal install, it reads the /slackosave file, and then the puppy_slacko.sfs file.
So, the problem is the save file is only getting seen sometimes.

I am having confusion by how you are stating what you are booting.
When the computer reboots to live CD
I am understanding that as you are booting using Slacko installed on a CD.
It sometimes finds the save file and sometimes does not.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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#34 Post by nubc »

Slacko installed on CD, probably not. Slacko .iso burned to CD, and yes, it predictably does not find the slackosave file every other reboot. It's something I can live with, but I would like to understand why.
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#35 Post by bigpup »

Slacko installed on CD, probably not. Slacko .iso burned to CD, and yes
When you burn the Slacko iso image to a CD, you have installed Slacko on the CD.
Usually called a live Slacko CD.

Exactly where is the savefile located?
Be very specific with location details!!!!!

Is this the only save file or are there other slackosaves?
If there are other slackosaves.
Exact names and locations.
Be specific with info!!!!





Where the savefile is located can affect how the live Slacko CD finds a savefile to use.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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nubc
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#36 Post by nubc »

Savefile is on thumb drive, which system has named sda1 with both hard drives disconnected. After I installed/created savefile on thumb drive, however, it became locked and unmountable. This motivated me work on the original system with two hard drives, so to that end, I completely removed thumb drive from the computer. The system booted up first try and I managed to offload about 15 GB from the full drive, sda2, before the system crashed. The system crashed, and then I found a very useful boot option, namely

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=fsck
which runs a filesystem check on the save file before booting.
After a couple more reboots I managed to offload a total of 50 GB of data

The last directory that I offloaded contained about 550 files, and the transfer of 5 of those files produced an error, that file could not be extended. What does this mean?
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#37 Post by nubc »

Here we are, 4 PM on Monday, and the new drive has arrived. My new strategy. Full install of Slacko 5.7.0 on sda1, sized 30 GB. I seem to recall that Legacy Grub did not work on Slacko 5.7, requiring a special .pet from rscn21. Can someone confirm this? I guess I'll set up the new drive, and then install the old 2 TB drive beside it, then try to transfer data. I must say, there are serious issues with the filesystem on this old drive, specifically sda2. You say GParted can fix problems non-destructively? Please advise.
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#38 Post by nubc »

Does GParted 0.16.0 (Slacko 5.7.0) have a size limitation? Can't set up the sda2 partition, which is over 3 TB in size. Is this a kernel issue, because GParted on Slacko 6.3 failed to create the partition as well. I also ran the latest live CD of GParted, and it failed.

Ach, I should have selected the gpt partition table.
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nubc
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#39 Post by nubc »

What's wrong with my grub menu.lst?

Code: Select all

timeout 10
default 0
#
title Puppy Linux Frugal on sda1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pdev1=sda1 pfix=fsck
initrd /initrd.gz
#
title Windows on (hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
#
title Ubuntu on (hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
I selected the Full install option provided by grub, but it labels the install as Frugal regardless.

Does anyone have the .pet legacy grub upgrade by rcrsn51?

I wish I could take a look at the boot folder on the old hard drive but it is not working at all right now.

I got a feeling that the MBR is munged, and I will have to perform a deep wipe of sda1 just to recover MBR.

What are the alternative designations for root (hd0,0)?

pmedia=atahd is obviously wrong, because the drive is SATA
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jd7654
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#40 Post by jd7654 »

nubc wrote:...
Ach, I should have selected the gpt partition table.
...
What's wrong with my grub menu.lst?
...
So you made your new 4TB drive as GPT? (as required for >2TB)
Did you get an error somewhere?
Puppy Grub4DOS installer will have problem with GPT disk, only supports MBR.
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