f3 - Test the health of your flash media

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rcrsn51
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f3 - Test the health of your flash media

#1 Post by rcrsn51 »

See the original discussion here.

Look for f3 in the System menu or in a submenu.

F3 can also be used as a non-destructive "bleaching" tool for flash drives because it writes random data over all the empty space on the drive.

1. Mount the flash drive.
2. Run f3 and select the flash drive partition.
3. Click the "Write to" button. When done, close the terminal window.
4. Repeat with "Read back".
5. Click "Quit". The temporary files are deleted.

-----------------------

Update: Version 5.0 of f3 also contains the experimental tools like f3probe as described here. It can test whether your flash device is genuine and is faster than the full write/read procedure. There are several caveats.

1. To run the experimental tools, you need a Puppy with libudev.so.1, like Tahrpup 604. Symlinking an older version of libudev won't work.

2. The tools are located in /usr/local/f3, so you must run them from the command line.

Code: Select all

./f3probe /dev/sdb
3. They operate at the device level, not on mounted partitions. Don't pick the wrong device!

4. You need a lot of RAM (2-3 GB) to run f3probe in non-destructive mode. Otherwise, run

Code: Select all

./f3probe --destructive /dev/sdb
This destroys all data on the drive! You will need to reformat the drive when done.

5. Be patient - f3probe may take several minutes.

[Edit] Version 5.0 deleted due to lack of testing.

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f3-3.1.pet
Updated 2016-03-07
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screenie.png
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Last edited by rcrsn51 on Mon 07 Mar 2016, 20:08, edited 18 times in total.

Jasper

#2 Post by Jasper »

Hi rcrsn51 (et al),

Thank you very much for your pet which works well, but I hope I do not seem churlish if I comment that it might be ideal to add an option to be able to set the size of the write and read speed test to say, 500 MB (or some sensible figure) as well as keeping the current Remaining Space Health Check which also reports speeds (though taking a long time if the drive/partition is non-usb3 with lots of unused space).

My regards

EDIT:

The suggestion in your post immediately below also works well. Thank you again
_______________________________________________
Last edited by Jasper on Fri 11 Jul 2014, 00:39, edited 2 times in total.

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rcrsn51
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#3 Post by rcrsn51 »

This applet is just a GUI front-end for f3. What I think you are asking for is not an option in f3.

If you want to write a small amount of data, press Ctrl-C to kill the writing step and read it back.
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Fri 11 Jul 2014, 07:27, edited 2 times in total.

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neerajkolte
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#4 Post by neerajkolte »

Thanks for the pet and GUI rcrsn51.

Edit: Could you please give me links to know how to make simple GUI like this.
- Neeraj.
"One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code."
- Ken Thompson

“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.â€￾
- Amara’s Law.

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rcrsn51
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#5 Post by rcrsn51 »

neerajkolte wrote:Could you please give me links to know how to make simple GUI like this..
Read here.

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ASRI éducation
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Re: f3 - Test the health of your flash media

#6 Post by ASRI éducation »

rcrsn51 wrote:f3-3.0.pet
I just discovered this discussion.
Thank you rcrsn51!
Projet ASRI éducation => [url=http://asri-education.org/]Association[/url] | [url=http://forum.asri-education.org/]Forum[/url] | [url=http://dl01.asri-education.org/]Dépôt[/url] | [url=http://kids.asri-education.org/]Espace kids[/url]

Pelo

Très bien !

#7 Post by Pelo »

Très bien !

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rcrsn51
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#8 Post by rcrsn51 »

F3 updated to include the experimental tools like f3probe. It can test whether your flash device is genuine and is faster than the full write/read procedure.

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drunkjedi
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#9 Post by drunkjedi »

Hi rcrsn51,

Thanks for compiling the experimental build.

Does this also include f3fix?

Thanks.

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rcrsn51
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#10 Post by rcrsn51 »

In the time it took to ask the question, you could have downloaded the PET and checked yourself.

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drunkjedi
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#11 Post by drunkjedi »

Sorry I am at work and on mobile.
Will do when home.

phat7
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#12 Post by phat7 »

In the time it took to write your charming response you could have written "Yes" (32 times faster) or "No" (48 times faster).

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drunkjedi
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#13 Post by drunkjedi »

Phat7, no need to stretch this buddy.

I misinterpreted his post.
I thought he just mentioned f3probe.
But he said "tools like", so it means both f3probe and f3fix.
Sorry.

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Mike Walsh
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#14 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hallo, rcrsn51.

Just discovered this thread. Thanks for this. I've already used it to test one of my SanDisk Cruzer 'Blades', which had been behaving very oddly since I bought it 3 months ago. Turns out it was actually coming up as a SanDisk 'Ultra' (which I've not heard of before), And the thing that made me want to test it, is the fact that although I could install a Puppy to it, it would not boot at all. Not even using CBC; it just hung.

And if I re-booted (resetting the BIOS to hard drive as normal), leaving the stick plugged into the powered hub that I use seemed to actually prevent the machine from booting. Even removing the stick and rebooting again, it still wouldn't boot.....until I powered down manually, unplugged the machine, and held the power button for 30 seconds to completely clear RAM. Then, it would boot normally.

Never had a stick do this before. Test results showed that the media was thoroughly corrupted.....and nothing I could do to it would make it behave as it ought to have done. So, I've given it up as a bad job, returned it to the store, and exchanged it for another. Which is behaving itself impeccably..!

Apologies for not taking a screenshot, or otherwise saving the output; didn't think of it at the time.....and in light of the outcome, academic anyway. But this would at least let me 'take a look' at it, where nothing else would even touch it. This is useful.

I think the stick must have been a 'Friday afternoon' job!

Thanks again.


Mike. :wink:

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rcrsn51
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#15 Post by rcrsn51 »

@Mike: Did you run the standard write/read test or the new f3probe test?

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Flash
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#16 Post by Flash »

Thanks, rcrsn51, f3 looks useful if I can get it running. I'm running Quirky Werewolf64-7,3,3 from DVD, entirely in RAM. When I clicked on the f3.-5.0.pet, it tried to install but then said it didn't. The f3-3.0.pet said it installed, and it showed up in the System menu. When clicked on in the System menu, the f3 GUI opened, but gave this error message when I tried it on a mounted USB stick.
As you can see, Werewolf64-7.3.3 has a symlink from /lib/libudev.so.1 to /lib/libudev.so.1.6.0.
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rcrsn51
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#17 Post by rcrsn51 »

F3 is a 32-bit app. It contains 32-bit compiled programs. It won't run on a 64-bit OS.

The first PET of f3-5.0 that I posted was made in Tahrpup 604. It had xz compression and wouldn't install in other Puppies. I have since fixed that.

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Flash
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#18 Post by Flash »

Ah, okay. I thought 32-bit apps would run in a 64-bit OS, but obviously not the other way around. Thanks anyway. :)

sheldonisaac
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32 & 64 stuff

#19 Post by sheldonisaac »

Flash wrote:Ah, okay. I thought 32-bit apps would run in a 64-bit OS, but obviously not the other way around. Thanks anyway. :)
Flash, I think 01micko said that there was an addition that enables 32-bit apps to run in slacko64

Maybe such are available for other 32-bit systems .

I've decided not to bother; I'll just use 32-bit OS & apps.

Perhaps some 32-bit apps would run in a 64-bit OS, but no guarantees?
rcrsn51 or other expert can let us know.


Sheldon
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Mike Walsh
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#20 Post by Mike Walsh »

@rcrsn51:-

Morning, Bill.
rcrsn51 wrote:@Mike: Did you run the standard write/read test or the new f3probe test?
As I recall, I ran the write/read test. For some reason, I couldn't get f3-5.0 to install, so I then installed f3-3.0 in its place. From the results I got, I didn't think there would have been much point testing it further; seeing that almost every file written was corrupted on read-back, that was reason enough to take it back for an exchange..!

As I said, apologies for not taking a snapshot of what happened; my timing wasn't too well thought out, I'm afraid. :oops: What d'you think the f3probe test might have revealed?


Mike. :wink:

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