One question I have is: why is the system repeatedly rebooting?? The answer to that question may point to something about why you're losing data. I tend to find that, with Linux (and unlike some other OSs [cough]WIndows[cough]), repeated crashes tend to point to some kind of hardware error, and -- where there's a software source to the crashes -- there are people who are genuinely interested in(and capable of) resolving the problem. <div class="gmail_quote"> On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Tweeks <<a href="mailto:tweeks@rackspace.com">tweeks@rackspace.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div><div></div><div class="h5">On Thursday 12 March 2009, James McKain [Gmail] wrote: > I'm having a strange problem I've never seen before. Sometimes my system > crashes, and upon restart I am missing *at least* a handful of files. They > are completely gone and untraceable. At first I forced fsck on reboot, and > that helped recover some of them, but the problem continues. I have no > clue even where to start tracing this. Can anyone help? The system is a > new AMD Phenom on a SATA Seagate 1Tb disk. Ubuntu Ibex is the only OS > loaded, on ext3 partitioned 5 ways. > > My system just crashed today, and now that I'm back up and running there is > one file in particular that is completely gone. I haven't touched this > file in months, and it just up and disappeared. > > I checked with Seagate to see if my drive was part of the recall, it's not. > (so they say) </div></div>Test it using smart: # smartctl -T permissive -d ata -s on /dev/sda # smartctl -T permissive -d ata -t long /dev/sda && sleep 2h && smartctl -T permissive -d ata -l selftest /dev/sda If the output is all %00, then the drive is passing it's self test. If it's failing before it reached %00 (down form 100%) then it's failing.. get your stuff off asap. Tweeks Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message (including any attached or embedded documents) is intended for the exclusive and confidential use of the individual or entity to which this message is addressed, and unless otherwise expressly indicated, is confidential and privileged information of Rackspace. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of the enclosed material is prohibited. If you receive this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail at <a href="mailto:abuse@rackspace.com">abuse@rackspace.com</a>, and delete the original message. Your cooperation is appreciated. _______________________________________________ Ext3-users mailing list <a href="mailto:Ext3-users@redhat.com">Ext3-users@redhat.com</a> <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/ext3-users" target="_blank">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/ext3-users</a> </blockquote></div> -- Stephen Samuel <a href="http://www.bcgreen.com">http://www.bcgreen.com</a> 778-861-7641