On 2020-04-22 13:52, Default User wrote:
Hey,
A recent thread got me to thinking. So I checked my primary (only
installed) ssd:
sudo smartctl --test=long /dev/sda
which promised to run the tests, but returned to a command prompt,
with no further messages.
So after the promised test end time I did:
sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda
which gave this:
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
I pay attention to this item.
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x02) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
I pay attention to these items.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE
UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x0032 095 095 050 Old_age
Always - 0/5466601
5 Retired_Block_Count 0x0033 100 100 003 Pre-fail
Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec 0x0032 091 091 000 Old_age
Always - 8197h+53m+29.020s
I ignore the "old age" and "pre-fail" notations.
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining
LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 8197 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 8196 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 7883 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 7883 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 7883 -
# 6 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 7003 -
# 7 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 7002 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 6999 -
I pay attention to these items.
Since, I recall, that ssd drives do tend to fail quickly and without
notice, is it time to get a new drive and reinstall from scratch?
I have seen lots of HDD failures and a few USB flash drive failures, but
no SSD failures (yet). The USB flash drive failures do tend towards
all-or-nothing or all-or-very-slow, sometimes accompanied with the smell
of roasting electronics.
If so, recommendations?
I prefer Intel and Samsung, but any major brand should do.
I think I want to continue to use an ssd, because even though it can
fail without warning, this would be in a laptop, and I want to avoid
shock damage to a mechanical drive at all costs.
The only HDD's I buy are large capacity 3.5" SATA enterprise HDD's for
storage and backups.
I an currently running Debian Unstable, on a 5-year-old laptop (Dell
Inspiron 3000 series, 8Gb ram, Intel i3 processor, traditional BIOS
booting). It has space for only one, 2.5-inch drive.
lsblk:
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 111.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 28G 0 part /
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 7.9G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda6 8:6 0 76G 0 part /home
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
The 120Gb ssd is "adequate"; root partition is 38% full, and home
partition is 45% full.
Swap partition is rarely if ever used; not sure i it is really necessary.
A ~10.6 GB root is in the ballpark for a Debian graphical workstation.
I put my bulk data on a Samba server.
I tried running without swap -- those systems crashed. Now I do 1-2 GB.
User case is conventional, nothing taxing. No video editing, gaming, etc.
And yes, I do back up, home partition only, using rsync to an external
usb drive:
sudo rsync -avvzHAXPish --delete /home/default
/media/default/USBHD005/Backup_of_home_directory_of_Dell_Debian_dimwit
You should get two more -- keep one on-site, keep one near-site, keep
one off-site, and rotate them periodically (weekly, bi-monthly, etc.).
I suppose I could [learn to] do a full system backup and restore to a
new drive, if I had to.
I have never done an old-school dump(8)/ restore(8). I keep my system
images small enough to fit on "16 GB" devices. I take and restore
images with dd(1), which is available in the Debian installer rescue
shell (but preferably with a USB live drive and a Perl script I wrote).
As other readers have mentioned, Clonezilla is an option.
And if I do need to try to copy my current install to a new drive
(instead of a fresh install), what is the EASIEST way to do that?
Building up a blank disk into a working system drive requires many
tedious steps -- you have to move the partition table(s), bootloader,
all partitions, and the contents of those partitions (e.g. swap,
filesystems, whatever). Things get harder if you add encryption, LVM,
or non-standard filesystems like ZFS. The installer takes care of many
of those details for you. I believe Clonezilla also does so.
A raw binary copy with dd(1) bypasses all of those messy details except
for relocating the backup GPT partition table if the device size has
changed. That is one reason why I still use MBR.
David
