SOTL wrote:
There were 3 failures each slightly different all occurred while I was using MC under very heavy load.
HD Failure # 3
<details snipped>
At the time of the last failure I had decided to use MC to transfer files as previous transfer had been by root so root permission was required to move directory structure.
Half way through move of files from /home/branch to /home/branch/System_Data computer stopped and refused to continue with HD making strange clicking sounds.
Inspection showed trashed root directory
Strange clicking sounds - very bad news.
HD Failure # 2
<details snipped>
Half way through the search the computer stopped with the HD making beating clicking sounds. For the search crash I was using MC as a user NOT as root.
Again .
Also the HD was set up with partitions exactly as it would later be and as noted above for the third HD failure
HD Failure # 1
The details of the first crash are to foggy to relate exact details of events.
Frank,
I think you are looking in the wrong direction for your problem.
Midnight commander is not the problem, but the activity that you set into motion using it is. This leads me to suggest that you should consider looking at your hardware arrangements.
Your drives may be overheating and failing as a result. I have had that problem with an external USB2.0 IDE drive. Fortunately the drive was not trashed, although I had to perform a full fsck on the file systems on the drive. One was trashed to such an extent that I had to salvage what I could from lost+found and eventually reformat the file system. It's working fine now, ever since I ripped a HUGE heatsink out of an old power supply and joined it to the case of the external hd.
The clicking noise normally indicates a serious physical problem with a drive. Were these drives totally messed up, or was it just the file systems? As a matter of interest, what type of drives are they?
I live in a hot part of the world, and, in the last twenty years or so, I have found that the most common cause of PC hardware failure is overheating, followed closely by spikes in the mains supply caused by lightning or other reasons.
One thing I have learned is that one should never leave the cover off a busy system, especially if it is fully populated with drives, etc. The cases are designed to channel the flow of air appropriately, and leaving the cover off leads certain parts to overheat. (I am not saying that this is your problem - It is just something I have learned the hard way.)
I think that you would have experienced the same problems if you had been using tools other than Midnight Commander. Most of my drive failures have occurred while using MC, but I don't blame MC - It's just that I use it all the time.
Good luck Duncan
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