Computerus
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:03 am
I've suspected for awhile that the issues I've been having with OpenSUSE aren't actually OpenSUSE problems but signs of a failing drive.
They are entirely consistent with what I'd expect from a failing hard drive -- occasionally corrupt files, frequent issues fixed by either an fsck or reinstalling a program/recreating a conf file/etc.
But here's the thing: it's not on a spinning-platter drive, it's on an SSD.
This is my first SSD, and it's salvage. (Got it from a broken laptop at an old job; it wasn't reusable in one of the newer laptops because it uses a weird-ass connector* instead of standard SATA. Fits fine in a desktop with an adapter and a caddy, but wouldn't work in another laptop.) So I'm no expert. But my understanding is that SSD's don't fail the same way that disk drives do, that they don't get a few bad sectors with minor issues that slowly spread but are instead likely to just fail all at once. Is that accurate? And if so and we can eliminate the "slowly failing drive with minor corruption" possibility, what else could it be?
The next thing I'm inclined to suspect is the two adapters. That many extra potential points of failure always make my nose twitch. Trouble is it's a bit tricky to troubleshoot. As it happens I DO have another similar (but smaller) drive with the same two adapters, so I guess I could swap any one or two of the three parts out (or even all three -- putting different HD's in different computers) and see how they behave. But I really don't have that kind of time right now.
Fortunately I've got a perfectly functional secondary boot of Debian/XFCE. But it's irritating not being able to run my main OS, sometimes for days or even weeks at a time. And I DO like OpenSUSE, when it works, and if the problem is my hardware and not OpenSUSE, I'd quite like to stick with it. (And, conversely, if the problem is OpenSUSE and not my hardware, I'd like to determine that for sure and use that drive for something else.)
Probably the best solution is just to save pennies until I can buy a new SSD and answer my question definitively then. But this has been a pretty tough month for bills (wife sick, dog sick, brakes going -- it's like a city-boy version of a country song) and that won't be happening right away.
Anyway, suggestions wouldn't hurt. Otherwise, I'll keep on doing what I'm doing and hoping the next reboot will be the reboot home.
* that is not my specific drive, but it has a good photo of the connector I'm talking about.
They are entirely consistent with what I'd expect from a failing hard drive -- occasionally corrupt files, frequent issues fixed by either an fsck or reinstalling a program/recreating a conf file/etc.
But here's the thing: it's not on a spinning-platter drive, it's on an SSD.
This is my first SSD, and it's salvage. (Got it from a broken laptop at an old job; it wasn't reusable in one of the newer laptops because it uses a weird-ass connector* instead of standard SATA. Fits fine in a desktop with an adapter and a caddy, but wouldn't work in another laptop.) So I'm no expert. But my understanding is that SSD's don't fail the same way that disk drives do, that they don't get a few bad sectors with minor issues that slowly spread but are instead likely to just fail all at once. Is that accurate? And if so and we can eliminate the "slowly failing drive with minor corruption" possibility, what else could it be?
The next thing I'm inclined to suspect is the two adapters. That many extra potential points of failure always make my nose twitch. Trouble is it's a bit tricky to troubleshoot. As it happens I DO have another similar (but smaller) drive with the same two adapters, so I guess I could swap any one or two of the three parts out (or even all three -- putting different HD's in different computers) and see how they behave. But I really don't have that kind of time right now.
Fortunately I've got a perfectly functional secondary boot of Debian/XFCE. But it's irritating not being able to run my main OS, sometimes for days or even weeks at a time. And I DO like OpenSUSE, when it works, and if the problem is my hardware and not OpenSUSE, I'd quite like to stick with it. (And, conversely, if the problem is OpenSUSE and not my hardware, I'd like to determine that for sure and use that drive for something else.)
Probably the best solution is just to save pennies until I can buy a new SSD and answer my question definitively then. But this has been a pretty tough month for bills (wife sick, dog sick, brakes going -- it's like a city-boy version of a country song) and that won't be happening right away.
Anyway, suggestions wouldn't hurt. Otherwise, I'll keep on doing what I'm doing and hoping the next reboot will be the reboot home.
* that is not my specific drive, but it has a good photo of the connector I'm talking about.