[Techtalk] finding bad files

[Wim De Smet]

On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 12:22 AM Miriam English <mim at miriam-english.org>
wrote:

> The drive may be failing, though it isn't terribly old and being an
> external drive I only connect and switch it on when I actually need to
> read or write data from/to it. The data may have become affected during
> one of the very frequent blackouts we have here. Or I wonder if dust on
> the USB connectors could have damaged the data, though I think that they
> use checksums to guard against that. Looks like I'll have to save the
> money to buy another 2 terabyte (or larger) drive. (I wish solid state
> drives would get cheaper more quickly.)
>

Sometimes a younger drive fails prematurely. The rated lifetime is kind of
statistical, most drives last far longer, some die sooner. Though it sounds
like it's just normal file system corruption from power failure.


>
> I used to have an uninterruptible power supply, but it got destroyed a
> while back when lightning struck while I was shutting everything down
> because I heard a storm approaching. Since then I've become a big fan of
> ultra-low-power computing and want to move entirely to solar panels and
> batteries in the near future. I'm sick of having thousands of dollars in
> computers and other equipment destroyed by the electrical grid over the
> years.
>
>
In the meantime, surge protector power strips may be a good investment?
They're comparatively cheap and I've heard good things. It might help to
avoid damage to components when the grid has issues.

Regards,
Wim