Corruption

[Rick Stevens]

Chris Hewitt wrote:
> Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>> J.L. Coenders wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> Does anyone know how to check for corrupt files/disks, etc.? I have 
>>> some issues archiving my Mail directory (see subject: Tar/Zip/Rar 
>>> trouble) and am wondering if anyone knows how to check this?
>>
>>
>>
>> There's no way to check for corrupt files because there's no way to
>> know what's supposed to be in the file in the first place.  The only
> 
> 
> I've not been following this thread so this may have been mentioned 
> before (if so I apologise).

It's not much of a thread, Chris.  Just one message before my pithy
(or should that be "pathetic") response.

>                            If you are having so much trouble with file 
> corruption that you are looking for a way to check for it then there is 
> probably something fundermental wrong. I would suggest running fsck 
> anyway, but it could be that you disc drive is on the way out. What 
> filesystem are you using? ext2/ext3 are pretty robust, but ReiserFS is 
> reported to be more liable to corruption that some others.

Very true.  reiserfs is faster than greased owl droppings but you pay
for that with filesystem fragility.  Me?  I like cast-iron filesystems.
I've spent too many late nights futzing with recoveries.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-        Brain:  The organ with which we think that we think.        -
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