Are there any good hard drive error checking utilities for Windows 7?



  • My secondary hard drive has been having fits lately, and I don't know if chkdsk is doing its job right. Are there any good third-party programs that could help?



  • Back everything up, check the SMART status, most of HD utilities are more or less useless.

    Be prepared, HD failure is on its way.



  • @JBridge said:

    My secondary hard drive has been having fits lately, and I don't know if chkdsk is doing its job right. Are there any good third-party programs that could help?

    If this hapens again, contact hd manufacturer and give them peace of your mind.



  • I think this one might be my fault. My E: drive is actually two 1 TB drives RAIDed together. That'd explain why it burned out after only a year of use.



  • @JBridge said:

    I think this one might be my fault. My E: drive is actually two 1 TB drives RAIDed together. That'd explain why it burned out after only a year of use.

    I had rotten luck with several 1tb hd, well at least I could salvage the information on one before it died and windows refused to mount it any longer

    Try to use drives with the least ammount of platter posible to avoid vibration



  • Sadly I agree with our North Korean spy here. If it's dying, it's dying.

    I just replaced my the dual 1.5 TB spinners in my computer with a 256 GB SSD and left the secondary HD alone for backups. Turns out? I left in a drive that's going bad. It seems to mostly work, but about every other day Windows Backup will report a checksum error. I've done 2 full disk scans (which takes like 9 hours for a 1.5 TB drive) and each time it finds new bad blocks. Bleh.

    The good news is that HDs usually degrade instead of failing outright, so you have some warning to replace them.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Sadly I agree with our North Korean spy
    Who?

    There is nothing worth spying here


  • Garbage Person

    @blakeyrat said:

    Sadly I agree with our North Korean spy here. If it's dying, it's dying.

    I just replaced my the dual 1.5 TB spinners in my computer with a 256 GB SSD and left the secondary HD alone for backups. Turns out? I left in a drive that's going bad. It seems to mostly work, but about every other day Windows Backup will report a checksum error. I've done 2 full disk scans (which takes like 9 hours for a 1.5 TB drive) and each time it finds new bad blocks. Bleh.

    The good news is that HDs usually degrade instead of failing outright, so you have some warning to replace them.

    The bad news is that 60% of Western Digital's manufacturing capability and pretty close to all of Toshiba's are underwater in Thailand and as a result, we're facing a shortfall of about 70 million hard drives (around 30% of total global demand) for the quarter - and it's likely to be worse next quarter because neither are going to be able to resume ANY lost production until Q2 2011 at the earliest. End result is that if you're a manufacturer and buying a containerload of drives, prices are unaffected - but those drives are getting yanked out of retail channels (which have the lowest margins) and geeks are getting the shaft mightily.


  • @Weng said:

    neither are going to be able to resume ANY lost production until Q2 2011

    So... we should be pretty much right by now, then? :P



  • @serguey123 said:

    most of HD utilities are more or less useless.
    Sadly, yes.@serguey123 said:
    Back everything up
    A long long time ago, when I was new to computers and didn't know very much, it occurred to me that I should do frequent backups.  I am constantly amazed by the number of people I meet who suffer a hard drive failure and have no backups at all, and look at you with a completely puzzled look if you even ask about it..@serguey123 said:
    check the SMART status
    I've read a lot of things which say that SMART is useless, i.e., it will tell you everything is fine right up till the minute the drive fails.  I don't know if this is actually true.



  • @El_Heffe said:

    I've read a lot of things which say that SMART is useless, i.e., it will tell you everything is fine right up till the minute the drive fails.  I don't know if this is actually true.

    If SMART says the drive is bad, then the drive is definitely bad. If SMART says the drive is good, then the drive could be bad.

    Basically, by the time SMART triggers and you get a warning, the drive's already toast. For instance, my 1.5 TB drive that develops new bad blocks roughly every minute? SMART says it's fine.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @El_Heffe said:
    I've read a lot of things which say that SMART is useless, i.e., it will tell you everything is fine right up till the minute the drive fails.  I don't know if this is actually true.

    If SMART says the drive is bad, then the drive is definitely bad. If SMART says the drive is good, then the drive could be bad.

    Basically, by the time SMART triggers and you get a warning, the drive's already toast. For instance, my 1.5 TB drive that develops new bad blocks roughly every minute? SMART says it's fine.

    Which is pretty much what I've read elsewhere --- SMART isn't.

     



  • @El_Heffe said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    @El_Heffe said:
    I've read a lot of things which say that SMART is useless, i.e., it will tell you everything is fine right up till the minute the drive fails.  I don't know if this is actually true.
    If SMART says the drive is bad, then the drive is definitely bad. If SMART says the drive is good, then the drive could be bad.

    Basically, by the time SMART triggers and you get a warning, the drive's already toast. For instance, my 1.5 TB drive that develops new bad blocks roughly every minute? SMART says it's fine.

    Which is pretty much what I've read elsewhere --- SMART isn't.

    Hmmm, it worked for me, at least it is better than nothing.

    Taking preemptive measures is of course the best course of action.



  • Sadly, due to thread drift, nobody has actually answered the question. I have heard only good things about SpinRite, available from: http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm



  • @sinistral said:

    Sadly, due to thread drift, nobody has actually answered the question. I have heard only good things about SpinRite, available from: http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

    We answered the question by correcting the flawed assumption the question reveals.



  • @sinistral said:

    Sadly, due to thread drift, nobody has actually answered the question. 

    What do you call my responses then?

    Also, did you check my tags?  I even recommended one of the old ones I used to use.  Nowadays, just do a backup, if you did not do one and your disk is failing, copy all the data with linux live cd or something and then if you really want to try some recovery data tool but for the most part what you will get after a long time is corrupted data.



  • @serguey123 said:

    @sinistral said:

    Sadly, due to thread drift, nobody has actually answered the question. 

    What do you call my responses then?

    Also, did you check my tags?  I even recommended one of the old ones I used to use.  Nowadays, just do a backup, if you did not do one and your disk is failing, copy all the data with linux live cd or something and then if you really want to try some recovery data tool but for the most part what you will get after a long time is corrupted data.

    I apologize; I didn't realize that HDD Regenerator (had to do regenerator disk utility in Google to find htat) was a disk utility. I generally ignore the tags because they are used more for comic relief than providing useful information by most users.

    It's also quite possible that booting from a Linux live CD isn't sufficient to read the data if there is some level of corruption; that's why a deep level scan tool like SpinRite might be the ticket to get that "one more clean read" that's necessary to pull the data off and put on a new device.

    And, just to make sure I echo both of their comments, the OP should absolutely listen to both Blakeyrat and Serguey123 - a device requiring chkdisk with any regularity (regularity being "more than once") is on it's last legs - get that data off of there now!



  • @sinistral said:

    It's also quite possible that booting from a Linux live CD isn't sufficient to read the data if there is some level of corruption; that's why a deep level scan tool like SpinRite might be the ticket to get that "one more clean read" that's necessary to pull the data off and put on a new device.

    I made a better reply with links and examples and even an unicorn but CS barfed it out and I won't type it again.

    Use dd and badblock (be really careful)

    A recovery tool can take a long time trying to recover your data while your hd degrades even more.

    So, if you don't have backups, try to copy as much of your data as possible, try to use some recovery tool to try to recover what you can, replace hd, make frequents backups this time.



  • I might as well update. I've downloaded and burned a copy of Hiren's Boot CD just in case, and I've backed up all my important stuff (some of my games, pictures, music, porn) onto my external drive.

    One thing, though. Microsoft Security Essentials thought that the extracted files for Hiren (the stuff you're supposed to make an image of) were malware. Is MSE on to something, or is it just paranoid?



  • @JBridge said:

    Microsoft Security Essentials thought that the extracted files for Hiren (the stuff you're supposed to make an image of) were malware. Is MSE on to something, or is it just paranoid?

    Sometimes the lines are blurry (false positives are frequent), as long as you downloaded the thing from a trusted source and you have a way of checking that the package was not modified then you are relatively safe



  • @serguey123 said:

    @JBridge said:

    Microsoft Security Essentials thought that the extracted files for Hiren (the stuff you're supposed to make an image of) were malware. Is MSE on to something, or is it just paranoid?

    Sometimes the lines are blurry (false positives are frequent), as long as you downloaded the thing from a trusted source and you have a way of checking that the package was not modified then you are relatively safe

    It wouldn't surprise me if it considered something that writes a bootable disk as being dangerous.



  •  @sinistral said:

    Sadly, due to thread drift, nobody has actually answered the question. I have heard only good things about SpinRite, available from: http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
    It appears that the newest version of SpinRite was released in June 2004. 



  •  I know the Mods hate ressurecting old threads, but...

     

    Just download a linux livecd, burn it, boot from it.

    Your hd will usually be either /dev/sda or /dev/hda (or when using multiple hd's, substitute a for the char corresponding with the hd number (hd1=a hd2=b etc)).

    The partititions are like this-> first /dev/sda1 sec /dev/sda2 etc

    So when win (that you're still using it) is on the first partition (/dev/sda1) and the use this:

     Fat* FS: sudo /sbin/fsck.vfat /dev/sda1

    NTFS: sudo /usr/bin/ntfsfix /dev/sda1

     



  • @roelforg said:

    NTFS: sudo /usr/bin/ntfsfix /dev/sda1

    I don't think it's a good idea to let Linux screw around with your NTFS partitions.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @roelforg said:
    NTFS: sudo /usr/bin/ntfsfix /dev/sda1
    I don't think it's a good idea to let Linux screw around with your NTFS partitions.

    It isn't, FAT is fine but linux tends to screw NTFS more often than not.



  • + 1 on that warning.

    I've moved a few files on a Win7 disk under Mint and WinExplorer later complains that the files have suffered corruption (presumably writing to the tables that inform that file of its new location). Had to reboot, run CHKDSK to fix it.

    Let Linux try to fix a cloned copy of that disk, aye. I'd only allow it to touch it R/W as a last resort.



  • @serguey123 said:

    It isn't, FAT is fine but linux tends to screw NTFS more often than not.

    Oh that's good to know in case your computer is stuck in The Time Tunnel (in color!) and skips directly from 1999 to 2012. The rest of us living here in the present only need to worry about NTFS corruption.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @serguey123 said:
    It isn't, FAT is fine but linux tends to screw NTFS more often than not.
    Oh that's good to know in case your computer is stuck in The Time Tunnel (in color!) and skips directly from 1999 to 2012. The rest of us living here in the present only need to worry about NTFS corruption.

    There are more pleople there that you think.  Just the other day a friend (a non technical one) came to me with an external drive in fat32, he wanted some large files and told me to divide them in smaller chunks (due to fat limitations), I asked him why it was in fat32 and he told me that it came that way from factory (my WD external drive was like that as well and is not an old unit so this still happens) and he was afraid/ignorant on how to change it so I did for him.

    The nice thing about FAT32 is that it works in linux very well so people like me that use both win and nix find value in it sometimes and it seems that manufacturers of external hds put them in fat because most users do not care about the filesystem, they care about hassle free work in the OS of their choosing.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    The rest of us living here in the present only need to worry about NTFS corruption.

    Speak for yourself - I'm not worried, since I don't use NTFS, and nor do memory chips in my digicam.



  • @serguey123 said:

    There are more pleople there that you think.  Just the other day a friend (a non technical one) came to me with an external drive in fat32, he wanted some large files and told me to divide them in smaller chunks (due to fat limitations), I asked him why it was in fat32 and he told me that it came that way from factory (my WD external drive was like that as well and is not an old unit so this still happens) and he was afraid/ignorant on how to change it so I did for him.

    You are correct here; a lot of external drives or memory cards use FAT32 for some reason. For external drives, I always reformat as XFS.

    @serguey123 said:

    The nice thing about FAT32 is that it works in linux very well so people like me that use both win and nix find value in it sometimes and it seems that manufacturers of external hds put them in fat because most users do not care about the filesystem, they care about hassle free work in the OS of their choosing.

    If that were true then the drives would be NTFS; FAT32 is not "hassle-free". My guess is FAT is just cheaper/easier, so lazy, unscrupulous drive manufacturers go for it.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @serguey123 said:
    The nice thing about FAT32 is that it works in linux very well so people like me that use both win and nix find value in it sometimes and it seems that manufacturers of external hds put them in fat because most users do not care about the filesystem, they care about hassle free work in the OS of their choosing.
    If that were true then the drives would be NTFS; FAT32 is not "hassle-free". My guess is FAT is just cheaper/easier, so lazy, unscrupulous drive manufacturers go for it.

    FAT32 is more OS compatible than NTFS AFAIK (as in way more) and that was my point.  The average user doesn't care about the filesystem, he/she/it only cares that if you plug it in, it fucking works and that is that.  They also don't care what OS is in the PC as long as it works (insert here the sound of x ammount of geeks protesting).

    I wouldn't put past HD manufacturers to cut corners (greedy bastards and their rising prize tactics) but I can't see a way for NTFS being pricier except for...(this being the internet I'm sure somebody will post some theory).



  • @serguey123 said:

    FAT32 is more OS compatible than NTFS AFAIK (as in way more) and that was my point.  The average user doesn't care about the filesystem, he/she/it only cares that if you plug it in, it fucking works and that is that.

    Yes, but that's precisely the problem: FAT32 is inferior to NTFS and end users will notice it; for example, the 4gb file size limit. The vast majority of users use Windows. Using FAT32 prevents manufacturerds from having to sell "Mac formatted" and "Windows formatted" drives, but at the cost of inferiority for Windows users. Also, who gives a shit about Mac users? If they want to capture that market, just sell a Mac-formatted hard drive in a brushed aluminum case for 4 times what the Windows formatted drives cost; Mac users will pay it. Plus, it will work better with OSX.



  • Or they could just, you know, provide instructions for users on how to format their own drives...



  • @ekolis said:

    Or they could just, you know, provide instructions for users on how to format their own drives...

     

    They could, or they could just buy the hd preformatted on their favorite format (as long as that is NTFS or HFS), or the user could google it or check the help in the OS (assuming a sane OS installed).  The thing about portable hd is that what you want is maximun compatibility because if you format to FAT32 you can plug it in on pretty much any PC no matter what the OS is and that is not the case with the newer and better formats.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @serguey123 said:
    FAT32 is more OS compatible than NTFS AFAIK (as in way more) and that was my point.  The average user doesn't care about the filesystem, he/she/it only cares that if you plug it in, it fucking works and that is that.

    Yes, but that's precisely the problem: FAT32 is inferior to NTFS and end users will notice it; for example, the 4gb file size limit. The vast majority of users use Windows. Using FAT32 prevents manufacturerds from having to sell "Mac formatted" and "Windows formatted" drives, but at the cost of inferiority for Windows users. Also, who gives a shit about Mac users? If they want to capture that market, just sell a Mac-formatted hard drive in a brushed aluminum case for 4 times what the Windows formatted drives cost; Mac users will pay it. Plus, it will work better with OSX.


    [img]http://www.macobserver.com/imgs/tmo_articles/Seagate_FA_GoFlexMac_Family.jpg[/img]

    Somebody beat you to it



  • @Cassidy said:

    + 1 on that warning.

    I've moved a few files on a Win7 disk under Mint and WinExplorer later complains that the files have suffered corruption (presumably writing to the tables that inform that file of its new location). Had to reboot, run CHKDSK to fix it.

    Let Linux try to fix a cloned copy of that disk, aye. I'd only allow it to touch it R/W as a last resort.


    This [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1055738] says it's safe.

    Tests on an hd-img from my archive 1-up's the ubforum.
    (i'd fully trust linux on my ntfs drives if i'd still have them... So the vm img has to do)

    @blakey
    Give the live-cd a shot, it'll run slow (cd's aren't nearly as fast as hd's) but tell me that it doesn't work on the first try*!
    No lying! They improved a lot! (though i don't like unity, too tablet like. (and resource hog) so if 11.10 doesn't work out, try 10.04 LTS)

    * nvidia cards require extra steps due to legal stuff and laptops never comply with standards so minor tweaking on em may be needed.

    EDIT: Side-note: ext4 will top both fat* and ntfs.



  • @roelforg said:

    This [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1055738] says it's safe.

    (linkified that for you)

    Where? All I read is a post says someone's tried it and it worked for them. I see no guarantees there that it's safe.



  • @Cassidy said:

    @roelforg said:

    This [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1055738] says it's safe.

    (linkified that for you)

    Where? All I read is a post says someone's tried it and it worked for them. I see no guarantees there that it's safe.

    I used it as indice regarding general results.
    Try googeling "ubuntu ntfs repair" (yes, i know google returns different stuff for both of us),
    Check the comments on those pages.
    Ps. Will someone please tell me how to get CS to accept line breaks from the plain editor? (the wysiwyg doesn't show)
    And my sig is huuuge because cs escapes it wrong. (looks like double html_encode).


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @roelforg said:

    Will someone please tell me how to get CS to accept line breaks from the plain editor?
    Use <br />.



  • @PJH said:

    @roelforg said:
    Will someone please tell me how to get CS to accept line breaks from the plain editor?
    Use <br />.

    I
    did

    and the preview doesn't match he result

    EDIT: Let me try something...

    line
    break


    Cs knitpickes on 2 both valid html syn's...
    Weired...


  • @roelforg said:

    Try googeling "ubuntu ntfs repair" (yes, i know google returns different stuff for both of us)

    Well, I googled "ubuntu ntfs repair", then I duckduckgoed "linux ntfs corruption" and I dogpiled "linux ntfs problems".

    The upshot is that:

    • the ntfs-3g tools work better under some distros (ubuntu) than others (mint),
    • hibernation may/may not break things,
    • it is generally regarded as safe for read, but not guaranteed safe for writing
    • chkdsk should be run to fix NTFS issues
    • ntfsfix can be run where chkdsk fails
    • what didn't work back in 2003 now works properly in 2012
    • what previously worked back in 2003 (WinNT/Win2K) now isn't guaranteed under newer versions of NTFS (XP/Vista/Win7)
    • etc... 

    Or, in summary: many people have reported mixed results (as I have experienced). YMMV, but I lack confidence in Linux completely repairing a broken NTFS filesystem. Just my opinion and experience, not necessarily complete fact.



  • @Cassidy said:

    @roelforg said:

    Try googeling "ubuntu ntfs repair" (yes, i know google returns different stuff for both of us)

    Well, I googled "ubuntu ntfs repair", then I duckduckgoed "linux ntfs corruption" and I dogpiled "linux ntfs problems".

    The upshot is that:

    • the ntfs-3g tools work better under some distros (ubuntu) than others (mint),
    • hibernation may/may not break things,
    • it is generally regarded as safe for read, but not guaranteed safe for writing
    • chkdsk should be run to fix NTFS issues
    • ntfsfix can be run where chkdsk fails
    • what didn't work back in 2003 now works properly in 2012
    • what previously worked back in 2003 (WinNT/Win2K) now isn't guaranteed under newer versions of NTFS (XP/Vista/Win7)
    • etc... 

    Or, in summary: many people have reported mixed results (as I have experienced). YMMV, but I lack confidence in Linux completely repairing a broken NTFS filesystem. Just my opinion and experience, not necessarily complete fact.


    I usually assume someone uses a desktop that shut down normally/hard(likely).

    Whenever i need to fix drives (or partititions) i use dd to create an image and work from there.

    Usually "fs/drive errors" are not as bad as they seem.

    I have an example for the reiserfs (note: it's known to break a lot, and it does!):

    I've got an old ps2-slim running lin as a pc to take with me,

    for some reason, i can't figure out myself either, but it refuses ext2.

    It's a very old usb as well. /sbin/init gets corrupted at random times.

    The reiserfs fsck fixes it every time and no data damage.

    Back to ntfs:

    If you don't ntfsfix, run it with the -n param (it'll just tell you what it would do, it just doesn't write anythimg).

    Bonus: if u wanna undelete a file, there's ntfsundelete!

    The man pages from ubuntu's online viewer are a good help! (just select the right ubuntu version on the top).

    Also, ntfsfix only fixes the stuff for finding where the files are. The agree m$ has a better tool to fix it as they made the fs.

    ntfsfix just fixes stuff too low-level for win.



  • @Cassidy said:

    @roelforg said:

    This [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1055738] says it's safe.

    (linkified that for you)

    Where? All I read is a post says someone's tried it and it worked for them. I see no guarantees there that it's safe.

    This must be your first exposure to Open Sores. See, in Open Sores World "It's perfectly safe" means "One guy on a forum claimed he got it working after several days of patching, hacking and swearing." Of course, commercial software that actually does work in a reproducible manner and that has been tested and verified safe is "crap" because it was written by "M$".



  • @roelforg said:

    Whenever i need to fix drives (or partititions) i use dd to create an image and work from there.

    Which is fine, unless you have a 2TB drive..

    @roelforg said:

    I have an example for the reiserfs (note: it's known to break a lot, and it does!):

    What the fuck? Why are you still using reiser? And of course it's corrupting shit; that's one of reiser's main features..

    @roelforg said:

    Also, ntfsfix only fixes the stuff for finding where the files are. The agree m$ has a better tool to fix it as they made the fs.

    ntfsfix just fixes stuff too low-level for win.

    What the fuck does "ntfsfix just fixes stuff too low-level for win" even mean? But the point is: if you are stupid enough to use Linux to fix an NTFS drive you deserve the inevitable massive data corruption. Just use the proper Windows tools, for fuck's sake.



  • @roelforg said:

    @blakey
    Give the live-cd a shot, it'll run slow (cd's aren't nearly as fast as hd's) but tell me that it doesn't work on the first try*!
    No lying! They improved a lot! (though i don't like unity, too tablet like. (and resource hog) so if 11.10 doesn't work out, try 10.04 LTS)

    * nvidia cards require extra steps due to legal stuff and laptops never comply with standards so minor tweaking on em may be needed.

    So basically it will work on the first try, assuming you aren't running any common hardware. Fantastic. And 10.04 LTS? I'm not disagreeing that Unity is shit (but Ubuntu went bugfuck long before 11.10) but you're suggesting he wait 4 minutes for a LiveCD to possibly boot just so he can use a 2 year old version of Firefox? Or an extremely shitty Office clone (I'm looking at you OOo)? What value do you think a Windows user is going to get out of a Linux LiveCD?

    @roelforg said:

    EDIT: Side-note: ext4 will top both fat* and ntfs.

    [citation needed] I believe you on FAT because it's an ancient fucking filesystem, but NTFS? ext4 is barely an improvement over ext3 and ext3 wasn't that great to begin with. And the supposed successor, btrfs, is so far from being usable that we'll probably be stuck with shitty ext filesystems for another 5 years...



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @roelforg said:

    @blakey
    Give the live-cd a shot, it'll run slow (cd's aren't nearly as fast as hd's) but tell me that it doesn't work on the first try*!
    No lying! They improved a lot! (though i don't like unity, too tablet like. (and resource hog) so if 11.10 doesn't work out, try 10.04 LTS)

    * nvidia cards require extra steps due to legal stuff and laptops never comply with standards so minor tweaking on em may be needed.

    So basically it will work on the first try, assuming you aren't running any common hardware. Fantastic. And 10.04 LTS? I'm not disagreeing that Unity is shit (but Ubuntu went bugfuck long before 11.10) but you're suggesting he wait 4 minutes for a LiveCD to possibly boot just so he can use a 2 year old version of Firefox? Or an extremely shitty Office clone (I'm looking at you OOo)? What value do you think a Windows user is going to get out of a Linux LiveCD?

    @roelforg said:

    EDIT: Side-note: ext4 will top both fat* and ntfs.

    [citation needed] I believe you on FAT because it's an ancient fucking filesystem, but NTFS? ext4 is barely an improvement over ext3 and ext3 wasn't that great to begin with. And the supposed successor, btrfs, is so far from being usable that we'll probably be stuck with shitty ext filesystems for another 5 years...


    IIRC the ubuntu 11.10 has ff 7 or 8.

    i mentioned 10.04 b/c i don't like unity and the 11.10 disk has it.



    try xfs, it's fast for large files.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @roelforg said:
    Whenever i need to fix drives (or partititions) i use dd to create an image and work from there.

    Which is fine, unless you have a 2TB drive..

    @roelforg said:

    I have an example for the reiserfs (note: it's known to break a lot, and it does!):

    What the fuck? Why are you still using reiser? And of course it's corrupting shit; that's one of reiser's main features..

    @roelforg said:

    Also, ntfsfix only fixes the stuff for finding where the files are. The agree m$ has a better tool to fix it as they made the fs.

    ntfsfix just fixes stuff too low-level for win.

    What the fuck does "ntfsfix just fixes stuff too low-level for win" even mean? But the point is: if you are stupid enough to use Linux to fix an NTFS drive you deserve the inevitable massive data corruption. Just use the proper Windows tools, for fuck's sake.

    Use reiser b/c ps2 linux won't accept ext2.
    Low-level meant: it makes it possible for win to load it's kernel again.



  • @roelforg said:

    IIRC the ubuntu 11.10 has ff 7 or 8.

    i mentioned 10.04 b/c i don't like unity and the 11.10 disk has it.

    You said not to use 11.10. Now you're saying it's okay to use 11.10, but that it won't be as good because of Unity (which I agree with). Do you really think any of this is going to convince Blakeyrat that Open Sores development isn't a clusterfuck?

    @roelforg said:

    try xfs, it's fast for large files.

    I've used xfs for several years. Fast for large files? Where are you getting this from? You don't seem to know much about filesystems; you're just throwing out a handful of "facts" that you've memorized..



  • @roelforg said:

    Use reiser b/c ps2 linux won't accept ext2.

    That's bizarre beyond belief because ext2 is the "standard" Linux FS. So all PS2 Linux supports is reiser? Ugh.

    @roelforg said:

    Low-level meant: it makes it possible for win to load it's kernel again.

    You need to work on your phrasing. You said it was "too low-level" which seems to indicate it does something incorrectly (or that Windows does).



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @roelforg said:
    IIRC the ubuntu 11.10 has ff 7 or 8.
    i mentioned 10.04 b/c i don't like unity and the 11.10 disk has it.

    You said not to use 11.10. Now you're saying it's okay to use 11.10, but
    that it won't be as good because of Unity (which I agree with). Do you
    really think any of this is going to convince Blakeyrat that Open Sores
    development isn't a clusterfuck?


    I've not heard of 10.04 BC but although 11.10 comes with Unity, it's possible to flick it back to traditional Gnome/KDE, in the same way as removing all the Win7 eyecandy and using Windows Classic Desktop.

    (many Ubunny forums I lurked in were full of questions on how to do this, and featured many FAQs on how to remove/disable Unity).

    @morbiuswilters said:

    That's bizarre beyond belief because ext2 is the "standard" Linux FS. So all PS2 Linux supports is reiser? Ugh.

    I refuse to believe that.

    SuSE supported ReiserFS out of the box (until someone's wife went missing); the PS2 Linux is apparently based on a distro based on RH, and RH aren't known for acknowledging (or supporting) stuff outside of their clique.

    (on a footnote - I used Reiser under RH8 and FC4 because you could do online FS growing before the EXT3 tools eventually provided this functionality)


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