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On 2/1/20 10:27 am, Dale wrote: |
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> Mick wrote: |
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>> On Thursday, 2 January 2020 00:09:14 GMT Dale wrote: |
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>>> Howdy, |
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>>> |
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>>> As some may recall, I have a 8TB external SATA hard drive that I do back |
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>>> ups on. Usually, I back up once a day, more often if needed. Usually I |
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>>> turn the power on, mount it, do the back ups, unmount and turn the power |
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>>> back off. Usually it is powered up for 5 minutes or so. When I unmount |
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>>> it tho, I sometimes notice it is still doing something. I can feel the |
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>>> mechanism for the heads moving. It has a slight vibration to it. |
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>>> Questions are, what is it doing and should I let it finish before |
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>>> powering it off? I'd assume that once it in unmounted, the copy process |
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>>> is done so the files are safe. I guess it is doing some sort of |
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>>> internal checks or something but I'm not sure. |
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>> There is some delay with data still in the buffers between rsync/cp/tar/what- |
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>> ever saying it's finished on your terminal and the drive itself finishing |
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>> storing the data on the platters. |
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>> |
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>> If you look at vmstat, or keep an eye on Gkrelm you'll see what I mean. |
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>> Normally, if you try to unmount a drive while it is still being written to, |
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>> the umount/udisks command will complain the drive is busy. |
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>> |
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> When it does it for a somewhat short period of time, I can understand |
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> that. It's one reason I try to leave it on when it "feels" that it is |
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> still busy. Thing is, there are times when it goes on for 30 minutes or |
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> more. At those times, even a USB stick should be done. One would think |
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> at least. It makes me curious as to what it is doing in that case. |
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> Still, I'd rather the unmount command force a wait until it is done. |
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> Honestly, I wouldn't want a drive or software that says something is |
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> done when it isn't. It's not good even when shutting a system down. |
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> Given the speed of drives, I would think a few seconds at most. Best to |
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> be safe. ;-) I just wonder, is it doing two different things? One |
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> when it is busy for short periods of time and something else when it |
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> goes on for a while. This is what sort of puzzles me. Selftest maybe?? |
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> |
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>>> Is it safe to turn it off even tho it is doing whatever it is doing? |
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>>> Should I wait? Does it matter? |
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>>> |
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>>> Thanks. |
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>>> |
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>>> Dale |
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>>> |
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>>> :-) :-) |
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>> If you wait for a few seconds after the backup is completed before you unmount |
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>> the drive, you should be OK. Although it may slow down or any LEDs flash less |
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>> frequently the drive may not stop spinning, unless there is some power save |
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>> process taking control of it. |
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>> |
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> Given the speed, it is likely done when I tell the KDE thingy to |
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> unmount. Usually, I start the backup and walk away for a few minutes. |
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> I do it with one of my scripts, if one can call what I do a script, and |
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> it does the date command at the end. Even if there was a lot of |
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> changes, I can tell how long it was completed. I try to give it a |
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> couple minutes. Still, good point. This is one reason I'm asking about |
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> this. It's hard to know exactly what is going on here. |
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> |
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>>> P. S. Down to last router that was discussed in another thread so I |
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>>> bought it while they had it. Price may go up if I didn't. Did more |
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>>> research on old modem, it is risky to try to convert to AT&T. Some say |
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>>> not possible. |
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>> Right, ISP controlled firmware typically requires re-flashing the device with |
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>> the new ISP's firmware version. In some cases even the boot code needs |
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>> replacing. Should you flash the router with a wrong firmware build, you could |
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>> sometimes derive a door stop without additional cost. In this case you'll |
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>> need a JTAG and access to its circuit board with an OEM boot/firmware version |
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>> to recover it. In most cases OEMs support lines will redirect you to your |
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>> ISP, who run an overseas support line and will ask you to reboot your |
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>> MSWindows PC ... O_o |
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>> |
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>> This is a reason I avoid these kind of routers as much as I can. |
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>> |
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> Keep in mind, two pieces of hardware. Router for the first two |
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> sentences and Modem for next two. Tried to be short so . . . . Anyway, |
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> router should be flashable with Openwrt. It's a slightly older model. |
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> New model may be ready for flashing in a year or two but not so much at |
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> the moment so I went with the older model. The modem, I never could find |
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> the firmware. I found links to it but those links ended up being dead. |
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> Even if I had it, it was unlikely to work. Possible but I'd be |
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> concerned about its stability and such even if it did take it. I have a |
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> modem and router on the way. I just didn't want to miss the deal on the |
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> router. They had several a couple weeks or so ago. I got the last |
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> one. Waiting for their arrival. |
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> |
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> Dale |
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> |
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> :-) :-) |
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> |
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> Oh, I may post and see if anyone needs a Frontier modem later. Maybe |
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> someone on here could use a spare or just needs one period, moving or |
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> something. Modem is wireless with a router as well. Nice modem I guess. |
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> |
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|
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Try atop from sys-process/atop - it will show you how busy individual |
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disks are (and a lot of other stats as well.) |
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|
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You can issue a sync command to flush any disk buffers before unmounting |
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(umounting should sync as well.). The heads may keep moving because of |
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the internal data management modern disks do. The disks should be safe |
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to power off despite this (they have an internal flush/save/park routine |
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on power loss, with enough energy stored to take care of it) |
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|
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BillK |