Wrong file modified time reported

    I've written a utility to check all files on the 6TB drive attached to the RPi4 (LE11 14/04/2023) and check their modified time, file size etc and if different to the file on my backup drive copy across.

    An important point is that no files have been transferred over to the RPi4 HDD after it was attached to the RPi3 AND the utility was run and everything brought into sync.

    I just ran the utility and was very surprised that all 7026 .nfo files needed to be transferred and also 179 .mp4 files. Knowing how long this would take over my 100MB LAN I opted to take the HDD from the RPi4 and hook it up to a USB 3 port on my Windows PC. Imagine my surprise when running the utility there were no .mp4 files needing transfer. I'd checked one file whilst it was on the RPi4. ExanDiff reported the live and backup files to be identical. The modified time on the live file was 16:17:28 on the RPi4 version and 15:17:28 on the backup. However, when connected to the Windows PC both showed 15:17:28

    Both the live and backup disks are formatted to exFAT because having them as NTFS when I last tried moving to the RPi4 meant I had a lot of corruptions.

    Any suggestion as to why the wrong time is being reported on some files?

    Thanks.

    Wonderful. So on the RPi3, Windows and my Linux PC they're implemented the same way (ie give me the same time) on the RPi4 they're implemented differently. WHY?

    I'll have a full read of the article tomorrow after I help out someone in Oz with some strange SQL he wants. In the meantime does the article explain why the dates reported are different for random files each time I check? Last time it showed 893 .mp4 files and the time before 179.

    Would this explain why its taking the HDD 4 - 6 times longer to spin up than it took on the RPi3?

    I'll try moving to NTFS tomorrow - oh joy 12 hours of file copying.

    <RANT>

    I keep trying to move to the RPi4 but it seems that every time I try I find more problems, problems reintroduced. I'm not (at least in my eyes) trying to do anything difficult or weird and I'm losing the will to go on.

    Sorry to moan like this but I've been battling this since September 2021 and I'm wondering if I'll ever get there. Do you think its worth trying version 12?

    </RANT>

    I used to regularly swear at removable drives and USB sticks. Then I bought a Synology NAS device and a decent Gigabit Ethernet switch .. and stopped swearing. I appreciate that's not a helpful answer in the context of solving the issue reported, but sometimes it's better to remove the opportunity for problems instead of seeking fixes for problems. It's also not the cheap option; but at some point you need to factor in time and effort and I prefer to watch movies than Google fixes.

    When I started to digitise our DVD/VHS collection I was running off a server, tried several pieces of software for the front end and settled for a while on UMS. Then I saw Kodi on an RPi and went down that route with an RPi3. Moved from a 1TB HDD to a 3TB to a 6TB USB HDD all on the RPi3 with no problems. Then I tried to switch to the RPi4 and I've encountered problem after problem.

    There are two reasons for choosing the RPi route:

    1) its small and neat (apart from the rats nest) - I have things stuck in a draw which is part of the TV stand

    2) its inexpensive

    So to repeat, the problems only started with the RPi4, and from my experience are more software development than hardware related (based on years of being in IT as developer, consultant, and manager). I think I came in when it was still to immature and hadn't appreciated how long the development / maturity cycle can be in the environment that Kodi/LE is developed in.

    I can "solve" the problems by reverting yet again to the dual RPi3 setup and tolerate the major rats nest of cables but a single RPi4 is a much neater solution.

    PS: I loved your response about the SD card speed - wish I'd used it.

    Quote from LybsterKodi

    Knowing how long this would take over my 100MB LAN..

    ^ Netgear 8-port Gigabit switches are £20 on Amazon. Switch from USB drives and Sneakernet to Ethernet and an SFTP client app (Windows to HTPC) that queues files and transfers them in the background while you're doing something more interesting.

    Quote from chewitt

    ^ Netgear 8-port Gigabit switches are £20 on Amazon. Switch from USB drives and Sneakernet to Ethernet and an SFTP client app (Windows to HTPC) that queues files and transfers them in the background while you're doing something more interesting.

    Fair enough BUT since I don't want to lay cable throughout the house and WiFi doesn't cut it I'd need to replace my current 100MB powerline ethernet adapters with gigabit devices, then buy a new PC since my current one only has a 100MB ethernet port.

    I already get things going on my Windows PC over SAMBA and just let it get on with it. Generally speaking even with the slow speeds on the RPI3 that wasn't to bad since its only changes (mainly new videos) that were being transferred.

    Also if the implementation of ExFAT delivered the same time modified details as the old RPi3 I'd wouldn't have had to move the HDD. I could probably have coped with a few software mods if the variation was consistent but it wasn't, well it was always an hour out but the files affected varied.