External HD error with 11.0.6 update maybe

    I updated my HTPC to LE 11.0.6 Generic-Legacy a few days ago and crossed my fingers I would not have any external HD issues. All went well with two 4TB drives performing fine for a few days. Last night I copied one small file to one drive then used the Move command for the same file on the second. Both drives seem to disappear and unavailable from file manager.

    I ran chkdsk on the 1st HD and now seems OK (again)

    The 2nd HD is another story. Not showing up at all in Windows or LE but seems fine on my Linux Mint system. Very puzzling.

    One issue maybe related to Kodi Copy/Move I have observed several times when multiple files are copied/moved Kodi would seem to restart after the last file was moved. Is this just my system or anyone else seen this ?

    I upload the log: https://paste.libreelec.tv/together-dog.log

    NTFS. I contemplated switching to ext4 but never got around to it. Once again right after an update and kapluey. The 2nd drive is still hidden in LE and assume it's not mounted. Very weird behavior.

    Hi, those external HDDs have own (proper) power source? And moving to a linux partitioning (EXT4) it's a good idea, the NTFS support under linux isn't perfect, sometimes can lead to some trouble.

    I'm repairing the 2nd 4TB hard drive today and found that the drive letter had been lost. That's a new one for me. Running chkdsk now and hopefully back to normal operation until the next update I suppose.:-/

    Success at last. I found that indeed there seemed to be drive errors on my 2nd 4TB NTFS drive. I'm writing this in hopes of making drive problem a bit easier to repair should anyone else encounter a drive error after LE updates. In the past I have used the Windows chkdsk program to repair my drives but there's a much easier faster way that works to clear HD errors.

    In Windows right click the drive with a problem using file explorer then select "Properties" , "Tools" then "Check" and Scan. Takes under a minute unlike chkdsk which can take several hours. If we can't isolate the issue at least repair is a little less painful.

    :)

    Best option would be not mixing Windows and Linux filesystems at all, but since LE is a nice and simple way to play mediafiles and Windows desktop is used by 80-90% of the worlds population it doesn't look good.

    I know. I will likely bite the bullet and switch over to ext4 for my mass storage. We never had an issue until around the LE 11.0.2 release. They have hinted it's was a kernel change upstream that is the likely cause. I rarely need Windows to access my collection so ext4 here I come. Now the task is to convert without losing anything.

    Quote from Reddirt

    I know. I will likely bite the bullet and switch over to ext4 for my mass storage. We never had an issue until around the LE 11.0.2 release. They have hinted it's was a kernel change upstream that is the likely cause. I rarely need Windows to access my collection so ext4 here I come. Now the task is to convert without losing anything.

    It’s never a good idea to bring Windows to a Linux party. It never seems to end well 😂

    I decided to try ext4 on one of my 4TB hard drives. My first attempt to partition and initialize a drive in the Linux universe. I'm blindly following an article I found and hope it comes out right. So far so good and files are being copied from the NTFS drive to ext4 drive. I think I may just leave one drive NTFS format along side the EXT4 and with both having the same data next time an update is out test the theory of filesystem faults. We'll see..

    I was resurrecting a Pi-B for a friend to play with and seems I might have uncovered a bit more info on the external drive mounting issue. I was able to reproduce it every time too. Here's what I did on my x86 system:

    1. I boot up my usb thumb drive with LE 11.0.6 test system

    2. Plugged in an 8gb separate thumb drive formatted NTFS [System Message confirms mount]

    3. From File Manager I copied a small MP4 file to the 8gb thumb drive.

    4. I unplug the 8gb drive. Safetly Removed is displayed. Plug it back in a moment later and no mount message.

    5. Unplug the drive and message Safetly Removed appears.

    6. Plug 8gb drive into Windows system and immediately reports drive error. Scan reports errors repaired.

    The error seems to be created only when File Manager writes to the drive and reading has no issues.

    I've done this three times with same results. Maybe there is enough info here to chase down this gremlin.

    I have the debug log if needed.

    Quote from Reddirt

    I've done this three times with same results. Maybe there is enough info here to chase down this gremlin.

    The NTFS (a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft) support under linux is limited. These errors appears because the linux not able to fix the errors what can be after "unsafe" remove (or power fail, or else). Try the same with EXT4 or EXFAT formatted drives, and you wont get that errors (another story). Maybe the NTFS support will be improved... but for a linux OS, a linux file system (EXT4) is the best and safe choise.