[BigTobster]

Hi,

I have Win7 on NTFS, Ubuntu 10.04 on EXT4 and a third partition for general data with both operating systems can access.
The third, shared partition is in FAT32.

I have had this set up for years with no problems.

Recently, I have found that files that I use, move, etc on my Ubuntu sometimes become corrupted. It is very occasional but is occurring more regularly. I use many files (obviously) but only a fraction of those appear to suffer with the problems. The files are generally left irrecoverably corrupted. It is only files that are stored on the shared FAT partition that become corrupted.

All partitions are on the same drive.

To solve the problem, I reboot into Windows and sometimes CHKDSK does it's thing and sorts it all out. However, when CHKDSK does not run, the files are irrecoverably gone.

CHKDSK says there are orphaned files, removes and recovers them. Sometimes, a file which has been deleted on on Ubuntu may then cause CHKDSK to scan, find and remove the file (or more particularly, sets all affected sectors to null).

I can't quite place the error. Possibly in a ageing and failing Hard Drive? The Laptop is circa 3 years old-ish. I would say that combining file systems is an invitation for trouble - but genuinely I have never had any problems with it before.

Sometimes I access Ubuntu when Windows is suspended which I feel may cause Read/Write collisions at OS level but if that is the case, surely it should prevent me accessing the file, rather than permit it and then treat the sectors as bad?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[pip22]

Drive manufacturer's supply diagnostis software free for home use so you can confirm a suspected hard drive deterioration.
You can't test a system drive with windows diagnostic software so you'll need to use DOS software which boots from a CD.
Dowload SeaTools from here (it can test any drive brand): http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

Now download & install IMGBurn: http://filehippo.com/download_imgburn/

Use IMGBurn to create a CD from the SeaTools for DOS ISO file & boot your PC/laptop from it.
SeaTools for DOS will appear on screen after a longer than usual boot process.

Note: you may have to change the first boot device to CD-ROM in the Bios Setup to allow the system to boot from the SeaTools CD.

[BigTobster]

Hi Pip,

Great response. Thank you

Unfortunately, I am unable to get the Seatools application to work on my machine. This is partly due to the fact that I don't have a CD Drive (it's broken beyond repair). However, I did try it by USB but it was giving incompatibility problems at BIOS level. After a google, I set BIOS settings to legacy (including SATA settings etc) and still no joy. Just hangs at FreeDOS.

I looked for alternate software and found that Ubuntu has a good live disk analyser as standard. I realise that there may be one that works better in Boot Shell but I am assuming that, Linux being Linux, it is able to assess it's own drive. That said, I am assuming - feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

The results that I got from the scan were that the drive was considered healthy. The only statistic to appear slightly worrying was the uncorrectable sector count was 2.5 times higher than what the OS suggests is normal. That said, it was hardly off the chart and may not necessarily answer the original question. It does confirm that the hard drive is deteriorating-ish however and also gives a somewhat fitting answer. I'm not sure that there is any way to know for sure?

Thanks for your help once again.