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BobbyB
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

PS Note that I've watched the creation of client_state.xml

How is that done? Just for my knowledge.

I will see how good my restore will be be today.

[Sep 23, 2025 1:53:05 PM]

adriverhoef
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

PS Note that I've watched the creation of client_state.xml

How is that done? Just for my knowledge.

That's quite simple, if I understand you correctly, namely by the following command:

$ while sleep 1; do ls -li ~boinc/client_state*.xml; echo; done

I understand that you would also want to see how the contents are being compiled, Bobby. However, I'm afraid I have only laid out the procedure by looking on and using the listing of the three files client_state_next.xml, client_state_prev.xml and client_state.xml, with their inode, each time one second apart.

You could also go to /tmp and start 'boinc' there by hand, then see that a number of files are being created automatically, if it interests you:

client_state.xml  coproc_info.xml  gui_rpc_auth.cfg  lockfile  stderrgpudetect.txt  stdoutgpudetect.txt  time_stats_log

Adri

[Sep 23, 2025 2:33:50 PM]

BobbyB
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

OUCH. That was too simple. Gave it a try. Not much going on so the dates do not change much.

Getting back to Recuva. It does recover files from Linux. The HD does not show as a USB connection but does show in the Recuva scan window. Not obvious which is which. You get generic names like //harddisk1/volume6

[Sep 23, 2025 5:15:27 PM]

BobbyB
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

I stopped the boinc service then replaced all the milkyway stuff in my recovered client_state.xml with the current milkyway stuff from the "live" file then installed it as the "live" client_state.xml. I then started the boinc service again and .... drum roll ...BINGO biggrin

All the WUs waiting to upload are there for WCG. We shall see when they start up again. biggrin

Edited later:
There is one thing which I had overlooked: owner.

When I restored the WCG project files from the "old" HD which has corrupt client_state, I had to use root since /var/lib is owned by root and I had no write access to create a new boinc-client directory. Once restored, all files and directories where now owned by root and this caused a bit of a permissions problem with the one project I let run (milkyway) just to make sure all was well with Boinc.

I changed the owner of directory /var/lib/boinc-client recursively to boinc.

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[Edit 1 times, last edit by BobbyB at Sep 24, 2025 2:10:45 PM]

[Sep 24, 2025 12:47:30 AM]

Occam
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

BobbyB--I'm interested in the details of your disk failure. Brand name, type HD, age and any SMART data you may have on it. Thanks

[Sep 26, 2025 1:34:46 AM]

BobbyB
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200 250GB Firmware JC47 Date Code 12063 corresponding to 2011-08-10
Bought a batch of pre-owned a few years ago from a recycler so they have been sitting on my shelf since then.

Not sure how to get the SMART data.

The other 2 machines I built using that batch are still going now. I can still read from this one so have no idea how damaged it is. I have some HD diagnostic software (seagate I think). I can try to scan it. That was not my priority during these last few days. The stats on WCG for that machine says I have ~800 WUs in progress. That's 1200 hours at an average of 1.5 hours each.

[Sep 26, 2025 2:34:11 AM]

BobbyB
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

smartctl to the rescue:

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
Device Model:     ST3250312AS
Serial Number:    6VYBW1CK
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 03e64cdcd
Firmware Version: JC47
User Capacity:    250,059,350,016 bytes [250 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Fri Sep 26 10:05:40 2025 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   115   080   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       96334701
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   097   097   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   087   087   020    Old_age   Always       -       13971
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   089   060   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       5146624991
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   034   034   000    Old_age   Always       -       58535
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   094   094   020    Old_age   Always       -       6841
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   079   079   000    Old_age   Always       -       21
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       5730
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   076   061   045    Old_age   Always       -       24 (Min/Max 21/24)
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   024   040   000    Old_age   Always       -       24 (0 16 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   046   015   000    Old_age   Always       -       96334701
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       60309 (141 210 0)
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       3769629439
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       221303693

The Pre-fails tell it all. Hmmm... maybe time to test the other HDs in my batch.

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[Edit 1 times, last edit by BobbyB at Sep 26, 2025 2:15:11 PM]

[Sep 26, 2025 2:13:42 PM]

BobbyB
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Re: Just suffered a disk failure

All the files on that machine have now been uploaded to WCG and are now in "Ready to report" status. So it worked.

[Oct 4, 2025 1:21:15 PM]

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