Clonezilla backup fails - I/O error - slow transfer
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#106 Clonezilla backup fails - I/O error - slow transfer
Hello people,
I have been trying to clone my old laptop (10 years old!) before every update of my OS onto an external hard drive using the last version of Clonezilla. This used to work very well. However, at some point the following happened:
- At the end of the backup process, during the verification of the image integrity the same error always appeared, mentioning that there had been an I/O error and that the image was broken.
- Since the error appeared with different external hard drives, I assumed that something was wrong with my internal hard drive. The Clonezilla forums said that I/O errors were linked to hardware failure. SMART tests did not reveal bad sectors. I still bought a new hard drive. But the same error appears at the end of the backup process.
- I started thinking that my CPU or my RAM was having a problem. I used stress tests from the package stress-ng to investigate. But CPU and RAM seem ok.
For info, I used the following code to do the testing:
stress-ng -v --tz -l 100 --class io --all 1 >monfichier.txt stress-ng -v --tz --class memory --sequential 1 --log-file stress-ng.txt
- Now there is an evolution in the problem: Whenever I attempt to clone the hard drive, the transfer speeds drop steadily down to 50 Mbit/s.
SYSTEM:
System: Kernel: 4.9.66-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.2.0 Desktop: i3 4.14.1 Distro: Manjaro Linux Machine: Device: laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X51L v: 1.0 serial: N/A Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X51L v: 1.0 serial: N/A BIOS: American Megatrends v: 207 date: 10/09/2008 Battery BAT0: charge: 46.6 Wh 96.3% condition: 48.4/48.4 Wh (100%) model: ASUSTEK T12--24 status: Charging CPU: Dual core Intel Pentium Dual T3200 (-MCP-) arch: Conroe rev.13 cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 7982 clock speeds: max: 2000 MHz 1: 1000 MHz 2: 1000 MHz Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) bus-ID: 00:02.0 Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.5 ) drivers: intel (unloaded: modesetting) Resolution: 1280x800@60.00hz OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM version: 2.1 Mesa 17.2.6 Direct Render: Yes Audio: Card Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.66-1-MANJARO Drives: HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (75.9% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: TS120GSSD220S size: 120.0GB Partition: ID-1: / size: 103G used: 79G (81%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 ID-2: swap-1 size: 7.24GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2 Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0C mobo: N/A Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A Info: Processes: 129 Uptime: 45 min Memory: 1266.5/3004.6MB Init: systemd Gcc sys: 7.2.0 Client: Shell (bash 4.4.121) inxi: 2.3.48
So I'd be really very grateful if anyone has suggestions regarding this issue, because I am clueless on what else I could do apart from purchanisng a new computer...
To me still this looks like hardware issue. Having CPU and RAM OK does mean that there is no problem in reading the blocks on hard drive. The issue might be on the mother board, the chips about data transferring, or the bus cable. There are many possibilities.
Another way is you can move the hard drive to other machine to do that tests. By doing this, maybe you can identify the issues.
Steven
Dear Steven,
thanks for your useful suggestions, which I intend to follow.
The internal hard drive should be ok since I changed it recently, thinking the old one was the source of the problem. I will try to find and run health tests on the motherboard, the data transferring chips, as well as the bus cable.
I would be grateful if you could let me know about appropriate diagnostic tools as I have little experience in running such tests.
I will post the results of the testing as soon as I have them.