>> Is the "swap" partition something that could cause that if turned off by
>> "swapoff"?
>
> I don't think so.
+1
Good, I also suspected so. I'm a linux user since slackware installed from floppies, I never saw something like that!
Look this "ls" command in the lost+found folder. It is amazing. Some of those numbers are actually folders containing other files. Files inside the folder have their names, which make things easier.
Be amazed:
The whole /home disapeared, EXCEPT:
Isn't that puzzling??
I did last time only non-destructive tests using the seagate tool. I could just today make a full backup (not that I was ignoring anyone, I know the importance of backups. My laptop stayed turned off until I got the time to properly do it).
Now it is running a destructive test, and it will take more 5 hours to finish. Until now (46%) all good. Anyway, I don't believe it is a HD issue. If it was a cache not sync, it would affect only like 100 files opened at the time of turning it off. Not the whole drive.
Regarding the "shop list", I use debian since etch (I used redhat before it was sold, and suse -- again sold), and it is my policy to (almost) never install software if not from sources. I only installed I believe "scidvspc" (a chess program) in other laptop, not this one. I have 3 laptops, 2 local servers, 1 server in my name at the university (as I'm a professor and my students use them), and 2 outside the country (rented), all of them using the same debian version.
add to that the google chrome repository and we are done. (I used also skype and spotify, not in repos, but again, not in this particular laptop, so, yep... brand new laptop, 3 months of usage, still tweeking it, setting my develop environment, vim, gcc, latex, fonts, etc.)
About the hardware itself, I add, from lshw:
description: Notebook
product: 81G3 (LENOVO_MT_81G3_BU_idea_FM_ideapad 320-15IKB)
vendor: LENOVO
version: Lenovo ideapad 320-15IKB
description: CPU
product: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Other informations on this command regarding HD is not updated, since this is a file from a backup and I can't run the command in the current machine state (and I changed HD and added SSD to it). But the memory (RAM) is SAMSUNG 8GB and a nvidia card with 4GB (that won't work, and I remember adding backports to sources.apt and trying, then giving up, removing backports, and cleaning the packages from it).
Also, another nice question you guys asked: hybernation or sleep: I never use them. I always turn off completely, then in the next day, turn it on.
What else? Did I forget something? Sorry, I need to go to sleep now.
I'll keep updating as soon as I can, not so fast as I wish.
Thanks for your interest and tips.
My best,
Béco
PS. I see this now:
> Another test method might be hibernation. If resume from hibernation works,
> then that rules out on-disk caching problem.
>
I'll do it only after the destructive test is done, and I re-fill the /home. I'm also thinking in installing a second linux distro in another 200GB partition I have free in the 2TB drive. (Summary: 2TB is 200GB free - reserved for the future, 8GB swap, and the rest is /home)
OP done for today. Sincerely, Beco.