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Re:

On 2020-04-22 13:52, Default User wrote:

Hey,

A recent thread got me to thinking. So I checked my primary (only
installed) ssd:

sudo smartctl --test=long /dev/sda

which promised to run the tests, but returned to a command prompt,
with no further messages.
So after the promised test end time I did:

sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda

which gave this:



SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED


I pay attention to this item.



General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x02) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.



Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.


I pay attention to these items.



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     0x0032   095   095   050    Old_age
Always       -       0/5466601
   5 Retired_Block_Count     0x0033   100   100   003    Pre-fail
Always       -       0
   9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec 0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age
Always       -       8197h+53m+29.020s


I ignore the "old age" and "pre-fail" notations.



SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining
LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      8197         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      8196         -
# 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      7883         -
# 4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      7883         -
# 5  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      7883         -
# 6  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      7003         -
# 7  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      7002         -
# 8  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      6999         -


I pay attention to these items.



Since, I recall, that ssd drives do tend to fail quickly and without
notice, is it time to get a new drive and reinstall from scratch?
I have seen lots of HDD failures and a few USB flash drive failures, but no SSD failures (yet). The USB flash drive failures do tend towards all-or-nothing or all-or-very-slow, sometimes accompanied with the smell of roasting electronics. 



If so, recommendations?


I prefer Intel and Samsung, but any major brand should do.



I think I want to continue to use an ssd, because even though it can
fail without warning, this would be in a laptop, and I want to avoid
shock damage to a mechanical drive at all costs.
The only HDD's I buy are large capacity 3.5" SATA enterprise HDD's for storage and backups. 



I an currently running Debian Unstable, on a 5-year-old laptop (Dell
Inspiron 3000 series, 8Gb ram, Intel i3 processor, traditional BIOS
booting). It has space for only one, 2.5-inch drive.

lsblk:
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 111.8G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0    28G  0 part /
├─sda2   8:2    0     1K  0 part
├─sda5   8:5    0   7.9G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda6   8:6    0    76G  0 part /home
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

The 120Gb ssd is "adequate"; root partition is 38% full, and home
partition is 45% full.
Swap partition is rarely if ever used; not sure i it is really necessary.


A ~10.6 GB root is in the ballpark for a Debian graphical workstation.


I put my bulk data on a Samba server.


I tried running without swap -- those systems crashed.  Now I do 1-2 GB.



User case is conventional, nothing taxing. No video editing, gaming, etc.

And yes, I do back up, home partition only, using rsync to an external
usb drive:

sudo rsync -avvzHAXPish --delete /home/default
/media/default/USBHD005/Backup_of_home_directory_of_Dell_Debian_dimwit
You should get two more -- keep one on-site, keep one near-site, keep one off-site, and rotate them periodically (weekly, bi-monthly, etc.). 



I suppose I could [learn to] do a full system backup and restore to a
new drive, if I had to.
I have never done an old-school dump(8)/ restore(8). I keep my system images small enough to fit on "16 GB" devices. I take and restore images with dd(1), which is available in the Debian installer rescue shell (but preferably with a USB live drive and a Perl script I wrote). As other readers have mentioned, Clonezilla is an option. 



And if I do need to try to copy my current install to a new drive
(instead of a fresh install), what is the EASIEST way to do that?
Building up a blank disk into a working system drive requires many tedious steps -- you have to move the partition table(s), bootloader, all partitions, and the contents of those partitions (e.g. swap, filesystems, whatever). Things get harder if you add encryption, LVM, or non-standard filesystems like ZFS. The installer takes care of many of those details for you. I believe Clonezilla also does so.
A raw binary copy with dd(1) bypasses all of those messy details except for relocating the backup GPT partition table if the device size has changed. That is one reason why I still use MBR. 


David
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