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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.wildstar.net!news.ececs.uc.edu!newsfeeds.sol.net!ix.netcom.com!ais.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!192.94.214.100!shemesh.hq.tis.com!troma.rv.tis.com!not-for-mail From: mark@troma.rv.tis.com (Mark Sienkiewicz) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc Subject: Re: unallocated file problem. Date: 10 Apr 1997 14:00:39 -0400 Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site Lines: 51 Message-ID: <5ij9s7$sae@troma.rv.tis.com> References: <334d4984.35390799@news.ascio.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: troma.rv.tis.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:6628 In article <334d4984.35390799@news.ascio.net>, Lance Cavener <cavenerl@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote: > I'm pulling in a 8000 group newsfeed on a 4gig brand new Western Digital >EIDE drive. But, when fsck runs nightly, I get huge error files with tons >of messages about unallocated files (all in the spool). ... > Does anyone have any suggestions? Could it be because the disk is >constantly (and I mean constantly) writing and it can't keep up with the >I/O's? The disk is handling the IO fine, though it sounds like you are keeping it pretty busy. The problem is probably because you are running fsck on an active disk. Don't believe anything fsck says about a mounted filesystem. It does not to know whether the kernel is actively modifying the disk. The data on the disk may change WHILE fsck is checking it. For example, it might see that the file exists, but a short time later when it tries to look at that file, it may be deleted already. (You wouldn't happen to be expiring articles at the same time the fsck is running, would you?) What you should do is shutdown to single user mode, unmount the disk, then run fsck by hand. It should be consistent now. (If it is not, fix anything that is wrong and start your system back up. Check it again in a few days.) > Yes, I know IDE is old and shitty, but unfortunatly there is nothing I can >do about that right now. There is nothing wrong with using IDE disks. Anybody who says otherwise is invited to throw away their 133 MHz Pentium motherboard because 200 MHz Pentium Pro motherboards are faster. An IDE disk that you have is infinitely superior to a SCSI disk that you can't afford. You may be keeping your disk busy, but the whole question is whether you are getting adequate performance out of it. Two criteria I would use for adequate are: 1. You can read news from your news server and the users don't have to wait "too long" to get an article. How long is too long depends on how impatient your users are. :) 2. You can recieve a single day of postings in less than 24 hours. If these are both true, your IDE disk is serving you just fine and there is no compelling reason for you to throw it away. Mark S.