I'm really glad to hear you have been making progress copying stuff off. I am curious if you have checked the quality of the files you have recovered? I've seen situations where it appears stuff is copying great, but when you actually view the files they are corrupt or damaged.
I think problems like this are possible with any filesystem, the big difference is that other filesystems have been in use longer and have better tools for recovery. I plan to keep working on my program when I can because I know there will be other people, but I'm glad it wasn't necessary right now :)
How did the conversation with your wife go? Burn those pics on to a DVD, you never know when something can go wrong, just like this time.
If you don't trust ZFS anymore, you can still stay with FreeNAS and try UFS instead.
I still think there is some hardware problem. Just because something is new doesn't mean it can't fail. Power failures can be very hard on electronic equipment.
Yeah, so far it's going good. Currently I am also backing up several things to my work PC (kinda slow on my internet connection and upload connection from home), but I am getting it nevertheless...
I didn't try all the files (= lot of work), but I am testing some files randomly and they all work so far! * knocks on wood *
Well maybe I am overreacting a bit in regards to ZFS, however I always thought ZFS was supposed to be the safest / best filesystem around. That's why I also choose raidz2 so I could lose 2 disks and still not having any kind of data loss. However if a kernel panic, power outage, hardware failure (other than the harddisks) can cause these kinds of problems... Well I am not to sure about it at the moment if I should keep be using this.
But considering it has working before without any problems, I doubt I will make a switch to something else. And I will be considering an UPS (I still don't know if these problems were caused by a power outage though). On a sidenote; with an UPS is it possible to setup FreeNAS whenever there is a power outage and it switches to the UPS, it automatically shuts down the server (after a few minutes) so nothing is lost and there is no data corruption? I never used it before in combination with FreeNAS, so I am pretty clueless regarding this...
In regards to the wife; actually I didn't tell her anything (yet)... Maybe it's bad, but why should I worry her with this?
However I will be making backups of the pictures from now on. Just to be safe...
But now the main question; as soon as I have downloaded the current series (which will take a while) I will retry transfering the "Grim"-series. Previously, as soon as I started transfering files from this series, it would have a kernel panic and reboot the NAS. If it happens now again, it will definitely be related to;
a) one / several / all the harddisks
b) ZFS filesystem for some reason
However if it does transfer the files now suddenly without any problems, the problem must lay elsewhere...
I completely understand new hardware doesn't mean it's problem free, HOWEVER why was it working correctly for months and suddenly stops working properly. Harddisks I can understand (moving parts), onboard controller (well kinda hard to believe, but okay possible), USB stick (yes the stick wears out after use, due to read/write cycles, same with SSD), memory (also hard to believe, but also possible). So the only 2 things left imho are the motherboard itself or the PSU. But those options I also find hard to believe. Even my previous gaming system, which was heavily overclocked and watercooled, never had any kind of problems after severly stress testing. And ran without any issues for the past 2 years (I replaced it recently for a new gaming system).
And maybe the most important question remains unanswered... Will my system be safe to use and to rely on in the near future?!
Who says this won't happen again, after reinstalling and redoing everything? And are there other ways to test hardware, for example the harddisks? I am pretty annoyed I still cannot find out the problem, though I am guessing it's still related to ZFS, because if I check zpool status -v I am still getting this:
Code:
errors: Permanent errors have been detected in the following files:
storage:<0x0>
/rw/storage/Jail/plugins/var/log/messages
And as far as I can tell, the "storage:<0x0>"-error is a pretty serious problem, right?