William Kenworthy wrote: > > On 29/12/21 20:26, Michael wrote: >> On Tuesday, 28 December 2021 20:21:32 GMT Dale wrote: >>> Howdy, >>> >>> As some may recall, I have quite a few deer trail cameras that use SD >>> memory cards. On occasion some of the cards start acting weird. I've >>> got one that is really weird. Usually I just replace them but this one >>> is a bit of a puzzle I'd like to solve. When it stopped working, it >>> had >>> a dozen or so short videos on it that are about 30MBs on average. Some >>> color and large, some black and white night vision and fairly small. >>> When it stopped working, I tried to reformat the thing. The files >>> remained even after that. I then ran dd and zeroed the thing, files >>> still there even tho dd reported no problems. I then used this GUI >>> disk >>> program that tests memory cards and it claims the card is fine. It >>> writes files to it, reads them back. I also used it to reformat the >>> card. The original videos are still there. Today I decided to play >>> with it again. I ran this dd command on the stick. >>> >>> >>> root@fireball / # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdh bs=4K conv=notrunc >>> oflag=direct status=progress >>> 31907364864 bytes (32 GB, 30 GiB) copied, 3956 s, 8.1 MB/s >>> dd: error writing '/dev/sdh': No space left on device >>> 7791745+0 records in >>> 7791744+0 records out >>> 31914983424 bytes (32 GB, 30 GiB) copied, 3956.94 s, 8.1 MB/s >>> root@fireball / # >>> >>> >>> As you can see, no errors. It wrote zeros until it ran out of space. >>> Guess what, the original videos are still on the card. File listing: >>> >>> >>> root@fireball / # ls -al /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/* >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 0 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/AAAAAAAA.AAA >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 0 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/BBBBBBBB.BBB >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 14335272 May 2 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0823.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 50843576 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0824.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 53137560 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0825.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 18398504 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0826.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 18922808 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0827.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 18332888 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0828.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 18726200 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0829.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 18332920 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0830.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 18005288 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0831.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 17612088 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0832.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 17153336 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0833.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 16694584 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0834.AVI >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 dale users 0 May 6 2018 >>> /run/media/dale/2140-2E00/DCIM/100MEDIA/WGI_0835.AVI >>> root@fireball / # >>> >>> >>> >>> The zero byte files are broken, my first clue way back that the card >>> needed replacing. I see no errors in dmesg or messages. Usually the >>> cards produce errors and it remounts read only. Not in this case tho. >>> Mount info: >>> >>> >>> root@fireball / # mount | grep sdh >>> /dev/sdh1 on /run/media/dale/2140-2E00 type vfat >>> (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=100,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=43 >>> >>> 7,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,showexec,utf8,flush,errors=remount-ro, >>> >>> uhelper=udisks2) root@fireball / # >>> >>> >>> >>> In the past, I've at times been able to copy the files off other cards >>> going bad but it stays read only. Reformating fails etc etc. >>> Sometimes, it just plain doesn't work. Almost always tho I get a error >>> of some kind in messages or dmesg if not both. This one tho, it's just >>> plain weird. No errors but nothing removes the files either. Oh, I've >>> checked the lock button. It's not locked. It is shown that way in >>> dmesg as well. >>> >>> >>> [2592841.808336] sd 10:0:0:2: [sdh] Write Protect is off >>> >>> >>> >>> Obviously I'm not going to trust this thing. It will end up in the >>> trash but, does this make sense to anyone else? Of all the ones I've >>> worn out, this is the only one that behaves this way. I'd at least >>> expect the format to fail or it only mount read only. At least some >>> sort of error anyway. >>> >>> Thoughts? >>> >>> Dale >>> >>> :-) :-) >> I don't think I've come across something like this before. In my >> case data is >> lost, occasionally irretrievably. >> >> I suppose something has switched blocks on the SD as immutable, >> probably a >> controller having a hiccup. >> >> You could try blkdiscard to erase blocks directly - but I haven't >> tried this >> on an SD. I also haven't tried to know if it will work at all >> hdparm's secure >> deletion. >> >> However, the best option is to see if the OEM offers a reset app for >> this >> particular card and use that. > > I have a few SD cards as OS disks on raspberry pi, odroids etc. One > has your symptoms like yours - read only when it says its in write > mode. Took two days after the last write to syslog to drop dead - > just before Christmas too, luckily it was part of a moosefs cluster so > I could leave it in maintenance mode without affecting service - > replaced today. No salvaging it unfortunately - also not the first > one that I have had die like this. I tested some others and have one > thats really slow when dd'ing zeros to clear vacant space (I think > that's redundant for SD cards, better to trim it?) before making a > compressable backup image. It also drops to RO with no errors in > syslog before completing. So I am down 2 cards and need to order some > more spares before another fails :( > > BillK > > > >
So while rare, it's not just me. ;-) I've had cards fail by just plain refusing not to mount at all, mounting read only and such. I've never had one to fail like this tho. I guess if this was some sort of sensitive files, I'd have to put it in a shredder or take a pair of scissors to it. LOL I ordered 6 new cards as replacements. They came in yesterday. Like I said, I wouldn't trust that card even if it started working again. So, off to the trash the weird card goes. Now I just have to wonder why dd and such didn't report problems. :/ Thanks to all for the info. Interesting. Dale :-) :-)
