Files somehow there, but not visible

Technical Issues
1

I now (after update 2 days ago - but maybe unrelated) experience a loss of files I copied from the network to a local folder. The files were definitely there, but now I can not see them in the PCManFM. Even if I open a terminal as superuser ls -l doesn`t show any files.

[datacine-R5600G _fromPI]# ls -l
ls: das Verzeichnis '.' wird gelesen: Das Argument ist ungültig
insgesamt 0

Fortunately a copy is still available in the network. When I copy one of the missing files again to this folder PCManFM gives me an overwrite warning. If I select overwrite the file is there and visible. But a day later (after reboot) it seems to be gone again.

Any Ideas how to proceed? I do not want to loose important data this way.
Best Regards
Andreas

2

Where is your destination directory located ( _fromPI )?
It is local hard drive or a removable device? If removable, is it mounted and what filesystem it uses?

What about permissions?

ls -alh
3

Hi @New2Mabox.

Years ago I saw a similar case. The cause was a “double mounted” filesystem but before jumping to conclusions, please share with us (along with @napcok request), the output of: df -T.

Regards.

4

It is /dev/sda7, 251.51GB, ntfs.
The disk has /dev/sda1 (48GB W10), /dev/sda2 (32GB ext4 Mabox), /dev/sda3 (851GB extended)
The extended partition 851GB devide in three volumes sda4-7
I used graphical PCManFM 1.3.2. to mount and copy the files.
Can I run some diagnostics on the content of this folder?
I can boot the windows10 tomorrow and see what chkdsk says or is there somewhat similar in linux ?
Regards

Btw: I generated _fromPi2 folder and this behaves normal.

231012_file_error_2023-10-12_20-13
231012_file_error_2023-10-12_20-131077×600 69.1 KB

5

Using a proprietary NTFS file system via Linux is possible, but it’s not a good idea. Especially for important data such as backups.

Storing these files on a native Linux file system can make life easier :wink:

6

Good point. On the other hand NTFS and FAT32 are very common.

Under Windows the explorer reported ‘corrupted directory, unable to open’.

CHKDSK did repair it in no time, but refused to give details. 36 Files, I think all, did get recovered.

Regards

7

Great.

Please keep in mind that FAT32 has a 4 GB limit for files, is not resilient nor robust against data corruption and wastes a lot of space because it defaults to 16KB/32KB cluster size on bigger disks. In that regard exFAT is better (with exfatprogs package) but, also, not so good as NTFS if data integrity is a must. :thinking:

8

Thanks, that is all true, but we life in a world where windows is dominant and so I wish to have a good support of tools for this filesystems even it they are not the best.
Regards,
Andreas