[Dar-support] Re: Input/output error

[Denis C. <dar...@fr...>]

Johnathan Ritzi wrote:
> That seems to work fine without errors, although I do get a strange:
> 
> "Cannot read directory contents: /root : Error opening directory: /root 
> : Permission denied"

this is because the user under which dar is run has not the permission 
to read the contents of the /root directory.

> 
> Do I assume that was just a quirk then? Should I be worrying about some 
> kind of corruption or is an IO error something that can show up for no 
> reason?

The IO error you have met has not been "invented" by dar, this type of 
message is forward by dar from the kernel. Thus you should not ignore it 
and rather consider that your disk may have a problem. This may be a 
system problem (bad driver or IRQ that timed out), or a physical problem 
of your disk. See the syslog messages (usually in /var/log/messages)

By precaution I would make a full backup of this system, (or a 
differential if you have a recent full backup) *test the backups* and 
then do a fsck with badblock detection (be careful, when choosing the 
badblock algorithm, some do make read-write tests that may erase data, 
so read documentation of the tools you use, to be sure).


> 

Regards,
Denis.