Yes that is what I used. The code does not seem to do anything (I think). I copied your code and pasted, it asked for my password. It did nothing but go back to the prompt. I then rebooted and did not notice anything happening.
One new thing. All problems on files are comming from my Dropbox folder!
I’m going to guess the files in question are spanning sectors on the drive that are bad (but not considered bad enough to get remapped, ie. take just a few read attempts) … if you copy one of the files that plays up (COPY not move) from the Dropbox directory to another directory (like the Desktop) … then try to open it from there … does it still play up ?
[EDIT]
If this continues … I’d give serious consideration to a new hard drive.
If you run:
ls /
and what’s returned doesn’t list forcefsck … then I guess fsck DID run when you rebooted, and maybe Mint hides it whilst it’s running.
Yes it doesn’t list forcefsck.
To be honest I have two 320gb 3.5" hard drives in mint condition. I think I will use one of them. I think that damage could have been caused by lighting surge as I had taken off the protector and put it on the tv system and forgot to replace it when on Holiday in Devon recently. neighbours told me there was a lot of thunder and lighting when I was away.
How are you going to use a 3.5" HDD in a laptop ? … externally ?
If you COPY the iffy files from the Dropbox directory to somewhere else and they work perfectly … you could always rename the Dropbox directory (but leave it in place … maybe hide it), that way the bad sectors are already used and won’t be available for anything else … if you see what I mean ?
Then you could always create a NEW Dropbox directory, and COPY the contents to it … they’de then be on different (hopefully working) sectors.
Did that make any sense to you ?
Sorry. I meant 2.5 drive. :
Yes. I understand what you are saying Mark. Thanks