[bookport] Re: FILESYSTEM MUSINGS
- From: buhrow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Brian Buhrow)
- To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 09:54:30 -0700
Hello Larry. thank you for the feedback. Based on what you say, it's
possible I'm encountering trouble due to early removal of the card from the
Bookport. I will pay more attention to this detail, now knowing that I
should definitely wait for the beep before pulling the card, and see if
things improve.
-Brian
On Oct 25, 12:11pm, "LARRY SKUTCHAN" wrote:
} Subject: [bookport] Re: FILESYSTEM MUSINGS
} I'm not sure of this at all, or we would be looking into it much more
} agressively. I use the device daily and I honestly don't remember the
} last time I ever had to format a card.
}
} There are some things that can corrupt the file system. Removing the
} card before the double-beep is probably the number one place for
} possible trouble in this area.
}
} Of course, a firmware crash could possibly cause corruction, too, but I
} think we've got the crashes down to a non-event now, as well.
}
} Removing the card or the Book Port from the PC before all the caches
} are flushed can cause problems, too, but if one suspects this to be a
} problem, we recommend using the safely remove hardware icon in the
} system tray. Under XP, this does not seem to be an issue.
}
} >>> buhrow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tuesday, October 25, 2005 11:49:50 AM
} >>>
} Hello. I've been reading this list for a couple of months, and
} have
} noticed what seems to be a somewhat common thread which appears to
} match my
} experience, and which, if it's true, raises issues which I think should
} be
} addressed in order to make the user experience for the bookport an
} even
} happier one.
} From what I can tell, there are a number of users who purchase
} their
} bookports from APH, get them home, load them up with data, read from
} them,
} and are completely happy with them. Then, after a month or two of
} use,
} when books have been cycled through the unit, and the user is feeling
} more
} comfortable putting more and more on the Bookport, he begins
} experiencing
} difficulties when transfering data to the Bookport. Flash cards fill
} unexpectedly during transfers, users encounter file coruption during
} the
} reading process, or weird errors just happen, seemingly from no
} where.
} the advice on this list, generally, seems to be that flash cards
} get
} corrupted, and they either have gone bad, or need to be reformatted
} before
} they work again for another month or two.
} My experience coincides with this description. I have had my
} Bookport
} for about four months, and have had to reformat the flash card I use
} most
} often at least once. It's now been about six weeks since I last
} reformatted my flash card, and I'm now beginning to see anomolous
} behavior,
} which I suspect will go away if I reformat my card yet again.
} All of this is to say that I think there is a subttle filesystem
} bug
} in the Bookport which no one yet quite understands. On clean, i.e.
} newly
} formatted flash cards, things work well. Then, as material comes and
} goes
} from the filesystem on the flash card, some of it written by the host
} computer, some by the Bookport itself, the filesystem becomes "dirty"
} in
} the way that most filesystems become "dirty" over time. Directories
} become
} fragmented as items are deleted and inserted, disk block allocations
} become
} fragmented as well, and the efficiency of the filesystem on the flash
} card
} becomes less over time. All of this is normal, and should be
} expected.
} The rub is that the Bookport appears to not deal well with this loss
} of
} efficiency, and as a consequence, becomes very fickle in its operation
} as
} the filesystems on its flash cards age.
} While, as someone suggested, running defragmentation programs
} against
} the filesystems on one's flash cards for Bookport might aleviate the
} problem, I'm not convinced this will totally help because I don't
} think
} defragmentation programs zero out blocks they free up on the
} filesystems
} they fix. The behavior I observe with my bookport leads me to believe
} that
} the firmware makes certain assumptions about what is in its various
} file
} buffers, and reuses them without necessarily properly cleaning them.
} For
} example, I have an MP3 file on my bookport right now which reads fine,
} except if I query the percentage status while the file is playing, and
} I've
} read more than 50% of it. If I hit the 8 key when the latter half of
} the
} file is playing, I get an FS buffer panic, followed by a bunch of
} audio
} file read error messages, accompanied by choppy sound until I either
} stop
} the bookport, or it comes to the end of the file in question.
} Let me stress, though, that I'm not trying to suggest that I
} know what
} the problem is, or how to fix it. However, I believe there is a
} problem,
} and that it should be looked into. The bookport should be able to
} deal
} with filesystems which pass chkdsk or scandisk, but which aren't
} necessarily pristine in terms of not having been used, and users
} shouldn't
} have to regularly reformat their flash cards in order to preserve
} usability.
} I love my bookport, but this issue, what ever it is, certainly
} adds to
} my level of frustration using it, and makes it downright inconvenient
} at
} times, while I cajole it into working.
} -Brian
}
}
}
>-- End of excerpt from "LARRY SKUTCHAN"
Other related posts:
