Hi, I can write to just about the entire USB stick, with no errors: atom:~# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 5.8G 1.5G 4.3G 26% / tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /lib/init/rw udev 10M 140K 9.9M 2% /dev tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm atom:~# cd / atom:/# ls bin cdrom etc lib media nfs proc sbin srv tmp var boot dev home lib64 mnt opt root selinux sys usr atom:/# dd if=/dev/zero of=bigfile bs=1M count=4000 4000+0 records in 4000+0 records out 4194304000 bytes (4.2 GB) copied, 135.536 s, 30.9 MB/s atom:/# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 5.8G 5.4G 350M 95% / tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /lib/init/rw udev 10M 140K 9.9M 2% /dev tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm atom:/# rm bigfile However, after some amount of time, the errors occur below, is this USB stick failing? Since it has no SMART, is there any other way to verify the 'health' of a USB stick? Mar 18 07:55:12 atom [ 10.034310] e1000e 0000:03:00.0: eth1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO [ .. no errors .. ] Mar 18 08:32:44 atom [ 2261.883848] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 2 Mar 18 08:32:44 atom [ 2261.884465] Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 1317256 Mar 18 08:32:44 atom [ 2261.884525] lost page write due to I/O error on sda2 Mar 18 08:32:44 atom [ 2261.884713] Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 1307821 Mar 18 08:32:44 atom [ 2261.884764] lost page write due to I/O error on sda2 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744165] sd 6:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744264] sd 6:0:0:0: [sda] Unhandled error code Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744298] sd 6:0:0:0: [sda] Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744356] sd 6:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Write(10) Mar 18 08:33:06 atom : Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 2a Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 00 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 00 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 99 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 0f Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 7e Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 00 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 00 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 02 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom 00 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744450] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 10030974 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744544] I/O error in filesystem ("sda2") meta-data dev sda2 block 0x5c05c5 ("xlog_iodone") error 5 buf count 1024 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744591] xfs_force_shutdown(sda2,0x2) called from line 893 of file fs/xfs/xfs_log.c. Return address = 0xffffffff811c9834 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744669] Filesystem sda2: Log I/O Error Detected. Shutting down filesystem: sda2 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744732] Please umount the filesystem, and rectify the problem(s) Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744779] Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 1318284 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.744831] lost page write due to I/O error on sda2 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.745659] Filesystem sda2: xfs_log_force: error 5 returned. Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.746109] Filesystem sda2: xfs_log_force: error 5 returned. Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.746168] xfs_force_shutdown(sda2,0x1) called from line 1111 of file fs/xfs/linux-2.6/xfs_buf.c. Return address = 0xffffffff811e1e1c Mar 18 08:33:06 atom Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2283.963059] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2284.080647] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0325, idProduct=ac02 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2284.080707] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2284.080752] usb 1-1: Product: R2_TURBO Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2284.080794] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: OCZ Technology Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2284.080831] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: (removed) Mar 18 08:33:06 atom [ 2284.082082] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0 Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.083417] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access OCZ R2_TURBO 1100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.085539] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 16056320 512-byte logical blocks: (8.22 GB/7.65 GiB) Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.086520] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.089383] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.089435] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.094025] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.094071] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.094888] sdb: sdb1 sdb2 Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.097544] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.097602] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through Mar 18 08:33:07 atom [ 2285.097647] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk Mar 18 08:33:36 atom [ 2313.744037] Filesystem sda2: xfs_log_force: error 5 returned. Mar 18 08:34:06 atom Mar 18 08:34:06 atom [ 2343.745039] Filesystem sda2: xfs_log_force: error 5 returned. Mar 18 08:34:36 atom Mar 18 08:34:36 atom [ 2373.745039] Filesystem sda2: xfs_log_force: error 5 returned. Mar 18 08:35:06 atom _______________________________________________ xfs mailing list xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx http://oss.sgi.com/mailman/listinfo/xfs