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I suspect that I have a bad stick of RAM in a Linux development server. I'm trying to copy an 80Gb file off of the server to an external hard drive. CRC of the copied file does not match that of the source, and I'm wondering if I can make a copy of this file without hitting the RAM in order to avoid potential data corruption? My goal is to be able to pull this file without bringing the system down, as it is in active use by several developers.

Ethereal
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    Pull the disk out and put it into another system...about the only way you're going to accomplish that – Nathan C Sep 03 '14 at 14:18
  • Access the server's files from your workstation and issue the copy from your workstation to your workstation. Then offload it to an external drive if need be. – TheCleaner Sep 03 '14 at 14:20
  • I'd like to avoid bringing the system down but if that is the only way I'm going to accomplish this, that will be my last option. – Ethereal Sep 03 '14 at 14:20
  • @TheCleaner I will give that a shot. However, something occurred to me -- it is probably impossible to do an accurate CRC with bad RAM since the algorithm utilizes the RAM heavily. – Ethereal Sep 03 '14 at 14:21
  • memtest will make sure it can see this. worked for me for all the defect RAM (crc/non-crc) i had. – Dennis Nolte Sep 03 '14 at 14:25

1 Answers1

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No, there's no way.

And if you suspect that there's a faulty RAM, shut it down immediately. RAM corruption will lead to data corruption and your system will die anyway.

Shut it down now, and run a memory test utility.

ThoriumBR
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  • Yeah, that's the weird thing -- we've been using this system for over 2 years and while I have seen file corruption once before, we haven't had any other indications of faulty RAM. In any case I suppose you are right, we should test the RAM if nothing else. Could be a faulty RAID controller also I guess. – Ethereal Sep 03 '14 at 14:24
  • Shut it down, a server fault is a very good reason to shut it down. Test the RAM, it's easy and fast, and if everything is OK you can test the other parts, like cabling, controllers and disks. – ThoriumBR Sep 03 '14 at 14:26