CentOS - May 2017 - cannot access file: Input/output error

I have a file on a backup usb drive that I get the following error:

# ls -ls P*
ls: cannot access Power usage.xls: Input/output error

How can I delete this file so that the nightly backup will write out the 
current version to the backup drive?

I tried:

# rm -f Power\ usage.xls
rm: cannot remove `Power usage.xls': Input/output error

Which you can see did not work.

thanks

I have a file on a backup usb drive that I get the following error:

# ls -ls P*
ls: cannot access Power usage.xls: Input/output error

How can I delete this file so that the nightly backup will write out the 
current version to the backup drive?

I tried:

# rm -f Power\ usage.xls
rm: cannot remove `Power usage.xls': Input/output error

Which you can see did not work.

thanks


_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See if OpenOffice or LibreOffice has the file open. The temp file name should
have tilde in front of it. For example, ~Power usage.xls. Delete that file and
that may resolve the input/output error.

Best regards,

James

> I have a file on a backup usb drive that I get the following error:
> 
> # ls -ls P*
> ls: cannot access Power usage.xls: Input/output error
> 
> How can I delete this file so that the nightly backup will write out the
> current version to the backup drive?
> 
> I tried:
> 
> # rm -f Power\ usage.xls
> rm: cannot remove `Power usage.xls': Input/output error
> 
> Which you can see did not work.
> 
> thanks
You mention this is a USB drive.  Input/output error means something is wrong. 
Possibly seriously.

The blkid command should tell you if this is a FAT32 file system or some flavor
of file system.   It will also tell you the device being mounted.   Eg. 
/dev/sdc1

 If it is FAT32, you would want to unmount it and plug it into a Windows box and
run chkdsk or scandsk on it.  If it has been formatted to a Linux type file
system, unmount it and use fsck to scan the disk for errors with a command
similar to "fsck /dev/sdc1".     Again blkid or "df -k -l"
will tell you the device name.  Make sure the device is unmounted when you run
fsck or bad things will happen to your data.

You might also want to try "smartctl -a /dev/sdc"    
This will give you warnings if the disk is beginning to fail.
Again, I am using /dev/sdc as an example.

On 5/9/2017 2:24 PM, Styma, Robert (Nokia - US/Phoenix)
wrote:
> You mention this is a USB drive.  Input/output error means something is
wrong.  Possibly seriously.
>
> The blkid command should tell you if this is a FAT32 file system or some
flavor of file system.   It will also tell you the device being mounted.   Eg. 
/dev/sdc1
>
>   If it is FAT32, you would want to unmount it and plug it into a Windows
box and run chkdsk or scandsk on it.  If it has been formatted to a Linux type
file system, unmount it and use fsck to scan the disk for errors with a command
similar to "fsck /dev/sdc1".     Again blkid or "df -k -l"
will tell you the device name.  Make sure the device is unmounted when you run
fsck or bad things will happen to your data.
>
> You might also want to try "smartctl -a /dev/sdc"
> This will give you warnings if the disk is beginning to fail.
> Again, I am using /dev/sdc as an example.

also,  dmesg | grep sdc

to see what physical errors were logged.  (replacing sdc with whatever 
the physical device name is, without any partition number).


-- 
john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz