Bash script clobbers something vital (lucid)

[J]

On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 03:47, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Have a look in syslog and see what are the first errors that appear
> there.  No need to get it to fail again for this, you can go back to
> the previous log, assuming you know when it happened.  Also if you run
> the disc utilities do you see any errors noted in the SMART data?
>
> Are you doing anything else when it fails (plugging/unplugging
> additional usb devices for example)?
>
> Colin

Additionally, when the script gets to the point where it starts trying
to md5sum things, have all the other operations truly finished?  133GB
is a lot of data to move, especially over USB.  Are you positive that
all the data is finished being written to the disks at that point?
Perhaps adding in something ridiculous like 'sleep 30m' before you
start the md5sums would point this out.  Since the backup takes 4+
hours, an extra 30 minutes isn't going to hurt things in the grand
scheme of things.  Anyway, it's a longshot, but worth considering. Of
course, 30m is just an arbitrary time, adjust as you see fit.