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  3. This makes zero sense - part deux

This makes zero sense - part deux

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
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  • D Offline
    D Offline
    dandy72
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    It's gonna be one of those days... If you've never heard of [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's a utility that lets you boot from a USB thumbdrive, and then presents a menu made up of any number of bootable ISOs you just dump on the drive. You have to format the thumbdrive with it (so it can be made bootable and loads the app that looks for ISOs and builds the menu), but the ISO files themselves aren't touched in any way. So that's besides the point. I just copied an .ISO file on the thumbdrive, stuck it into a laptop, booted from it and started installing the OS...halfway through it, it complained the image wasn't valid. Sure enough, if I compared SHA256 hashes between my original ISO file and the copy I made on the USB stick, they don't match. Easy enough fix, I'll just re-copy the file and be done with it. For good measure, before wasting my time reinstalling, I'll re-compare the hashes. They *still* didn't match. I re-did it a third time, same thing again. The original ISO file is on ComputerA, and the thumbdrive is in a USB port on ComputerB. I'm copying the file across the LAN and directly onto the USB stick. And I consistently get this mismatched hash. So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)... Why would the extra step of going over the LAN modify the data stream contained within the file? Given I was able to produce an identical copy of the file on the same USB thumbdrive by avoiding the LAN, I can't really blame the drive itself. This isn't the analog world. Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS. Yet it remains blissfully unaware the target no longer matches the source. How do you even explain that? Additional details: ComputerA is an old system that can only do USB2. ComputerB is newer and the USB stick was hooked up to a USB3 port. Surely the difference in transfer speeds can't blindly introduce errors that get ignored?? Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data...

    D O C E J 6 Replies Last reply
    0
    • D dandy72

      It's gonna be one of those days... If you've never heard of [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's a utility that lets you boot from a USB thumbdrive, and then presents a menu made up of any number of bootable ISOs you just dump on the drive. You have to format the thumbdrive with it (so it can be made bootable and loads the app that looks for ISOs and builds the menu), but the ISO files themselves aren't touched in any way. So that's besides the point. I just copied an .ISO file on the thumbdrive, stuck it into a laptop, booted from it and started installing the OS...halfway through it, it complained the image wasn't valid. Sure enough, if I compared SHA256 hashes between my original ISO file and the copy I made on the USB stick, they don't match. Easy enough fix, I'll just re-copy the file and be done with it. For good measure, before wasting my time reinstalling, I'll re-compare the hashes. They *still* didn't match. I re-did it a third time, same thing again. The original ISO file is on ComputerA, and the thumbdrive is in a USB port on ComputerB. I'm copying the file across the LAN and directly onto the USB stick. And I consistently get this mismatched hash. So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)... Why would the extra step of going over the LAN modify the data stream contained within the file? Given I was able to produce an identical copy of the file on the same USB thumbdrive by avoiding the LAN, I can't really blame the drive itself. This isn't the analog world. Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS. Yet it remains blissfully unaware the target no longer matches the source. How do you even explain that? Additional details: ComputerA is an old system that can only do USB2. ComputerB is newer and the USB stick was hooked up to a USB3 port. Surely the difference in transfer speeds can't blindly introduce errors that get ignored?? Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data...

      D Offline
      D Offline
      DerekT P
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      I know nothing about hashes for ISO files; but could it be including the timestamp in some form? From one computer to another the hash on the "sent" file won't match the clock (and hence the file write timestamp) on the receiving machine. If you copy directly from HDD to thumb drive all on the same PC, they will. The file content isn't modified, but the file metadata is.

      Telegraph marker posts ... nothing to do with IT Phasmid email discussion group ... also nothing to do with IT Beekeeping and honey site ... still nothing to do with IT

      D 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • D dandy72

        It's gonna be one of those days... If you've never heard of [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's a utility that lets you boot from a USB thumbdrive, and then presents a menu made up of any number of bootable ISOs you just dump on the drive. You have to format the thumbdrive with it (so it can be made bootable and loads the app that looks for ISOs and builds the menu), but the ISO files themselves aren't touched in any way. So that's besides the point. I just copied an .ISO file on the thumbdrive, stuck it into a laptop, booted from it and started installing the OS...halfway through it, it complained the image wasn't valid. Sure enough, if I compared SHA256 hashes between my original ISO file and the copy I made on the USB stick, they don't match. Easy enough fix, I'll just re-copy the file and be done with it. For good measure, before wasting my time reinstalling, I'll re-compare the hashes. They *still* didn't match. I re-did it a third time, same thing again. The original ISO file is on ComputerA, and the thumbdrive is in a USB port on ComputerB. I'm copying the file across the LAN and directly onto the USB stick. And I consistently get this mismatched hash. So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)... Why would the extra step of going over the LAN modify the data stream contained within the file? Given I was able to produce an identical copy of the file on the same USB thumbdrive by avoiding the LAN, I can't really blame the drive itself. This isn't the analog world. Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS. Yet it remains blissfully unaware the target no longer matches the source. How do you even explain that? Additional details: ComputerA is an old system that can only do USB2. ComputerB is newer and the USB stick was hooked up to a USB3 port. Surely the difference in transfer speeds can't blindly introduce errors that get ignored?? Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data...

        O Offline
        O Offline
        obermd
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        I've seen this on other large files. For some reason SMB copies across networks can glitch. I suspect it's a bug in the Windows SMB implementation that only manifests on network links.

        D 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • D dandy72

          It's gonna be one of those days... If you've never heard of [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's a utility that lets you boot from a USB thumbdrive, and then presents a menu made up of any number of bootable ISOs you just dump on the drive. You have to format the thumbdrive with it (so it can be made bootable and loads the app that looks for ISOs and builds the menu), but the ISO files themselves aren't touched in any way. So that's besides the point. I just copied an .ISO file on the thumbdrive, stuck it into a laptop, booted from it and started installing the OS...halfway through it, it complained the image wasn't valid. Sure enough, if I compared SHA256 hashes between my original ISO file and the copy I made on the USB stick, they don't match. Easy enough fix, I'll just re-copy the file and be done with it. For good measure, before wasting my time reinstalling, I'll re-compare the hashes. They *still* didn't match. I re-did it a third time, same thing again. The original ISO file is on ComputerA, and the thumbdrive is in a USB port on ComputerB. I'm copying the file across the LAN and directly onto the USB stick. And I consistently get this mismatched hash. So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)... Why would the extra step of going over the LAN modify the data stream contained within the file? Given I was able to produce an identical copy of the file on the same USB thumbdrive by avoiding the LAN, I can't really blame the drive itself. This isn't the analog world. Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS. Yet it remains blissfully unaware the target no longer matches the source. How do you even explain that? Additional details: ComputerA is an old system that can only do USB2. ComputerB is newer and the USB stick was hooked up to a USB3 port. Surely the difference in transfer speeds can't blindly introduce errors that get ignored?? Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data...

          C Offline
          C Offline
          carloscs
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          To add my useless reply, just can't resist :) Some years (15?) ago, had just that happen copying files between two linux servers. The useless part is that I can't remember what the problem was (need to refresh my memory sticks and backups). I seem to remember throwing one of the (somewhat old) servers to the trash as I come to the conclusion (after switching network cards, memory sticks, disks, ...) that the problem was motherboard related. Just a few tests you can do: - redirect the ssh stream to output and sum that to check if the problem is in the network stack or local. - write the file to disk instead of usb and do the sum on the disk file, the problem may be in writing to the usb. - if using wifi try using a network cable - if already using a network cable, try using a new one and(or connecting to a different port on the router/switch. As obermd wrote, I also had no errors anywhere to show that something odd was happening.

          D 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • D dandy72

            It's gonna be one of those days... If you've never heard of [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's a utility that lets you boot from a USB thumbdrive, and then presents a menu made up of any number of bootable ISOs you just dump on the drive. You have to format the thumbdrive with it (so it can be made bootable and loads the app that looks for ISOs and builds the menu), but the ISO files themselves aren't touched in any way. So that's besides the point. I just copied an .ISO file on the thumbdrive, stuck it into a laptop, booted from it and started installing the OS...halfway through it, it complained the image wasn't valid. Sure enough, if I compared SHA256 hashes between my original ISO file and the copy I made on the USB stick, they don't match. Easy enough fix, I'll just re-copy the file and be done with it. For good measure, before wasting my time reinstalling, I'll re-compare the hashes. They *still* didn't match. I re-did it a third time, same thing again. The original ISO file is on ComputerA, and the thumbdrive is in a USB port on ComputerB. I'm copying the file across the LAN and directly onto the USB stick. And I consistently get this mismatched hash. So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)... Why would the extra step of going over the LAN modify the data stream contained within the file? Given I was able to produce an identical copy of the file on the same USB thumbdrive by avoiding the LAN, I can't really blame the drive itself. This isn't the analog world. Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS. Yet it remains blissfully unaware the target no longer matches the source. How do you even explain that? Additional details: ComputerA is an old system that can only do USB2. ComputerB is newer and the USB stick was hooked up to a USB3 port. Surely the difference in transfer speeds can't blindly introduce errors that get ignored?? Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data...

            E Offline
            E Offline
            englebart
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Check for updates on your network and USB device drivers. TLDR Flew across the pond on a support call… Your app crashes on startup. Bring my desktop CPU (with app source, debugger, etc) all the way to customer site. Fire up the app, no issues. Client starts app on their system and it crashes. Client is hosting the app on a network share. Copy the app to the local hard drive and it works. It turns out there was a bug in their network driver. They updated the network driver and then it would load from the share.

            T 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • D dandy72

              It's gonna be one of those days... If you've never heard of [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's a utility that lets you boot from a USB thumbdrive, and then presents a menu made up of any number of bootable ISOs you just dump on the drive. You have to format the thumbdrive with it (so it can be made bootable and loads the app that looks for ISOs and builds the menu), but the ISO files themselves aren't touched in any way. So that's besides the point. I just copied an .ISO file on the thumbdrive, stuck it into a laptop, booted from it and started installing the OS...halfway through it, it complained the image wasn't valid. Sure enough, if I compared SHA256 hashes between my original ISO file and the copy I made on the USB stick, they don't match. Easy enough fix, I'll just re-copy the file and be done with it. For good measure, before wasting my time reinstalling, I'll re-compare the hashes. They *still* didn't match. I re-did it a third time, same thing again. The original ISO file is on ComputerA, and the thumbdrive is in a USB port on ComputerB. I'm copying the file across the LAN and directly onto the USB stick. And I consistently get this mismatched hash. So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)... Why would the extra step of going over the LAN modify the data stream contained within the file? Given I was able to produce an identical copy of the file on the same USB thumbdrive by avoiding the LAN, I can't really blame the drive itself. This isn't the analog world. Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS. Yet it remains blissfully unaware the target no longer matches the source. How do you even explain that? Additional details: ComputerA is an old system that can only do USB2. ComputerB is newer and the USB stick was hooked up to a USB3 port. Surely the difference in transfer speeds can't blindly introduce errors that get ignored?? Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data...

              J Offline
              J Offline
              Jeremy Falcon
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              dandy72 wrote:

              So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)...

              Presumably this was after you recopied the ISO to the USB again right?

              dandy72 wrote:

              Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS.

              Really depends on how it was transferred. Dropped packets happen more times than you'd think. If the mechanism you're using to transfer files uses UDP underneath the hood, then there is no error checking for packets.

              Jeremy Falcon

              D 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • D dandy72

                It's gonna be one of those days... If you've never heard of [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's a utility that lets you boot from a USB thumbdrive, and then presents a menu made up of any number of bootable ISOs you just dump on the drive. You have to format the thumbdrive with it (so it can be made bootable and loads the app that looks for ISOs and builds the menu), but the ISO files themselves aren't touched in any way. So that's besides the point. I just copied an .ISO file on the thumbdrive, stuck it into a laptop, booted from it and started installing the OS...halfway through it, it complained the image wasn't valid. Sure enough, if I compared SHA256 hashes between my original ISO file and the copy I made on the USB stick, they don't match. Easy enough fix, I'll just re-copy the file and be done with it. For good measure, before wasting my time reinstalling, I'll re-compare the hashes. They *still* didn't match. I re-did it a third time, same thing again. The original ISO file is on ComputerA, and the thumbdrive is in a USB port on ComputerB. I'm copying the file across the LAN and directly onto the USB stick. And I consistently get this mismatched hash. So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)... Why would the extra step of going over the LAN modify the data stream contained within the file? Given I was able to produce an identical copy of the file on the same USB thumbdrive by avoiding the LAN, I can't really blame the drive itself. This isn't the analog world. Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS. Yet it remains blissfully unaware the target no longer matches the source. How do you even explain that? Additional details: ComputerA is an old system that can only do USB2. ComputerB is newer and the USB stick was hooked up to a USB3 port. Surely the difference in transfer speeds can't blindly introduce errors that get ignored?? Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data...

                L Offline
                L Offline
                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                dandy72 wrote:

                Otherwise there's no way I could ever trust a transfer of any kind of binary data..

                Imagine, a surgeon if you will. Explaining all this high-tech they have to assure you, and you see a VB6 interface on one of the monitors? "Trust"? Well, it goes as far as I can throw a brick, and that's literally so. Trust means complacency, so by default, there shouldn't be any.

                Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • E englebart

                  Check for updates on your network and USB device drivers. TLDR Flew across the pond on a support call… Your app crashes on startup. Bring my desktop CPU (with app source, debugger, etc) all the way to customer site. Fire up the app, no issues. Client starts app on their system and it crashes. Client is hosting the app on a network share. Copy the app to the local hard drive and it works. It turns out there was a bug in their network driver. They updated the network driver and then it would load from the share.

                  T Offline
                  T Offline
                  trønderen
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  What about introducing a new four-letter abbreviation: TMDC. Too Messy, Didn't Comprehend.

                  E 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • T trønderen

                    What about introducing a new four-letter abbreviation: TMDC. Too Messy, Didn't Comprehend.

                    E Offline
                    E Offline
                    englebart
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    Start with driver updates/bug fixes on both systems. It could save a trip 1/3 of the way around the world. (Probably not an outcome in this case)

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • D DerekT P

                      I know nothing about hashes for ISO files; but could it be including the timestamp in some form? From one computer to another the hash on the "sent" file won't match the clock (and hence the file write timestamp) on the receiving machine. If you copy directly from HDD to thumb drive all on the same PC, they will. The file content isn't modified, but the file metadata is.

                      Telegraph marker posts ... nothing to do with IT Phasmid email discussion group ... also nothing to do with IT Beekeeping and honey site ... still nothing to do with IT

                      D Offline
                      D Offline
                      dandy72
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      The hash is calculated purely based on the file content, not its metadata. I think this rules out that theory.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • O obermd

                        I've seen this on other large files. For some reason SMB copies across networks can glitch. I suspect it's a bug in the Windows SMB implementation that only manifests on network links.

                        D Offline
                        D Offline
                        dandy72
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        I'm inclined to believe this...however this would mean I'd end up with tons of corrupt files. The backups I create from my NAS are done across my LAN, and I have no inclination to believe any file has ever been corrupt in that way. But now you have me worried :-)

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • C carloscs

                          To add my useless reply, just can't resist :) Some years (15?) ago, had just that happen copying files between two linux servers. The useless part is that I can't remember what the problem was (need to refresh my memory sticks and backups). I seem to remember throwing one of the (somewhat old) servers to the trash as I come to the conclusion (after switching network cards, memory sticks, disks, ...) that the problem was motherboard related. Just a few tests you can do: - redirect the ssh stream to output and sum that to check if the problem is in the network stack or local. - write the file to disk instead of usb and do the sum on the disk file, the problem may be in writing to the usb. - if using wifi try using a network cable - if already using a network cable, try using a new one and(or connecting to a different port on the router/switch. As obermd wrote, I also had no errors anywhere to show that something odd was happening.

                          D Offline
                          D Offline
                          dandy72
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Some good ideas in there. I'll give those a try, thanks.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • J Jeremy Falcon

                            dandy72 wrote:

                            So I took the USB stick and plugged it directly into ComputerA, and compared the hashes - they finally match (!)...

                            Presumably this was after you recopied the ISO to the USB again right?

                            dandy72 wrote:

                            Any read/write error should've been detected in transit, and reported by the OS.

                            Really depends on how it was transferred. Dropped packets happen more times than you'd think. If the mechanism you're using to transfer files uses UDP underneath the hood, then there is no error checking for packets.

                            Jeremy Falcon

                            D Offline
                            D Offline
                            dandy72
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            Jeremy Falcon wrote:

                            Presumably this was after you recopied the ISO to the USB again right?

                            The original file sitting on ComputerA's hard disk, which I know has a valid hash.

                            Jeremy Falcon wrote:

                            Dropped packets happen more times than you'd think. If the mechanism you're using to transfer files uses UDP underneath the hood, then there is no error checking for packets.

                            Copied the file by dragging/dropping with Windows Explorer. You'd *hope* it wouldn't use a protocol that allows packets to be dropped silently...

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