Weird Computer Problem: Cyclic Redundancy Checks and more

TychoCelchuuu

So Opera lost my bookmarks. That is, my bookmarks are empty in Opera. It didn't lose any other stuff. All my quick buttons are still there and so on. My bookmarks are even still there on My Opera (website). So I'm like "that's weird."

So I go into the place where Opera stores my bookmarks to check out the bookmark file. It's called opera6.adr and it looks fine, I guess. I decide to copy it to a safe place and then delete it. Ah, but wait:

"Cannot copy opera6: Data error (cyclic redundancy check)."

Weeeeiiird. I try to delete it, same message, only it says "cannot delete." Also fun: whenever I to change my favorites in Opera, it says "can not save file [the opera6.adr file path]. Try again?" and if I try again the same thing pops up.

So! I cannot copy or delete my bookmark file, which has somehow become corrupted, because of a cyclic redundancy check. I don't want to nuke Opera from orbit yet, especially because it might just refuse to delete the file that I want to get rid of. Does anyone know wtf I could possibly do? Opera itself functions perfectly fine aside from this and I can't imagine what broke it in the first place.

mspencer

What program are you using for the copy operation? Opera? Or a file browser like Windows Explorer?

Same question for the delete operation?

TychoCelchuuu

Just using Windows Explorer in both cases. Explorer even hangs for a few seconds when I click on that specific file. It's like pure evil or something.

twmjr

As far as copying goes, you can try xcopy /c from a DOS prompt -- windows help page for the command is here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/xcopy.mspx?mfr=true This should force it to ignore errors and copy anyway.

This may be a sign that your HDD is going -- try running chkdisk and see what it turns up. It's possibly it's just a logical fault and not a physical one, but I'd back stuff up if you don't already do so just in case.

TychoCelchuuu

Okay, so chkdsk found and fixed 8 sectors or something (the screen flashed by too fast). Now when I try to make a bookmark I get a little thing like this:



Just for posterity, Opera still says this:



When I try to delete the file, this time it says "Cannot delete opera6: the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

Hopefully this is just a fluke, but it's also possible that this portends drive failure. And the thing's only a little over 2 years old Guess it's time to buy another and pull some sort of crazy RAID stuff until the older one fails. I would still like to solve Opera in the meantime though.

twmjr

Is there a setting in Opera to change where it stores the profiles? Maybe writing them to a different directory would work...

TychoCelchuuu

I'm slightly ahead of you and to the right. Uninstalling and reinstalling Opera appears to have fixed everything. Thankfully Opera is so ridiculously easy to configure I was back to 100% the same 5 minutes after reinstalling. I have to remember all my old passwords though.

Hmm, I guess I'll still buy the hard drive just to be safe. I was planning on it eventually.