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Jun 17, 2014 at 1:02 comment added derobert @Gilles odd, I've had three sticks go bad after time, but at least two dozen defective on arrival. Depends on where the RAM comes from, of course.
Jun 16, 2014 at 23:25 comment added Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Memory does get bad over time. I don't recall ever getting new bad memory (but I do know people who've had it happen). I have several times retired months- or years-old memory sticks because they'd gone bad.
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:57 comment added derobert @Giorgio Best of luck. Once you've got working memory in the system, you'll want to at least verify your install (using, say, debsums) if not reinstall. I'm surprised you're not seeing random crashes and other weirdness (or, if you are, that's another problem caused by the bad memory).
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:55 comment added Giorgio It is the memory: I booted a linux recovery usb and the test immediately filled the screen with error messages. Tomorrow I will go to the shop where I bought the memory, maybe they'll replace it. Otherwise I will buy new memory.
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:53 vote accept Giorgio
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:49 comment added derobert @Giorgio I hope its memory (and it probably is). That's fairly cheap and easy to replace.
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:45 comment added Giorgio I have now scp-ed from the laptop to the desktop on another disk (an external USB drive), and I have the same problem. So either both disks have the same defect, or it is something else.
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:44 comment added Giorgio I know. This has been going on for a few months. Luckily most of my important data is source files. I also have an old backup on disk which was done on the old computer. I might check it against my current data after I have solved this problem (provided memory turns out to be the problem).
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:41 comment added derobert @Giorgio It could also be the disk reading it back wrong, or a defective CPU, but I'd go with bad memory as most likely. Note that if you do have bad memory, it has been silently corrupting your data for a while...
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:39 comment added Giorgio Actually, I have just run another test, and one file that did not check now seems to be correct. Summarizing: first check NOT OK, several subsequent checks OK. I did not change the file nor the md5 file, just ran the check several times. So this should point to bad memory.
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:35 comment added Giorgio Thanks a lot for the hints. The partition on which I have copied the files is formatted with a ext4 file system. I am transferring the files to the same computer to another mounted disk, to see if the problem occurs again. After that I will run a memory test.
Jun 16, 2014 at 18:17 history answered derobert CC BY-SA 3.0