How to check for 0 bytes and corrupt files before backup

**looreenzoo** · February 15th, 2013

Hi all,
I would like to know what is the best way to check my hard drive for corrupt and 0 bytes files before backing it up with Déjà Dup. I had troubles with some documents getting completely blank (meaning file size = 0 bytes) after an online sync and want to prevent them (or other corrupt files) from being written over my existing backup.
Thank you in advance!

**schragge** · February 15th, 2013

Put any directory you like instead of /home

Code:

find /home -size 0 -type f

**looreenzoo** · February 15th, 2013

Thanks! and what about corrupt files?

**sudodus** · February 15th, 2013

Originally Posted by looreenzoo

Thanks! and what about corrupt files?

If it is an ext file system, you can check it before backing up. Unmount the partition, and run

Code:

sudo e2fsck -f /dev/sdxy

where x is the drive letter and y is the partition number.

Edit: Another and simpler way would be to run md5sum on all the candidate files to be backed up. Probably md5sum won't succeed with corrupted files.