Long story short: I have had my Start9 server (mainly with a Knots node and Nextcloud) off and away since last December. I tried to start it again yesterday, and I’ve had several issues:
somehow the server couldn’t read from the external SSD. It asked me to do some troubleshooting (I think it’s called rebuild), and after that it just started as a blank, new server with no services installed. This means, that I’m, afraid I’ve lost all my Nexcloud files - my wife is killing me
second, when trying to install Knots again, it keeps getting an error when trying to connect, so it ends up in an infinite loop trying to sync and download the blockchain. In the logs screen the errors say something like:
[error] Deserialize or I/O error - ReadVarInt(): size too large: iostream error at FlatFilePos (nFile=1068, nPos=461923) while reading block undo
[error] Verification error: found bad undo data at 495145, hash=(…)
My non-expert understanding tells me the external SSD is somehow corrupted and cannot be read from. I also tried to insert the external SSD in another laptop, to see if at least I’d be able to see and copy the Nexcloud files, but it wasn’t readable.
Back when I had the server running, I admit I didn’t do any backup, because I kept getting some error (something about RPC If I remember correctly), and thought I’d solve it when I had time…
To the hardware:
8GB RAM
2TB SSD connected via USB (though theoretically 3.0). The internal memory is 256GB SSD
For what I read, processor Alder Lake N95, if that says anything
not sure about the drive
So my questions:
what can be the problem? Can I solve it with my current hardware?
any chance that I can recover my nextcloud data (mainly familiy pics)?
I’m sorry to hear you’ve lost data. Personally I’d never recommend having anything important stored on a janky USB drive hanging out the side of a slow USB port.
That said, am I to understand that you haven’t been taking any backups either? That sounds like it was the case – not backing up is essentially loudly declaring to the universe that you don’t want those files anymore.
With USB drives plugged into a computer, this mention of “started as a blank, new server” sounds like that drive wasn’t detected and the data was still on it. The screen that you clicked “rebuild” on would have contained all the information you needed to recover your data.
You’ve since progressed in a way I’m not sure about. Where did you place your data partition if not on this janky drive? Did you somehow wipe the drive and eventually use it?
If you’re using this drive again, yes, your Knots errors could mean that something about that drive is bad, from the drive itself to the adapter its inside.
In any case 8GB RAM isn’t enough to run Bitcoin in 2026, so you might want to take this opportunity to put something together that you can trust.
Thanks for the quick response, and I know I’ve should have made backups along the way.
I believe I have used the same drive (the external usb should not actually be janky at all, but the miniPC is, indeed) to “rebuild” the server, as I don’t recall being offered any alternatives, plus I was hoping somehow this would solve the issue and let me retrieve / recover my previous state of the server.
So your recommendation is to trash the hole HW setup and start again, or rather to try to wipe the drive and try it with my current setup one more time?
If I should start anew, can you point me towards finding a reliable setup? I can’t judge whether a good, refurbished PC can be as good as a new one, and the price ranges are just too large…
StartOS works best with a single large, and fast internal SSD. The idea of running services from an external USB drive, isn’t recommended. If you choose to do so, it is that much more important that you run frequent backups.