cp hangs

[Enigm4]

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I recently installed Linux to run a few Linux based tools on a disk images I have, and I can't seem to copy the disk image over to my ext3 partition.

The particular distibution I'm using is BackTrack 4 r2, which is Ubuntu based. I can't seem to find specifically which version of Ubuntu is being used.
The disk image is 108GB. It is currently located on a NTFS partition on a SATA hard drive connected directly to the computer.
The ext3 partition is located on a second SATA hard drive connected to the same computer. It has 200GB total. I do not remember exactly how much free space it had but "df -h" showed a lot more than 108GB.
The computer has 4GB of RAM and I gave it 8GB of swap space.

At this point it has been running for more than 12 hours. This is far longer than I would expect it to take had I been copying the file under Windows. How ever I do not have much experience with Linux, so if it's supose to take this long please let me know. I am planning on letting it run until I wake up tomorrow.

"cp -v" hasn't been very verbose at all. The only sign I have that indicates the computer is still trying to do something is the HDD light on my chasis that has stayed lit this whole time.

Any insight on this situation is appreciated.

[HROAdmin26]

At a relatively slow 30MB/sec, 100GB = ~1 hour to copy.

What if a file copy was hung/slow on Windows? What would you do? Maybe look at the SYSTEM log to see if there are HW errors? Check the messages log on Linux to see if there are disk errors.

Another common issue when dealing with NTFS = fragmentation/MFT issues. There is nothing Linux can do about that. If the disk is *heavily* fragmented and/or the MFT has issues, performance using the filesystem will plummet. Only a defrag/chkdsk in Windows has a chance to correct that.

Look at the destination file and see if it's growing.

[Enigm4]

I have the gui turned off because I thought maybe it'll run faster this way. Is there a way for me to check the destination file without canceling the cp command?

If not, do you think I've waiting long enough that I should just stop cp from running?

[MikeTbob]

I have the gui turned off because I thought maybe it'll run faster this way. Is there a way for me to check the destination file without canceling the cp command?

If not, do you think I've waiting long enough that I should just stop cp from running?

You can always open a new terminal window with Ctrl Alt F2 or Ctrl Alt F3, Ctrl Alt F1 should return you to the current terminal (1). I'd suggest opening a new terminal window and check that file from there.
I would also stop the command, if the file isn't growning and try again. But that's just me.

[Enigm4]

alright thanks man
I did the alt+f# thing and it seems like the dest file is still growing (just not very fast)
anyways I'm a lot less concerned now that I can check up on it's progress.
thanks again =)