Fatal Error While Downloading Bitcoin Blockchain

Running Bitcoin Core 27.1 on Linux Mint 22, got this Intel i5 with 16GB RAM and an external SSD. Was downloading the blockchain, but then suddenly got a fatal error... like 7 hours in. Now, my SSD just vanished. Had to unplug and plug it back in for it to show up. Here's the start of my debug log: pastebin.com/Zg8ZCDQ6. I'm pretty new to Linux, and my IT skills are basic. Any help? Thanks!

Seems like USB reliability is an issue. The error might pop up if the drive is lost during the process.

Thanks for the reply! Should I just restart BTC Core? Can I resume the download where I left off, or is it a complete restart? Not sure what the next step is.

If the last block's fine, it should resume. If not, deleting the latest block and chainstate files might fix it. You can find them in these locations: /home/<USER>/.bitcoin/blocks/ /home/<USER>/.bitcoin/chainstate/.

Appreciate that advice. Seeing "fatal" made me panic. Gonna try what you suggested and let you know how it goes.

Do keep us updated, would love to hear if it works!

Just found out that there are different types of cables. Some of my old externals disconnect so easily, while others stay connected fine. Honestly, for constant reads and writes, I wouldn't use an external drive. An internal one is way better.

First thing you should do: swap the USB cable or change the port. If it happened once, it might happen again. Frequent disconnections can lead to data loss. And yeah, glad they mentioned that because if there’s a corruption, BTC Core will catch it and suggest reindexing. That’s still faster than starting from scratch.

Thanks everyone, really grateful for all this info! I'm kind of stuck with the external SSD now but planning to upgrade soon. The problem did happen a few more times, but luckily no corruption yet. Eventually got the blockchain downloaded and BTC Core is running fine. I think the issue might've been with the UAS protocol causing trouble... switched back to an old USB connection and everything's smooth now.

Power issues could also be at play here. I found out the hard way that a Raspberry Pi 4 can't power two Samsung T7s at once. Had to grab a powered USB hub to sort it out.

USB can be a mystery sometimes. I have these old HDD enclosures that struggle to power up the disks, but the same disk in a newer case runs fine. I've dealt with external drives for forks before and honestly? I'd rather prune than rely on an external disk for the long haul.