[ale] dd & unexpected soft update inconsistency, HUH ?

[Courtney Thomas]

I've been using dd for years to mirror my server HD without problems.

The command used is:	dd if=< original HD > of=< mirror HD >

However, yesterday, for the first time, when I do this, I get the error:

	UNEXPECTED SOFT UPDATE INCONSISTENCY

This happens to mirror HD /usr only. 
Mirror HD / and /var do not exhibit this problem.

If I fsck the mirror HD, all is OK except mirror HD /usr in which I get
a plethora of errors complaining about soft update inconsistencies.

If I attempt to examine mirror HD /usr with ls -l, I see there's also a
raft of BAD FILE DESCRIPTORs.

Further, the dd completion screen shows... an error coming from the
original HD, i.e. not the mirrored HD, drive. It only reports "[original
HD] input error". But when I fsck all partitions of that original HD,
all is reported as satisfactory.

What's goin' on here and how can I remedy it. This is my gateway server
and I urgently need to resolve this.

Appreciatively,

Courtney