Beginner Problems: BitcoinCore Initial Synchronization - "Fatal Error. . ."

[JMG000]

Hi, I'm a layman, attempting to setup BitcoinCore for the first time and I'm encountering an error during synchronization.  I'm using a new 1TB external SSD.  Some basic Google searches suggested the block data is corrupted possibly from the hardware.  I assumed the new SSD is faulty.  I tried a second (also New) 1TB external SSD and received the same error at roughly the same block as the other one.  No idea what to do now.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

Bitcoin Client Software and Version Number:    bitcoin-25-arm64-apple-darwin.dmg
Operating System:    MacOS Sonoma 14
System Hardware Specs:    Apple M2, 16 GB Ram, 256GB HD, 1TB external SanDisk SSD (for BitcoinCore)
Description of Problem:  During synchronization, a prompt "Error: A fatal error occurred, see debug.log for details", then BitcoinCore shuts down.  Any further attempt to restart receives the same error.

Screenshot of the problem:  https://imgur.com/a/XHID1TQ

Log Files from the Bitcoin Client:   https://pastebin.com/NgghHzmW

2023-10-13T20:49:06Z UpdateTip: new
best=00000000000000e527fc19df0992d58c12b98ef5a17544696bbba67812ef0e64 height=181440 version=0x00000001 log2_work=68.176392 tx=3425659 date='2012-05-24T18:10:29Z' progress=0.003885 cache=252.4MiB(1830338txo)
2023-10-13T20:49:06Z UpdateTip: new
best=00000000000008b5dcfd70f61ab44bcb92e257c976ce0aeb820105b292477a65 height=181441 version=0x00000001 log2_work=68.176421 tx=3425976 date='2012-05-24T18:25:07Z' progress=0.003886 cache=252.4MiB(1830046txo)
2023-10-13T20:49:06Z ERROR: ReadBlockFromDisk: Errors in block header at FlatFilePos(nFile=11, nPos=1591572)
2023-10-13T20:49:06Z *** Failed to read block
2023-10-13T20:49:06Z Error: A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details
2023-10-13T20:49:21Z ERROR: ProcessNewBlock: ActivateBestChain failed (Failed to read block)
2023-10-13T20:49:21Z ERROR: ReadBlockFromDisk: Errors in block header at FlatFilePos(nFile=11, nPos=1591572)
2023-10-13T20:49:21Z *** Failed to read block
2023-10-13T20:49:21Z Error: A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details
2023-10-13T20:49:24Z ERROR: ProcessNewBlock: ActivateBestChain failed (Failed to read block)
2023-10-13T20:49:24Z ERROR: ReadBlockFromDisk: Errors in block header at FlatFilePos(nFile=11, nPos=1591572)
2023-10-13T20:49:24Z *** Failed to read block
2023-10-13T20:49:24Z Error: A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z ERROR: ProcessNewBlock: ActivateBestChain failed (Failed to read block)
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z tor: Thread interrupt
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z Shutdown: In progress...
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z opencon thread exit
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z addcon thread exit
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z torcontrol thread exit
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z msghand thread exit
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z net thread exit
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z DumpAnchors: Flush 2 outbound block-relay-only peer addresses to anchors.dat started
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z DumpAnchors: Flush 2 outbound block-relay-only peer addresses to anchors.dat completed (0.00s)
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z scheduler thread exit
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z Writing 0 unbroadcast transactions to disk.
2023-10-13T20:54:07Z Dumped mempool: 1.208e-06s to copy, 0.00155679s to dump
2023-10-13T20:54:10Z Shutdown: done

[achow101]

Probably the same as https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/28552

[JMG000]

Thanks.  Yes that seems to be the solution here.

To recap for any others in the same scenario - This is generally a Apple Mac OS-only problem.

My external SSD was in ExFAT, and I'm on MacOS 14 Sonoma.  I used Disk Utility to reformat to APFS and restarted the sync.  No more stalls or errors.  

I'm back on the way.  Thanks.

[philipma1957]

Some advice do not use sandisk.

use samsung or crucial

sandisk and western digital have had a lot of fails. In many different systems.

I will look for the reviews.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sandisk-extreme-pro-ssd-failures



I suggest these instead.

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Portable-Photographers-MU-PE1T0S-AM/dp/B09VLK9W3S/ref=sr_1_3?

once you do your external having a second copy on a samsung is worth having.