On Sunday 03 February 2008, Timothy Murphy wrote:
I've been getting more and more serious warnings from smartd on a
computer
(one I hardly ever use, though I do use it for backups),
eg in /var/log/messages
-----------------------------------------
Feb 3 14:59:12 blanche smartd[2624]: Device: /dev/sda, FAILED SMART
self-check. BACK UP DATA NOW!
Feb 3 14:59:12 blanche smartd[2624]: Device: /dev/sda, 2554 Currently
unreadable (pending) sectors
Feb 3 14:59:12 blanche smartd[2624]: Device: /dev/sda, 11353 Offline
uncorrectable sectors
-----------------------------------------
The number of Offline uncorrectable sectors increases each day,
though the number of Currently unreadable sectors is more or less constant.
smartctl has been telling me for several days
that the drive has only one more day to live ...
-----------------------------------------
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
-----------------------------------------
The computer seems to me to be working perfectly
under Fedora-8 and Windows.
Does Smartd know better than me ...?
As a matter of interest, could I replace this ATA/IDE disk with a SATA disk?
If the end of the world really is nigh.
Incidentally, I see from smartctl that the drive
is almost 3 years old:
-----------------------------------------
Error 20419 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26309 hours (1096 days + 5
hours)
-----------------------------------------
Is it mean of me to suspect that the manufacturer
tells smart to issue these messages when the warranty is running out ...?
I have drives older than that.
-----------
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 062 062 000 Old_age
Always - 27922
-----------
And I'm booting from it...
My instant reaction is that the drive really is about to die, and its advice
to pull your data is excellent advice. Usually once a head failure starts,
the disk surface is damaged also, and the remaining life can be only minutes
if everything all lines up.
--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Q: What do they call the alphabet in Arkansas?
A: The impossible dream.