From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Nov 18 3:51:13 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mta03-svc.ntlworld.com (mta03-svc.ntlworld.com [62.253.162.43]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BFEB337B436 for ; Sun, 18 Nov 2001 03:51:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from lungfish.ntlworld.com ([62.253.144.151]) by mta03-svc.ntlworld.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.13 201-229-121-113) with ESMTP id <20011118115102.MBUV14952.mta03-svc.ntlworld.com@lungfish.ntlworld.com>; Sun, 18 Nov 2001 11:51:02 +0000 Received: from boog.goatsucker.org (boog.goatsucker.org [192.168.1.3]) by lungfish.ntlworld.com (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id fAIBp0867324; Sun, 18 Nov 2001 11:51:00 GMT (envelope-from scott@boog.goatsucker.org) Received: (from scott@localhost) by boog.goatsucker.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) id LAA25343; Sun, 18 Nov 2001 11:50:25 GMT (envelope-from scott) Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 11:50:25 +0000 From: Scott Mitchell To: David Loszewski Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: harddrive error Message-ID: <20011118115024.I272@localhost> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20011117171619.00bab6a0@pop-server.nyc.rr.com> <001801c17002$5ce82dd0$3000a8c0@sickness> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.4i In-Reply-To: <001801c17002$5ce82dd0$3000a8c0@sickness>; from stealth215@mediaone.net on Sun, Nov 18, 2001 at 02:26:39AM -0500 X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 4.1-RELEASE i386 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sun, Nov 18, 2001 at 02:26:39AM -0500, David Loszewski wrote: > K, well, I've tried switching the cables, I've tried reinstalling and > I'm still getting the same problem; I'm finding it hard to believe that > this disk is bad considering that when I had Linux installed on it, it > was working fine without any read errors. Well, it might have been failing for a while, and finally run out of replacement blocks for all the bad ones. Modern drives do bad block replacement automatically in the background, so when they start whining about read errors you probably really do have a problem :-( Fsck just verifies filesystem integrity -- ie, that all your files and directories are glued together properly. I don't think it ever needs to read every block on the disk so it's not necessarily going to turn up any hardware problems. Although it might; I've certainly had failed disks that would fail a fsck -- I guess it just depends where the bad blocks are. > Also since I'm on an extremely low budget I'm not exactly looking forward > to going out and buying a new harddrive. Anyone have any ideas? Anything > would be usefull. I also did a fsck on it and it didn't come up with any > errors that I could see. Don't know if that helps. You can probably download some kind of disk checking software from your drive manufacturer's web site. That should at least tell you whether you do have a hardware problem or not, and the manufacturers often like to see the results from such tests when you send a drive in for warranty replacement. If the drive fails and it's still under warranty, time to get a new one for free; if not, well... BTW, the drive tester may well offer to do some kind of low-level format on the drive to 'repair' it. This may well appear to work, but if my experience is anything to go by, a genuinely bad drive will just start failing again soon after, so I wouldn't bother. HTH, Scott -- =========================================================================== Scott Mitchell | PGP Key ID | "Eagles may soar, but weasels Cambridge, England | 0x54B171B9 | don't get sucked into jet engines" scott.mitchell@mail.com | 0xAA775B8B | -- Anon To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message