From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Dec 8 18:24: 6 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB44437B401 for ; Sun, 8 Dec 2002 18:24:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from post-21.mail.nl.demon.net (post-21.mail.nl.demon.net [194.159.73.20]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 193D243EC5 for ; Sun, 8 Dec 2002 18:24:02 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from cls@raggedclown.net) Received: from [212.238.197.102] (helo=mailhost.raggedclown.net) by post-21.mail.nl.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1) id 18LDaT-0000x6-00 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 09 Dec 2002 02:24:01 +0000 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mailhost.raggedclown.net (Ragged Clown Mail Gateway [dawn]) with ESMTP id 43639F04 for ; Mon, 9 Dec 2002 03:24:00 +0100 (CET) Received: from willow.raggedclown.net (willow.raggedclown.intra [192.168.1.10]) by mailhost.raggedclown.net (Ragged Clown Mail Gateway [dawn]) with ESMTP id BDF7ACE3 for ; Mon, 9 Dec 2002 03:23:48 +0100 (CET) Received: by willow.raggedclown.net (Ragged Clown Host [willow], from userid 1009) id 2875B225CE; Mon, 9 Dec 2002 03:23:49 +0100 (CET) Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 03:23:49 +0100 From: Cliff Sarginson To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Unexpected Soft Update Inconsistency / Cannot Read: Blk Message-ID: <20021209022349.GA76381@raggedclown.net> References: <1038402708.527.10.camel@blue.home> <20021208231016.B3856@phrost.net> <1039389699.261.6.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1039389699.261.6.camel@localhost> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i X-Virus-Scanned: by AMaViS 0.3.12pre8 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 Mon, Dec 09, 2002 at 10:21:39AM +1100, Andrew Cutler wrote: > Unfortunately the answer presented itself very soon after posting the > message. > > I pulled the hard drive out of the box, and tried to format it in a > Windows machine. It occurred to me that the drive had not been formated > and therefore had not had data written to all parts of the disk. > > Half way through the format I got an 'Unsafe removal of device' message, > and upon reboot the drive was TOTALLY dead. > > It would be nice if FreeBSD had a SMARTY utility - it would have allowed > me to possibly detect this failure. I've been told that work is underway > to write one and it might be ready for 5.0. > Mmm. Well to pass on something I do with every new disk I buy. If I do not have it already I get the diagnostics for it from the disk manafacturers website, which they all have for free. I then run all the tests on the disk and format it. These are almost always standalone boot images that fit on a DOS floppy. Later on it is always handy if you suspect disk problems -- then you can run the non-destructive drive tests as well. I do as many other kinds of test as possible on new hardware before I start using the machine (usually one I am buiding) -- on the fairly well-known principle that anything electronic or electro-mechanical usually fails early in it's life if it is borderline. [ As an aside this is harder with memory, the famous Memtest86 program gives false positives on certain hardware combinations and on certain tests. ] -- Regards Cliff Sarginson The Netherlands [ This mail has been checked as virus-free ] To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message