Re: How to Test Hard Drive Integrity?

From: Chris Carlen (crobc_at_BOGUS_FIELD.earthlink.net)
Date: 07/31/04 

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 20:07:36 -0700

Måns Rullgård wrote:
> He must have been quite violent with the machine, but then it again
> it wasn't his own.

Yes, the bezel came off with a loud bang, due to the snap fit pins.

> The "badblocks" program will attempt to read (and possibly write)
> each sector on the disk and report any errors encountered. Another
> possibility is to have the disk test itself using the S.M.A.R.T.
> tools. Use "smartctl" for this. It can also display the error log
> of the drive.
>
> Also look at the kernel log with "dmesg". There could be read errors
> reported there.
>
>
>> Just how are bad sectors mapped on the drive anyway, and can these
>> maps be updated by software or some command?
>
>
> Drives are made with a few sectors more than reported, and if the
> drive detects a problem with some sector it will transparently remap
> it to one of the spare sectors. However, if the drive has been
> damaged by mechanical shock it should be replaced. If the heads have
> touched the platters chances are they have scraped off some
> fragments from the surface which are now dancing around inside the
> disk. If one of these fragments ends up between a head and a
> platter, and this is quite likely, it will cause more scratches, and
> more scrap inside the disk, and so on.

That's what I was afraid of. I am inclined to go back tomorrow morning
and demand a replacement. The machine is only a few days old. I should
n't be having to deal with this. They screwed up everything on this
machine, not installing the parts I specified. Finally when everything
is what I asked for, they beat the thing up while it's running.

Thanks for the input.

Good day! 

-- 
_____________________
Christopher R. Carlen
crobc@earthlink.net
Suse 8.1 Linux 2.4.19

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