Fujitsu HDD Error

Endo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 36

Hello, i have a junker pc with crappy hardware in it. I tried to install various linux distros with one MAJOR problem, i get a HDD error which screws everything up. The hard drive is a Fujitsu, ive been googling and seems there are alot of people with fujitsu hard drives which have the same unexpected errors, these error come randomly anywhere from 3-10 days. Is there a fix or patch for this? all the other pages/forums says they know about the problem but never end up saying how to fix it. I REALLY need linux because this comp sucks so bad that it can barly run windows 98, and crashes in less then 12 hours lol, but what else could i do when linux isnt working?!

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 8:45 pm Post subject:

Endo_

Fujitsu went through a bad time with some of their drives.
You need to do a surface scan and read the drive SMART info.
You can get a utility that runs from floppy to do the scan, from the Fujitsu web site. I'm not sure if it will read the SMART data.

If you have more defects than the drive can map out, permanent drive failure is not far away.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Endo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 36

The error isnt what i need help with really, all i do is zero out the drive then randomize it and works fine till error again, any patches new drivers that fix this problem? (sorry for late reply been outta town)

Maffuster · n00b Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 38

What NeddySeagoon is saying is that it isn't a driver or software problem, it's a problem with the hard drive itself. Nothing you can do is going to fix the problem. Trust me. I've seen more of these failing fujitsu drives than I care to think about.

Endo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 36

But if its a drive problem, then why does it only happen when im in linux? With windows ive never encountered this problem which im sure would give some type of blue screen error. And if it is a physical error, then how would formatting the drive "fix" it? i just want this damn comp to stay up without errors :lol:

-----edit

finally found what could be an answer, but i have no clue yet, people who have experienced the hard drive errors seem to have fixed it with either changing ATA speed or setting 'Use multi-mode by default' option before compiling kernel... i donno if these would help because it seems that thier error might have something to do with conflicting drives (ie. screws up if hdd and cdrom are both trying to be accessed at the same time). No clue if this will help me thought but i guess it couldnt hurt eh?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 7:05 pm Post subject:

Endo_,

If changing the ATA speed fixes the problem you have probably got a 40 conductor IDE cable where you need an 80 conductor one. Correct detection has always been a bit iffy because of hardware designs.

If the wire pitch in the ribbon to the drive is the same as that to the floppy. You should not run faster than UDMA2. Thats a 40 conductor cable.

The two devices on and IDE channel are never accessed at the same time. The way IDE operates does not allow it.

My money is on your drive dying. Fujitsu is the only type of drive I have seen die inside the warranty period.

Windows will only blue screen on you when memory gets trashed. It does not set a dirty bit in each filesystem that allows it to detect a crash the way Linux does. this is what allows linux to reliably dectect when you have not shut down correctly.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Endo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 36

hmm... well thanks for the info, you know what i thought of? why no just shut dma off and see what happens? lol, most people (and iirc mine too) suffered from DMA read/writing timeout errors, ive tested it out and my drive went from 6.45MB/sec with dma on to 4.49MB/sec with dma off. Is there any reason to not use dma? or will it work fine? Im on a crap computer that runs slow, so the more speed the better, but if going slower gains stability then i guess i gotta do it

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 6:42 pm Post subject:

Endo_,

There is known buggy hardware re DMA (lots of it). If you are going to use it, you need to enable the hardware specific kernel drivers that allow for buggy hardware.

What is 'old crappy hardware' ? Post your lspci output and tell us about your memory, CPU and how/where your hard drive(s) and CDROM(s) are attached.

DMA only gets you 6.45Mb/sec????
I've not seen DMA go that slow. Even PIO can beat that. How were you testing the transfer rate.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Endo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 36

LOL, funny story... i got this pc for free, it is 333mhz... it runs worse then my 133. my 133mhz comp gets ram speeds of about 150MB/sec and the 333 gets 50 MB/sec :lol:

.... its a crappy packard bell, the chipset is a "jack of all trades, master of none" type, handles usb, video, ide, audio, ect. And it does them all very bad

... in the last kernel i build i added the drivers for my chipset, that didnt help it seems... so now im currently rebuiling (which will take a long time) and this time just disabling dma. the ide controller is something like SiS 5513... i can get you better details once the current build is done. Is dma THAT important? And also a new question real quick, is there a way to use a lan to clone a hdd to another one on the network? cause i have two of these crappy packard bells and i REALLY dont wanna do two build lol. Thanks for all the help so far guys.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 6:39 pm Post subject:

Endo_,

Provided the hard drives are identical then dd will do. If they are different sizes you need to partition the second one and copy the partitions (you dont want to copy the partition table).

The easiest way is to fit both drives to one PC for the copy and use