Is my harddrive about to die?

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

Hi, I find this in dmesg, does it mean my harddrive is about to die?

itsmegawtf · Apprentice Joined: 01 Oct 2005 Posts: 150

maybe, for more comments - run fsck.{yourFS}.

feld · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 593 Location: USA

have u tried a different kernel to make sure u dont have something buggy going on.

i'm no expert but that doesnt look the greatest.

-Feld
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< bmg505> I think the first line in reiserfsck is

if (random(65535)< 65500) { hose(partition); for (i=0;i<100000000;i++) print_crap(); }

i92guboj · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:08 pm Post subject:

flybynite · l33t Joined: 06 Dec 2002 Posts: 620

You need to run smartctl to check the status of the disk. This will check the builtin failure detection of the disk.

* sys-apps/smartmontools
Available versions: 5.33
Installed: 5.33
Homepage: http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
Description: control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology

emerge -va smartmontools

Then

smartctl -a /dev/hda

Which will show something like this for a good disk:

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

Sleipnir · Guru Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 372 Location: Germany

Try to find a drive fitness test (DFT) on the homepage of
your HDD manufacturer. Thats the only reliable way to
test if the drive is ok.
_________________
A)bort, R)etry, I)nfluence with large hammer.

flybynite · l33t Joined: 06 Dec 2002 Posts: 620

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

hmm... the same day as I bought a new harddrive to backup data on the old one, it refueses to mount. I have tried to dd the filesystem to another harddrive but that crased out with I/O errors after ~50mb.

Is there anything I can do to get the data off it? Someone told me to put the drive in a freezer overnight :S sounds like an old wive's tale to me tho.

I haven't run that test yet flybynite tho, I want to wait to see if I can get anything back first.

i92guboj · Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:54 am Post subject:

A freezer? Well, at least it's something original. For the heads is as bad the cold as the heat. That, without counting that im almost sure that you havent an hermetic enough thingy to put the hd into so the humidity does not destroy the little life that may remain on it.

My advise: concentrate in small block of info, make a mental map of what you want to recover. When hds are dying in such manner, they always tend to crash with io errors in a few minutes, so, the best is to rescue little blocks, one each time. When it crashes, unplugg it, and try tommorrow again another little piece of data, preferably in a not so hot hour of the day (at night? ). That is the only chance that you have to recover the info unless you are willing to pay a proffessional data recovery service.

riscycdj · n00b Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 61

If the problem is the controller chips then yes. Freezer in a bag overnight and then quickly booting and extracting the data works. Better if you get freezer spray or invert a can of "air in a can" to keep the chips cool.

This works about 10% of the time and only if it is only just failing. A better method is getting another EXACTLY the same drive and swapping the controller boards over. This works well but only if you have two identical drives.

If the problem is with the drive or the head you are stuffed and will need to pay big bucks to get the data back.

Good luck!

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

how do I know if it is a problem with the controller or the disk?

riscycdj · n00b Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 61

Good question. Not really easy to tell. But if the disk sounds like a jet taking off then there is probably something mechanically wrong. If it seems to make no clicking noise or repeated clicks then the voice coil might be stuffed.

I would still try the freezer trick and then go from there. It can't get any worse....can it

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

I do hear the drive power on and off sometimes :S

anyway, this is what Iget from dd running off a live cd

root@knoppix:/mnt/hdc1 # dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/mnt/hdc1/ddsda.img conv=sync,noerror
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+0 records in
96960+0 records out
49643520 bytes transferred in 70.069536 seconds (708489 bytes/sec)
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+1 records in
96961+0 records out
49644032 bytes transferred in 70.069950 seconds (708492 bytes/sec)
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+2 records in
96962+0 records out
49644544 bytes transferred in 70.088087 seconds (708316 bytes/sec)
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+3 records in
96963+0 records out
49645056 bytes transferred in 70.088502 seconds (708320 bytes/sec)
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+4 records in
96964+0 records out
49645568 bytes transferred in 70.088865 seconds (708323 bytes/sec)
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+5 records in
96965+0 records out
49646080 bytes transferred in 70.109145 seconds (708126 bytes/sec)
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+6 records in
96966+0 records out
49646592 bytes transferred in 70.109548 seconds (708129 bytes/sec)
dd: reading `/dev/sda1': Input/output error
96960+7 records in
96967+0 records out
49647104 bytes transferred in 70.109908 seconds (708132 bytes/sec)

The file I get from this is

root@ubuntu:/mnt/hdc1 # ls -l
total 48944
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50036736 2005-10-13 08:37 ddsda.img

It does not get any bigger than 48mb. Is there a way I can start the dd after this point on the harddrive maybe?

Thanks

widan · Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:19 pm Post subject:

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

widan thanks for that

I will give ddrescue a go when I get home, otherwise I suppose I will have to try the "skip" and "seek" options

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/

http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

what is the difference between these two?

flybynite · l33t Joined: 06 Dec 2002 Posts: 620

Sometimes you have to work with the tools at hand. Here is the scoop for using dd in these situations taken from the sleuthkit informer:

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

I don't think I will be able to get anything back from this harddrive

Using both dd-resuce and dd it will create a file just shy of 50mb and then crash. I have tried telling them to start at blocks well past this point but that still does not work at all.

From what I have read the file created by dd should keep growing as zeros are added on where the errors lie, but this does not happen. The harddrive also makes a high pitched sound when it is running, which I am sure is not good.