From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ric Wheeler Subject: Re: Problem with disk Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 16:08:12 -0400 Message-ID: <44590DAC.6010107@emc.com> References: <1146686495.6540.35.camel@montroll.chem.mcgill.ca> Reply-To: ric@emc.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mexforward.lss.emc.com ([168.159.213.200]:36017 "EHLO mexforward.lss.emc.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750800AbWECUIW (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 May 2006 16:08:22 -0400 In-Reply-To: <1146686495.6540.35.camel@montroll.chem.mcgill.ca> Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: David.Ronis@McGill.CA Cc: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org David Ronis wrote: >I notice from hdparm that disk write caching is turned on. Any chance >that there is a problem with the cache not being flushed before powering >down? > >I'm running Linux-2.6.15.5 on what is otherwise a slackware-10.2 >install. > >David > > > > While linux has support for write barriers (that allow you to run safely with the write cache enabled), it needs support from the drive. I would suggest that you should run with the write cache disabled unless you can verify working barrier support. The fact that your drive reports IO errors is also worrying - you might just have a bad drive... You can look at drive help with tools like smartctl. Good luck, ric