From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1761395AbXGLHic (ORCPT ); Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:38:32 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1755647AbXGLHiX (ORCPT ); Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:38:23 -0400 Received: from ptb-relay02.plus.net ([212.159.14.213]:33056 "EHLO ptb-relay02.plus.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754360AbXGLHiW (ORCPT ); Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:38:22 -0400 X-Greylist: delayed 3456 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:38:22 EDT Subject: Hard drive - dead or dying? From: David Sumbler Reply-To: david@aeolia.co.uk To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:40:44 +0100 Message-Id: <1184222444.5969.0.camel@ceres> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.10.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org My computer (Ubuntu Feisty) would not boot correctly a few days ago: it seemed to get into a loop with the following printed about every 7 seconds (all laboriously copied in longhand, since it wasn't logged!): ata1.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0 ata1.01: (BMDMA stat 0x65) ata1.01: cmd c8/00:08:80:b4:a8/00:00:00:00:00/f4 tag0 cdb 0x0 data 4096 in res 51/01:08:80:b4:a8/00:00:00:00:00/f4 Emark 0x1 (device error) ata1.01: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 78165360, hpa_sectors : 78165360 ata1.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 160086528, hpa_sectors : 160086528 ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33 ata1.01: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 78165360, hpa_sectors : 78165360 ata1.01: configured for PIO3 ata1.01: EH complete Periodically there would be other messages. Most of this means nothing to me, but after several attempts I concluded that ata1.00 probably refers to /dev/sda, and ata1.01 to /dev/sdb, and that there was a fault with the second. I disconnected the drive, and the computer booted OK. I have now commented out references to the partitions on /dev/sdb in /etc/fstab. The drive in question was giving minor problems a couple of years ago, and on advice I bought a new one, but kept the old one for backups etc. Until now, it seems to have behaved pretty well. Can someone tell me this: has the drive now as-good-as died, or is there any hope of resurrection? David -- David Sumbler