Hard drive errors

[Rodney Peters]

On Sunday 02 February 2003 23:00, linux-request at lists.samba.org wrote:
> Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 15:55:13 +1100
> From: Paul Bryan <pa_bryan at yahoo.co.uk>
> To: "'Linux user group'" <linux at samba.org>
> Subject: Hard drive errors
>
>
> Hi, I've got a little problem with a 30GB hard drive.
>
> I started getting the odd report about bad sectors so I thought I'd run
> badblocks on it to check it out. Problem is, it reported every single
> sector as being bad.
>
> I'm pretty sure not all of them are bad, but stranger things have happened
> I guess (not that I'm aware of though?).
>
I've not had that reported, even with a drive on which the platters had a high 
percentage of bad sectors during a subsequent low level format.

> As far as I can tell, there's two possibilities here. One, is that I'm
> getting inaccurate reports from badblocks. Anyone experienced anything
> similair? Or two, the hard drive controller is cactus.
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts / suggestions on this?
>

A 30 GB drive might still be under warranty.  Worth downloading the 
manufacturers DOS-based utility and running the full test (but not the LL 
Format or Disk Pack Write unless you have a full backup of the drive).  The 
utility might print you a return authorisation if the drive is faulty.

If the controller is cactus, the utility will probably hang; if the platters 
have too many errors to be recoverable it will just abort with an error code.


Rod