[clug] S.M.A.R.T message for hd failure

[Brian]

Joshua,
There is a package called smartmontools, which contains smartctl.
Below is a list of possible commands, which vary from show me a bit of
info to TEST the sucker.
Some of the tests take a long time, so there is a break command.
So it depends on how much time you have to test, I guess.

Brian

 /usr/sbin/smartctl /dev/hda -h
smartctl version 5.33 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
Usage: smartctl [options] device
=================================== SHOW INFORMATION OPTIONS =====
  -h, --help, --usage         Display this help and exit
  -V, --version, --copyright, --license
         Print license, copyright, and version information and exit
  -i, --info         Show identity information for device
  -a, --all         Show all SMART information for device
============================== SMARTCTL RUN-TIME BEHAVIOR OPTIONS =====
  -q TYPE, --quietmode=TYPE                             (ATA)
         Set smartctl quiet mode to one of: errorsonly, silent
  -d TYPE, --device=TYPE
         Specify device type to one of: ata, scsi, marvell, 3ware,N
  -T TYPE, --tolerance=TYPE         (ATA)
         Tolerance: normal, conservative, permissive, verypermissive
  -b TYPE, --badsum=TYPE                                       (ATA)
         Set action on bad checksum to one of: warn, exit, ignore
  -r TYPE, --report=TYPE         Report transactions (see man page)
========================== DEVICE FEATURE ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS =====
  -s VALUE, --smart=VALUE       Enable/disable SMART on device (on/off)
  -o VALUE, --offlineauto=VALUE                                 (ATA)
        Enable/disable automatic offline testing on device (on/off)
  -S VALUE, --saveauto=VALUE                                   (ATA)
        Enable/disable Attribute autosave on device (on/off)
=============================== READ AND DISPLAY DATA OPTIONS =====
  -H, --health        Show device SMART health status
  -c, --capabilities     (ATA)     Show device SMART capabilities
-A, --attributes Show device SMART vendor-specific Attributes and values
  -l TYPE, --log=TYPE
        Show device log. TYPE: error, selftest, selective, directory
  -v N,OPTION , --vendorattribute=N,OPTION                    (ATA)
        Set display OPTION for vendor Attribute N (see man page)
  -F TYPE, --firmwarebug=TYPE                             (ATA)
        Use firmware bug workaround: none, samsung, samsung2
  -P TYPE, --presets=TYPE                       (ATA)
        Drive-specific presets: use, ignore, show, showall
===================================== DEVICE SELF-TEST OPTIONS =====
  -t TEST, --test=TEST     Run test.  TEST is: offline short long
conveyance select,M-N pending,N afterselect,on afterselect,off
  -C, --captive     Do test in captive mode (along with -t)
  -X, --abort     Abort any non-captive test on device
========================================== SMARTCTL EXAMPLES =====
  smartctl -a /dev/hda              (Prints all SMART information)
  smartctl --smart=on --offlineauto=on --saveauto=on /dev/hda
                                   (Enables SMART on first disk)
  smartctl -t long /dev/hda   (Executes extended disk self-test)
  smartctl --attributes --log=selftest --quietmode=errorsonly /dev/hda
                             (Prints Self-Test & Attribute errors)
  smartctl -a --device=3ware,2 /dev/sda
       (Prints all SMART info for 3rd ATA disk on 3ware RAID controller)
BIG1:~ # /usr/sbin/smartctl /dev/hda -H
smartctl version 5.33 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce
Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Joshua Worth wrote:
> I just started getting a message today that my hard drive was failing...
> 
>     Broadcast Message from
>     root at racer                                             
>             (somewhere) at 19:46
>     ...                                              
>                                                                                   
> 
>     <b>Your hard disk drive is failing!</b> S.M.A.R.T. message:
>     Device:           
>     /dev/sda, 1 Currently unreadable (pending)
>     sectors                            
>                                                                                   
> 
>                                                                                   
> 
>     Broadcast Message from
>     root at racer                                             
>             (somewhere) at 19:46
>     ...                                              
>                                                                                   
> 
>     <b>Your hard disk drive is failing!</b> S.M.A.R.T. message:
>     Device:           
>     /dev/sda, 1 Offline uncorrectable
>     sectors                                     
>                                                                                   
> 
>                                                                                   
> 
>     Broadcast Message from
>     root at racer                                           
>             (somewhere) at 20:15
>     ...                                              
>                                                                                   
> 
>     <b>Your hard disk drive is failing!</b> S.M.A.R.T. message:
>     Device:           
>     /dev/sda, ATA error count increased from 95 to
>     125                            
> 
>                                                                               
> 
> It doesn't look good, but I saw on a forum that it might be lying to me
> but I cant be sure. This message was appearing when I had an extra 80
> gigabyte drive in my computer, but after taking that out and doing some
> tests, it turned out to be fine. I am using OpenSuSE 10.3 X86_64
> Is there a way I could fix this without destroying any data?
> 
> Here is the forum I looked at:
> http://suseforums.net/index.php?showtopic=42621
>