[HLUG] HD problem

[Graham Cole]

On Sat, 2007-06-16 at 12:22 +0100, Andrew Hodgson wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:11:34 +0100, you wrote:
> 
> >thanks Andrew for the several ideas below. In the first place the
> >warning was given during the boot process and said:
> >SMART failure predicted on Primary Master:
> >Warning:Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive.
> >A failure may be imminent.
> 
> Ok.  Did it let you in after this - so you could backup your files to
> CD or USB disk?
> >
I didn't try to get in because I didn't have a storage device available.
(I have now though)

> >I guess I could have booted in recovery mode and saved all of my home
> >folder contents to disk. I've never done a save to disk because I had no
> >disk writer before now, so I decided to install a new disk with a new
> >system, Ubuntu 7.04, Feisty Fawn.
> >
> >Now I can't find access to the second, suspect disc which shows up as
> >second master in the BIOS although I set the jumper to slave position.
> >In /var/log/messages I don't see the disk, presumably because it's not
> >part of the booted system. Here's an extract from that file:
> 
> [...]
> 
> The second drive doesn't show up.  I am wondering whether you can try
> the following:
> 
> 1.  Replace the CD with the suspect HDD in the system.
I'm not sure what this means...it could mean different things. Replace
which CD?

> 2.  Swap the drives and see if you can see the second drive in dmesg
> or /var/log/messages.  If you can't, and you can see your data, I
> would be tempted to see if you could copy to CD (if you have a burner
> installed) or to a USB drive or somesuch.

I could put the suspect HDD back in the Primary position and burn files
on to a CD now that I have a burner fitted. I am wary though about
booting from it in this dodgy situation. I would prefer either of the
following if possible:
1. get the BIOS to see the second, suspect HDD as a slave, not as a
second master disc, so that I can access its files or
2. install the suspect drive into the primary position and boot from a
live CD so I can access files
What would be best?

Thanks again

Graham