[Wolves] Any Idea whats going on?

[Adam Sweet]

--- Peter Cannon <peter at cannon-linux.co.uk> wrote:
> On Tuesday 19 April 2005 12:14, Peter Cannon wrote:

> ---<pasted>---
> 
> This email was generated by the smartd daemon
> running on:
> 
> host name: centrosales.co.uk
> DNS domain: co.uk
> NIS domain: (none)
> 
> The following warning/error was logged by the smartd
> daemon:
> 
> Device: /dev/hda, 1 Currently unreadable (pending)
> sectors
> 
> For details see host's SYSLOG (default:
> /var/log/messages).
> 
> You can also use the smartctl utility for further
> investigation.
> No additional email messages about this problem will
> be sent.
> 
> ---<End paste>---
> 
> Now am I being stupid? but I'm using /dev/hda so it
> is bloody readable!

Just because you are using it doesn't mean it's ok,
you might not have used the bad part recently (ie
since the email).

A lot of daemons email you their output if they don't
know what else to do with it, especially if it needs
your attention (a lot of Debian daemons do anyway).
How recently did you get this email? Did you get more
than one?

I don't know anything about smartctl so I just
googled:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=smartctl

It turns out smartctl is part of Smarttools which is a
set of hard disk monitoring utilities. You know like
when you turn your PC on and it tells you that
S.M.A.R.T is on? It just looks out for disk
irregularities.

As I said, I don't really know anything about it apart
from what I just gleaned from the above search.

It's possible that smartctl is not set up properly and
thats why it's saying your disk is not readable, but
more likely it found some areas of the disk that
couldln't be written to and it's trying to tell you.

If I were you I'd do what it tells you and have a look
at /var/log/messages and see if you can see any errors
pertaining to /dev/hda

less /var/log/messages | grep /dev/hda

> I used the smartctrl utility but having never used
> it before I didn't 
> understand what it was saying, got a nose bleed and
> gave up.

The homeoage is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
and I would pay particular attention to the man page
which should be on your system, or the online one
http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/man/smartctl.8.html

I also found this link which expalins how to get
smartctl to check your disk, which is apparently safe
even while mounted  

http://members.dca.net/mhoffman/presentations/20050302-plug/plain/foil13.html

and the top of this set of tutorials is

http://members.dca.net/mhoffman/presentations/20050302-plug/plain/foilgrp01.html

Which is probably worth a skim.

> Probably unconnected but these oddities started when
> I plugged my 200GB USB 
> drive into this laptop (its at home so not currently
> connected) I'm 100% 
> certain theres nothing wrong with my hard drive.

Unlikely unless the usb drive caused the system to get
confused in some way, which as I said is unlikely.

If I were you I would fear for my disk and start
making backups. Maybe do a fsck for extra peace of
mind and see if there are any errors. If there are
start making regular backups and look for a
replacement drive.

-- 

http://www.drinky.org.uk

http://blog.drinky.org.uk

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