[Wylug-help] Disk health monitoring

[Anne Wilson]

On Thursday 26 May 2011 12:36:39 John Hodrien wrote:
> On Thu, 26 May 2011, Anne Wilson wrote:
> > Yesterday I was using my older laptop to test some live CDs.  During one
> > of the tests a message popped up saying that my hard drive is failing as
> > it has many errors.  Afterwards I did wonder whether it was actually
> > seeing my hard drive - I don't know.
> > 
> > Anyway, obviously testing it is needed.  I ran chkdsk under XP first - it
> > found no problems.  Then I installed smartmontools under Fedora 13.  I
> > have used it in the past and found it helpful.  However, this time
> > either something is changed or it is letting me down.  All I see, if I
> > run it in a root terminal, is the header telling me that the test is
> > running and estimating the time of completion.  I don't get any disk
> > information at all.  I tried sending output to a text file, in case it
> > simply wasn't printing its findings, but that also only contains the
> > header.
> > 
> > The command I used was
> > 
> > # smartctl -t long /dev/sda > /home/anne/Temp/smartctl.txt
> > 
> > and the output I get is:
> > 
> > smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] (local build)
> > Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen,
> > http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net
> > 
> > === START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
> > Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in
> > off- line mode".
> > Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in
> > off- line mode" successful.
> > Testing has begun.
> > Please wait 44 minutes for test to complete.
> > Test will complete after Thu May 26 11:51:37 2011
> > 
> > Use smartctl -X to abort test.
> > 
> > 
> > The short test does rather better, with
> > 
> > # smartctl -t short -H /dev/sda > /home/anne/Temp/smartctl.txt
> > [root at anne-laptop ~]# cat /home/anne/Temp/smartctl.txt
> > smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] (local build)
> > Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen,
> > http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net
> > 
> > === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
> > SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
> > 
> > 
> > Am I missing something or is this a buggy package?
> 
> You're jumping the gun with your SMART tests aren't you?
> 
Don't be fooled by the timestamp on the tests - I did wait a full hour before 
checking the 44 minute test.

> smartctl -t long /dev/sda
> 
> This *starts* an internal SMART test on the disk.  It doesn't return
> anything meaningful straight away other than an estimate of how long it'll
> take (44 minutes in this case).
> 
> Wait that amount of time, then do:
> 
> smartctl -a /dev/sda
> 
That's the bit I had forgotten, thanks.

> This'll then return something like this (snipped):
> 
> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
> Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)
> LBA_of_first_error
> # 1  Short offline       Interrupted (host reset)      80%     15763       
>  - # 2  Short offline       Interrupted (host reset)      80%     15763   
>      - # 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        
> 0         -
> 
> If these tests fail, buy a new disk.
> 
OK - I'm running the test afresh, as I've been trying out other things in 
between.  I may have questions about the report when it has finished.

What is your opinion about the life of a laptop other than the drive?  The 
drive is about 3 years old - it was replaced under guarantee - but the laptop 
is around 5 years old.  Obviously it is far from state-of-the-art, but is it 
worth replacing the drive and using the laptop for light use, or would you say 
that at this age the odds of other component failures are too great?  I do 
have a Packard Bell laptop that must be nearly 10 years old, and still runs, 
but it's never been stressed at all.

Anne
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