is my hard drive dying?

[Brian Beck]

On Saturday 12 April 2003 14:39, Dan Egli wrote:
> Brian Beck wrote:
> > the extended test is reporting that everything is good to go, it found no
> > problems.
> >
> > Brian
==================================='
>
> Then you have two possibilities remaining:
> 1) Your kernel is imagining the errors (not likely)
> 2) Your controller is returning signals that the kernel interprets as
> errors (more likely).
>
> Can you try a different hard drive?
>
> 

I can in a couple of weeks or so, the report that I got back from IBM was that 
that file that I sent them showed no signs of trouble, here it is below. I'll 
pick up a new cable this friday and see what happens.

Brian,

This is in regards to the call you placed with Hitachi Global Storage
Technologies.   We have received and reviewed the log file created by the
Drive Fitness Test.  Your drive appears to be running within
specifications.   The drive had no errors on it, temperature was normal,
and the drive does not appear to be suffering from excessive vibration.  At
this time, I would not recommend replacing the drive.

First thing I would recommend doing would be to try a different cable.  If
a cable is degrading, it can cause many problems ranging from missing
devices and ghost devices to data corruption and slow transfer rates.

I would also recommend updating the BIOS on your motherboard and on your
on-board RAID controller.  You will also want to get the latest motherboard
drivers for your system.  You should be able to get all of these from the
website for your motherboard manufacturer.

I did a search on the internet on this error and I found a lot of people
have experienced the same errors.  It seems to stem from either a bad
cable, incorrect DMA settings, or a failing drive.  After reading the log
file I do not see anything that would imply a drive failure.  I recommend
doing a couple searches of your own and see if someone else has run into
this same issue with your linux distribution and hardware.

I hope this information helps.  Please let us know if you continue to have
problems.

Scott

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