I am new to Ununtu, but not to computers.
I installed Ubuntu last week, and got a hard disk failing error. I bought a new one, then got a Hard Disk failing error on another HD. I don't understand the possibility of 2 failing in a week, when they both were only 5 months old. I looked online and found “ubuntu 9.10 - failing hard disk bad sectors error” post, and have been trying to follow the instructions.

sudo fsck -pcfv /dev/sda
sudo apt-get install smartmontools
sudo smartctl --test=long /dev/sda
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
man fsck
man smartmontools
where sda is the name of your server. When I type
sudo apt-get install smartmontools it gives me the option to hit y/n then I get this screen

Package configuration



┌────────────────────────┤ Postfix Configuration ├────────────────────────┐


Please select the mail server configuration type that best meets your needs.
No configuration:
Should be chosen to leave the current configuration unchanged.
Internet site:
Mail is sent and received directly using SMTP.
Internet with smarthost:
Mail is received directly using SMTP or by running a utility such
as fetchmail. Outgoing mail is sent using a smarthost.
Satellite system:
All mail is sent to another machine, called a 'smarthost', for
delivery.
Local only:
<Ok>


It will not let me hit OK, tab, click on the mouse or anything. It totally freezes up. Is there anything I can do to get past this prompt so I can fix my failing hard disk?
Is there another way to fix a failing hard disk?

This is my first time ever posting in a forum like this, and I appreciate any help I can get. Thanks!

Well, I think the smartmontools are for letting a user/administrator know when a drive has/is failing. If you've got two in a short span, I'd leave the monitoring tools alone, and check your drive controller/motherboard and the drive cables. Two in a such a short time is a bit odd, and (to me), would point to something else, independent of the OS.

Greetings,

I found this thread after searching for the hard disk failure error which my Ubuntu 9.10 just popped up with today. It says "One or more of your hard disks may be failing", and to click the icon [!] for more info but there is no icon. This drive is less than a year old and I've never had a disk fail in less that 4 to 5 years. (And I've had a bunch)

I've rebooted, yelled at it and tried a small bit of voodoo magic but haven't run fsck on it yet. And it works just fine, I'm using it now. The linux partition is on the same drive as a Vista install and Vista hasn't complained about anything so far. I do however frequently complained about it. :-)

Has anyone else had this issue besides the first poster to this thread? At this time I'm more confident in the hardware than I am the Ubuntu message, but if anyone has ideas please let me/us know!

Thanks!

Photon

Greetings again,

I did a bit more research and I did find the icon and apparently this "bad sector" report is a bug.

Bug #438136 reported by Benjamin Drung on 2009-09-28

And amazingly enough there is "don't warn me if the disk is failing" check box on the Palimsest Disk Utility page.

Cheers!

(Voodoo Mogic Mon...)

Photon

Oh... Happy New Year!

If you want to check...

The manufacturer of the HDD may well provide a disk diagnosis utility that you can download and use to check the disk. Seagate has SeaTools, Samsung has HUTIL, etc. Some work under Linux, some are live-cds.