How do I run diagnostics on a hard drive?

praefex · 11-20-2003, 12:25 PM

Hey everyone,

I have a suspicion one of my hard drives is going bad... (mysql tables keep corrupting) so I want to run something similar to a scandisk to see if the drives have any bad sectors. Does anything come with Redhat 9 that can do this? Any suggestions on what I can use to achieve this?

Thanks,
Praefex

Pcghost · 11-20-2003, 12:29 PM

I suggest downloading a drive diagnostic utility from the manufacturer of the drive. I know both Maxtor and WD have them for their drives. It seems to be the best way to be sure if it is going to fail or not.

kacheng · 11-20-2003, 03:55 PM

Unfortunately I forgot where I found this little tidbit, but it seems to be the Linux equivalent to Scandisk...

Quote:

Using e2fsck
You should use this when checking an ext2 or ext3 filesystem. These 2 methods automatically save the bad blocks found into the filesystem so that those parts of the hard drive are no longer used.

Read-only method: e2fsck -c -C /dev/hda1 ---OR--- e2fsck -c -C -y /dev/hda1 (This answers yes to all questions, so it is sure to finish by itself.)

Non-destructive read/write method: e2fsck -c -c -C /dev/hda1 ---OR--- e2fsck -c -c -C -y /dev/hda1 (This answers yes to all questions, so it is sure to finish by itself.)
Note: Filesystem must NOT be mounted. You therefore have to use a rescue cd if you need to check the root filesystem. I recommend this cd: http://rescuecd.sourceforge.net/

DirtDart · 11-21-2003, 05:32 AM

Like Pcghost said, get the drive diag disk from the manufacturer.

You'll make a bootable floppy with their utility, boot off of it, and it will do a bunch of checks on your drive.