IDE error: ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA

DJ Shaji · 06-01-2012, 12:30 PM

So, all of a sudden, since last week, I've started getting the following error when I boot up:

Code:

ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x64
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:88:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
         res 51/40:00:8f:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:88:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
         res 51/40:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:88:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
         res 51/40:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:88:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
         res 51/40:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:88:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
         res 51/40:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:88:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
         res 51/40:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
        72 03 11 04 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00 
        00 01 f6 8c 
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 01 f6 88 00 00 08 00
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 128652
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 132
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 133
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 134
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 135
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 2048 in
         res 51/40:03:8d:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 2048 in
         res 51/40:03:8d:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 2048 in
         res 51/40:03:8d:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 2048 in
         res 51/40:03:8d:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 2048 in
         res 51/40:03:8d:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x65
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:04:8c:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 2048 in
         res 51/40:03:8d:f6:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
        72 03 11 04 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00 
        00 01 f6 8d 
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 01 f6 8c 00 00 04 00
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 128653
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 133
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 134
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 135
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x64
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:08:f7:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
         res 51/40:00:0f:f7:01/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
ata1: EH complete

Boot up takes more time than before. Now,

This system is 12 years old
I've been having a lot of power outages recently and have no UPS

I checked the drive's S.M.A.R.T status with the palimpset utility, and it shows just one bad sector, which has been around for quite a while now (I keep checking periodically).

So, is the drive going to fail soon? Has it failed already? The partitions on this drive seem to be okay, and I can access data on it fine, although it's 40GB and I haven't checked every single file, so it is possible there might be issues there.

Right now, my primary concern is the error (warning?) and the slightly longer boot up time.

hua · 06-02-2012, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJ Shaji

So, is the drive going to fail soon? Has it failed already?

Yes it failed already. Actually each time you see "ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA" it actually fails. After this the system tries to bring the drive back. In your case it is still sometimes successful but at one point it won't come back.
So yes replace it as soon as possible.
You can also make sure that the hard-drive is wrong (and not something else) by trying to boot with another drive on the same port and check weather the error persists. I personally used the Backtrack5 live DVD for this.