Linux - HardwareThis forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Use code tags (not quote) when posting output - that way we might be able to make sense of it.
I'm guessing it means what it said - it failed onthe read test - 10% of the tests (only) completed.
Makes sense - you want to know if you have a problem, not potentially destroy the disk trying to find out how many.
ddresue might get you a better idea - and you'll get (some sort of) a backup as well.
Well, the thing is I am on a budget and this drive is only used to back up data occasionally. Aren't bad sectors normal? Does this mean my HD will die soon and I need to replace it?
I rather save the money if possible. But I read somewhere that the summary status just means it's currently not in drive failure.
Here is summary status of it:
Code:
localhost one # smartctl -H /dev/sda
smartctl 6.4 2015-06-04 r4109 [x86_64-linux-3.18.25-gentoo-r1] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-15, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Well, the thing is I am on a budget and this drive is only used to back up data occasionally. Aren't bad sectors normal? Does this mean my HD will die soon and I need to replace it?
Bad sectors aren't normal on a new drive, on older drives it's not unusual. On SSD's it's actually very normal, that's what the overprovisioned space is actually for, it marks sectors as bad, and activates it's extra storage to keep it's full capacity.
Quote:
I rather save the money if possible. But I read somewhere that the summary status just means it's currently not in drive failure.
Here is summary status of it:
Code:
localhost one # smartctl -H /dev/sda
smartctl 6.4 2015-06-04 r4109 [x86_64-linux-3.18.25-gentoo-r1] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-15, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
If the overall passed, that means that the drive doesn't see imminent failure approaching. Doesn't NECESSARILY mean it's not failing, just that it's own onboard diagnostics doesn't see it coming. I, not having much data that's not easily recoverable other than my music collection (which is backed up 3 different places), would normally just go with the self-assessment. If it passed, I'd assume it's fine.
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 62
The drive currently has 62 bad sectors that are pending reallocation. The next time those sectors are written to (which tells the drive that the current contents are irrelevant), they will either be found to be OK or will be reallocated to spare sectors. The drive has thousands of spare sectors. S.M.A.R.T. will not declare the drive to be "failing" until it has used up most of them, but that is far beyond the point that most people would consider the drive to be hopelessly unreliable.
That count of 62 bad sectors is a number that is beginning to become worrisome. The problem is that when a drive begins to develop bad sectors, the problem sometimes cascades rapidly to total failure. It depends on the reason the sectors are bad. If it's actual physical damage to the surface, that can result in bits of dislodged material floating around inside the drive, and that can cause similar problems elsewhere. If it's just that mechanical vibration or an electrical glitch caused a few sectors to be written badly, then the drive can go on for years with no further trouble. It's hard to know which is the case.
In any event, those 62 bad sectors are too many to track down individually using the steps in the Bad Block HOWTO. The most straightforward solution is to save the data elsewhere and zero the entire drive with "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd{X} bs=1M" (with a suitable letter for "{X}") and then see what S.M.A.R.T. has to say about the drive. What should happen is that the Current_Pending_Sector count will go to zero, while the Reallocated_Sector_Ct will become non-zero. You can then decide what you want to do with this drive.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.