Hey guys,
I've got a Sony Vaio laptop that's probably a couple years old (got it from work, so I'm not exactly sure how 'new' it is). I had Debian and then Arch installed on it for a little while, until yesterday, when it wouldn't load.
When I say "wouldn't load" I mean *nada* - it gets as far as udev and then spits out:
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x7f SErr 0x0 action 0x0
irq_stat 0x4000000
failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
[...]
status { URDY ERR }
error: { UNC }

and some Buffer I/O Errors on device sda3.

I've tried booting both Debian, Arch and (*shudders*) Windows install CD's but with no success, I just keep getting these errors.
Actually, now I see that Debian install was able to boot, but it got 'as far' as "Detecting hardware" where it just freezes.

So I'm guessing the problem is with the hard-drive. Is it safe to assume that getting a new hard-drive will solve this?

Thanks in advanced!

I would at first test the disk with the manufacturer's diagnostic tool, but it really looks like your harddisk is dying.

Any way to get into the diagnostic tool when I can't boot up the OS? Sadly, the Vaio splashscreen for this laptop doesn't tell you what keys bring up BIOS, boot info etc., I'll try F12, DEL and the like, but the diagnostic tool even run like that?
Thanks for the quick reply!

You have to download and burn to a CD the disk diagnostic tool, it is not in your BIOS.

Try burning the UBCD, all the diagnostics tools are on there. It should boot, unless there are other problems. See link in my sig.

Ugh, stupid VAIO... apparently the diagnostic tools are Windows only, and aren't run via a boot CD.... Unless I'm mistaken - I hope I am! But it seems they only offer an .exe install file

Anyways, I hope a new hard-drive will solve this, though it definitely seems like hard-drive failure. Any other ideas what it could be, before I schlep down the money for a new hard-drive?
Thanks!

Oh, I didn't see your reply TexMex. I'll give UBCD a try, thanks!

There seems to be an misunderstanding. I did not refer to Sony tools when I talked about the manufacturer's diagnostic tools, I meant the manufacturer of the harddisk. You can download those from the disk manufacturer's site (and are also on the UBCD recommended by H_TeXMeX_H).

Oh! Well then now I'm a bit at a loss. I'm guessing pulling out the hard-disk should tell me what manufacturer and model? Though if you say UBCD will do, then I may just stick with that.

You can get that info from dmesg or /var/log/messages.

EDDY - if only I could boot into my system, I would surely do that

The one other thing is the Southbridge chip(=hdd controller). Although if your kernel boots, I'd probably pass that