HardDisk killer

[Ignazio Palmisano]

Nils Kassube wrote:
> Donn wrote:
>> I don't wanna go read loads of pages;
> 
> why not? :)
> 
>> does this bug affect normal hard 
>> drives in desktop machines?
> 
> No idea ...

The page says it does (well after some 20 comments I stopped reading...)
I.

> 
>> I have old IDE drives - how would I test the situation?
> 
> Install smartmontools. Then issue the command
> 
> smartctl -d ata -a /dev/device_name_of_your_disk
> 
> and search for a line starting with "193". It looks like this:
> 
> 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 088 088 000 Old_age Always - 25082
> 
> If there is only an error message, your harddisk doesn't know S.M.A.R.T. 
> and there is no danger. If you see the line, note the last number in the 
> line. Issue the command again after about 10 minutes and compare the new 
> counter value to the previous one. If there is a difference, read the 
> bugreport and install the workaround mentioned there.
> 
> And don't forget to uninstall smartmontools - you don't need it for a 
> desktop anyway.
> 
> 
> Nils
> 


-- 
Ignazio Palmisano
Ph.D. - ignazio dot palmisano at gmail dot com