I want to know if I have badblocks on my sdb5 HDD.

[Steven Vollom]

Frederic Schaer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm coming after the battle, but if smart reports there are bad blocks
> (using the previous given smartctl -a /dev/sdXX command), given the
> price of hard drives and given the price of your own data integrity
> (your data has no price, does it ?), I would directly go buy a new disk...
>
> Regards
>
> Derek Broughton a écrit :
>   
>> Steven Vollom wrote:
>>
>>   
>>     
>>> I did the following in the Shell:
>>>
>>> steven at Studio25:~$ e2fsck -c
>>> Usage: e2fsck [-panyrcdfvstDFSV] [-b superblock] [-B blocksize]
>>>                 [-I inode_buffer_blocks] [-P process_inode_size]
>>>                 [-l|-L bad_blocks_file] [-C fd] [-j external_journal]
>>>                 [-E extended-options] device
>>>     
>>>       
>> In my experience it's been practically impossible to tell if you have 
>> bad blocks on the drive until it's at imminent risk of failure for 
>> _many_ years now.
>>
>> This is because drives themselves remap bad blocks, and the OS - be it 
>> Linux, Windows or OSX never gets to see them.  It's only when the 
>> drive's internal badblock list is full that the OS will start to see and 
>> map bad blocks.  By this time, the drive is pretty near to toast.
>>
>>   
>>     
>>> If there are badblocks and they are identified on the HDD, can the HDD
>>> still be used?  If I format the HDD, will the badblocks be wiped and
>>> usable after format?  TIA.
>>>     
>>>       
>> NO!  Bad blocks are BAD.  You map them out because they can NEVER be trusted.
>>   
>>     
>
>   
Dear Derek,

I feel like a friend with all at the 'List' now, so I will embarrass 
myself a bit.  I am a  retired fine-artist that never made a lot of 
money.  (It is obvious that 'fine' doesn't mean the quality of my work, 
for I have not earned much from the task; it just means that art is what 
I do for a living.)  Consequently, when I had to retire and live on my 
Social Security, (I could never save for old age.) it was an amount that 
most people pay in tips each month.  So I am just too poor to solve a 
problem by purchasing something, unless I am absolutely sure the 
something is really broken.  Knowing that, is not an easy thing, when 
you are as inhibited intellectually as I am.  But even if the 'List' got 
frustrated enough to boot me off, I will not stop trying to learn this 
stuff.  I will still be struggling to learn this system, when I am 
looking up at the roots of grass, with a 'Here Lies' marker at my head.  
I will not give up.  I am not a quitter.