Drive errors

[Emanoil Kotsev]

Mark Fraser wrote:

> On Wednesday this week I started to get some errors on my /dev/sda1 drive
> which is mounted as '/'. The first I knew there was a problem is when a
> program tried and failed to delete a file from /tmp because the drive had
> been remounted as read only. I then shut down and did a fsck on the drive
> which fixed a few problems.
> 
> Now,however I'm getting thing like this in the logs:
> 
> Oct 17 18:29:39 Rachael kernel: [16621.527263] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488
> 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> Oct 17 18:29:39 Rachael kernel: [16621.527511] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> Protect is off
> Oct 17 18:29:39 Rachael kernel: [16621.527515] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode
> Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> Oct 17 18:29:39 Rachael kernel: [16621.527801] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
> Oct 17 18:30:58 Rachael kernel: [16679.867602] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488
> 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> Oct 17 18:30:58 Rachael kernel: [16679.867772] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> Protect is off
> Oct 17 18:30:58 Rachael kernel: [16679.867774] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode
> Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> Oct 17 18:30:58 Rachael kernel: [16679.868201] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
> Oct 17 18:33:01 Rachael kernel: [16770.372131] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488
> 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> Oct 17 18:33:01 Rachael kernel: [16770.372152] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> Protect is off
> Oct 17 18:33:01 Rachael kernel: [16770.372154] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode
> Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> Oct 17 18:33:01 Rachael kernel: [16770.372167] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.713302] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488
> 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.718375] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> Protect is off
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.718378] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode
> Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.720974] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.725613] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488
> 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.725785] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> Protect is off
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.725788] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode
> Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> Oct 17 18:35:23 Rachael kernel: [16838.731356] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.591394] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488
> 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.591479] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> Protect is off
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.591481] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode
> Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.600211] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.607422] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488
> 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.610114] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> Protect is off
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.610117] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode
> Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> Oct 17 18:36:25 Rachael kernel: [16866.619424] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write
> cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
> 
> To me this looks like the drive is about to fail, am I right?
> 

You can check the drive from a k/ubuntu live cd with the badblocks program

apply the -v option if you like to see more output but in
general /sbin/badblocks /dev/sdX is enough where X is the drive letter

if there are bad sectors you'll be informed. it's a good idea to mount read
only and backup data as soon as posible if you are afraid your drive
is "sick"

badblocks should be run as root (sudo)

regards