file removal problem

ubuntu at rio.vg ubuntu at rio.vg
Fri Aug 4 15:34:55 UTC 2006


R Kimber wrote:
> 
> Smartmontools does not report any problem with the disk and e2fsck says
> the partition is clean.
> 

Did e2fsck run a full scan or just declare the drive "clean"?  Normally,
fsck won't check the drive if it doesn't think there's a problem.
Unfortunately, there are times when there is a problem with a drive.

Run `e2fsck -f` to force a check.  Then run `e2fsck -f -c` to run a full
badblocks check.  That goes through every block of the drive checking
for errors, and hopefully marking them as bad so that they're never used
again.  Modern drives generally don't need this, things like SMART deal
with bad blocks automagically.  The full badblocks run may fail with I/O
errors if the problem is too much for it.  (Alexander's nifty use of dd
will also read the whole disk, but badblocks is more proper for dealing
with drive errors)

It's been my experience that if you're down to dealing with badblocks,
your disk is sinking and it's time to abandon ship and check the
warranty.  It might be possible to recover from it, but I certainly
wouldn't ever trust the bugger with my data again...




More information about the ubuntu-users mailing list