Bad blocks in HDD

[Ioannis Vranos]

I checked for bad blocks one unmounted ext3 partition, by using the Live CD of Ubuntu 9.04 x64, with the 
following command:


e2fsck -c -c -f -v -y /dev/sda1


The result I got:

root at ubuntu:~# e2fsck -c -c -f -v -y /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
Checking for bad blocks (non-destructive read-write test)
Testing with random pattern: done
/dev/sda1: Updating bad block inode.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/sda1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

   188716 inodes used (1.00%)
      629 non-contiguous files (0.3%)
      151 non-contiguous directories (0.1%)
          # of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 12997/150/0
  3208350 blocks used (4.27%)
        0 bad blocks
        1 large file

   150943 regular files
    17497 directories
       69 character device files
       26 block device files
        6 fifos
       24 links
    20158 symbolic links (18959 fast symbolic links)
        8 sockets
--------
   188731 files




Then I performed a usual check with the command:

e2fsck -f -v -y /dev/sda1


and the result was:

root at ubuntu:~# e2fsck -f -v -y /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

   188716 inodes used (1.00%)
      629 non-contiguous files (0.3%)
      151 non-contiguous directories (0.1%)
          # of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 12997/150/0
  3208350 blocks used (4.27%)
        0 bad blocks
        1 large file

   150943 regular files
    17497 directories
       69 character device files
       26 block device files
        6 fifos
       24 links
    20158 symbolic links (18959 fast symbolic links)
        8 sockets
--------
   188731 files
root at ubuntu:~#



Question: What does the message "/dev/sda1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****" of the first check mean? Did 
it find bad blocks?



-- 
Ioannis A. Vranos

C95 / C++03 Developer

http://www.cpp-software.net