hard drive sector testing on Ubuntu

compdoc compdoc at hotrodpc.com
Wed Oct 10 13:49:37 UTC 2012


> Error Counter logging not supported
>Device does not support Self Test logging $ $ 
>
>I bought this drive in 2011.

It should be capable, but sometimes RAID controllers can prevent it from
working, and also some systems have a bios option to enable/disable SMART.
Not sure why... 

Anyway, SMART has two diagnostic tests it can perform even as the drive is
being used by the system: short and extended. I think these tests are more
low-level and better than running tests through the OS, like badblocks or
chkdsk, etc. 

The reason I think this is that modern drives constantly examine and record
events during its operation. Every time something goes wrong they record it
in SMART, along with temperatures and age, etc. Some even record when they
been dropped or bumped hard. 

And they try to reallocate bad sectors 'on the fly' meaning the OS may never
realize there's anything wrong. One or two reallocated sectors is not too
bad, but if bad sectors continue to grow, (and they often do) at some point
the drive is going to fail. 

 







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