[nflug] Hardware Issue

[Frank Kumro]

Thanks for all the help! I am going to be purchasing a new drive and
getting all my data off the old one. Also thanks for the warrantee
check :)

On 4/19/06, Sam Stern <samstern at samstern.net> wrote:
>
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: nflug-bounces at nflug.org [mailto:nflug-bounces at nflug.org]
> >On Behalf Of Frank Kumro
> >Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 01:41 PM
> >To: nflug at nflug.org
> >Subject: Re: [nflug] Hardware Issue
> >
> >So finished the scan and the results are below. It appears everything
> >passed but errors are in the file. They show READ DMA EXT - is this
> >signs the drive is going?
> >
>
> Generally Speaking, yes - the drive is slowly dieing. If you need to get
> data off the drive or get a bit more life out of it; you can force the ide
> electronics to replace the bad sectors with good sectors from it's stash of
> reserve good sectors. However, more sectors will go bad and the drive will
> die -- and Die soon. What follows is only a partial fix; the drive will die
> but I have extended the effective life of a drive showing the "DMA READ EXT
> errors" by up to 18 months with this trick. Once you have gotten your
> information backed up, your own tolerance for risk will dictate if you throw
> the drive away immediacy, ask for an rma (if in warrantee) or attempt to
> reuse the drive for low value data.
>
> 1) Boot to single user mode or boot to a live cd
> 2) if using knoppix, start the syslog daemon /etc/init.d/syslogd start
> 3) issue a "hdparm -D1 /dev/hdx " <--- this activates the IDE defect
> management as it's not always turned on. It usually returns an error but
> that error be ignored
> 3a) If it's dma capable, then make a point to turn on dma and 32 bit
> transfers (hdparm -c1 d1). You may also want to disable apm and acoustic
> management to speed things along (hdparm -M254 -B255 -Z1). You can use
> hdparm -tT to determine if these carious changes are helping speed access or
> not.
> 4) now issue a "time badblocks -nsv "<-- this starts the low level scan
> using a non destructive test. This tool will force the sector rewrite with
> as much recoverable data as possible.
> 5) WAIT. I mean, WAIT a LONG TIME. Like, hours. My 250gb Maxtor takes 13
> hours to complete this process. It's been "extended" in this manner three
> times.
>
> I've used this successfully on ext2, ext3 and reiserfs volumes. Please note
> that if the drive is badly damaged, this will permit only a partial recovery
> as the amount of damaged sectors may be greater than the amount of reserve
> sectors. Also note that the data recovered may be corrupt if only partial
> data is read from a failing sector and then written back to a good sector.
>
> It's also important to note that this command will make your drive appear to
> no longer have damage. So if you have asked or are thinking of asking for a
> RMA for the drive, get an error code and RMA from Seagate before running
> this tool or you will not be able to get an RMA (I've done this to myself
> several time now ;< )
>
>
> P.S. According to
> http://support.seagate.com/customer/warranty_validation.jsp your drive is
> out of warrantee, so you might want to eke as much life as possible from the
> drive ;>
> Good Luck!
>
> Sam S.
>
>
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--
Frank
Shenanigans!!
http://www.syncoder.com
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