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<html><head><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></head>Hi Jim,<br>
<br>
I looked at the man page for badblocks. badblocks -n looks promising. Can I run that on a mounted file system? Also, is there something I can use to test the swap area, which, in my case, is an 8 GB FILE? Or, will badblocks include this area in this case?<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ron<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.<br>
Please excuse my potential brevity.<br>
<br>
(To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to former<br>
messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong<br>
address. Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)<br>
<br>
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to<br>
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy<br>
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)<br>
<br>
Ron Frazier<br>
770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.<br>
linuxdude AT <a href="http://techstarship.com">techstarship.com</a><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">Jim Kinney <jim.kinney@gmail.com> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<p>Badblocks has a read only mode that's safe for mounted systems. It's not as thorough as the rw version as it doesn't know what's supposed to be in a block.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On May 11, 2012 10:01 AM, "Ron Frazier (ALE)" <<a href="mailto:atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com">atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hi Jim,<br>
<br>
Isn't there anything I can run while the file system is mounted? Read only analysis would be fine.<br>
<br>
In defense of my old (computer) lady, she's still kickin' pretty good after 10 years. It's a toshiba laptop. Of course, I've added some upgrades here and there. The display hinges broke, but it works fine with an external monitor. It has a Pentium 4 single core processor at 2.4 Ghz, 1 GB of ram, and a 320 GB (I think) hdd. I don't even want to talk about the price of such a machine in 2002, but it wasn't pretty. She actually runs Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows XP pretty well. Starting up the system or large programs is a bit slow, but once they're running, it works pretty well. I started to say I could watch hulu on her, but, when I went back and tested it, the video is pretty jerky. I guess the new versions of flash are just too much of a cpu hog. I think 1/4 frame video at 30 fps would probably work, but I can't figure out how to shrink a hulu screen. I think you can shrink a netflix video to a small size. She has no problem keeping my wireless internet busy at 16 Mb!<br>
ps.<br>
<br>
I've thought of retiring her, but it just seems so heartless. Nowdays, she runs Ubuntu all the time so I can jump over there and test things even though I may have Windows running on the other machines.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ron<br>
<br>
<br>
Jim Kinney <<a href="mailto:jim.kinney@gmail.com">jim.kinney@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
>Try badblocks in Linux. NOTE: that is dangerous to use on a mounted<br>
>system.<br>
><br>
>OR - pull the drive into a newer system that has a bios that can handle<br>
>it.<br>
><br>
>(seriously - dude! upgrade that dinosaur! it sucks down power like mad<br>
>doing very little)<br>
><br>
>On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 1:41 AM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <<br>
><a href="mailto:atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com">atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>> Hi guys,<br>
>><br>
>> I'm running routine diagnostics on my hard drives. My normal practice<br>
>is<br>
>> to run SpinRite on them, which reads each sector, then refreshes the<br>
>> magnetic fields by inverting and writing and inverting and writing<br>
>them<br>
>> again (in the particular mode I'm using). Thus, every bit is tested<br>
>both<br>
>> with a 0 and 1 and all the original data is refreshed. I don't want<br>
>to get<br>
>> into a discussion as to the merits of this at the moment. I'm<br>
>convinced<br>
>> it's a good idea. My problem is that I have one computer that's so<br>
>old and<br>
>> the bios is so old and the hdd is so big, that SpinRite complains<br>
>because<br>
>> the bios cannot access the whole drive. So, SpinRite won't run. Once<br>
>> Windows or Linux starts up, those systems can access the whole hdd.<br>
>> However, SpinRite runs strictly at the dos / bios level from a<br>
>bootable CD.<br>
>><br>
>> At the very least, I want to do a surface analysis be reading each<br>
>sector.<br>
>> That, at least, will let the hdd controller review each sector and<br>
>> determine if it thinks there are any problems. In Windows, I can<br>
>start a<br>
>> chkdisk, either graphically or on the command line, and specify the<br>
>surface<br>
>> analysis option, and it will accomplish my goal.<br>
>><br>
>> My problem is on the Linux side of the fence. I don't know how to do<br>
>what<br>
>> I want there. I need to force the hdd to read all the sectors on the<br>
>EXT4<br>
>> main partition as well as the swap partition. Of course, I'm wanting<br>
>to do<br>
>> all this nondestructively. So, I'm wondering exactly what a long<br>
>smart test<br>
>> does, and whether it will accomplish my goal. It not, what would you<br>
>> recommend?<br>
>><br>
>> Thanks in advance.<br>
>><br>
>> Sincerely,<br>
>><br>
>> Ron<br>
>><br>
>><br>
><br>
><br>
>--<br>
>--<br>
>James P. Kinney III<br>
><br>
>As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to<br>
>consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as<br>
>they<br>
>please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.<br>
>- *2011 Noam Chomsky<br>
><br>
><a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><br>
>*<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.<br>
Please excuse my potential brevity.<br>
<br>
(To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to former<br>
messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong<br>
address. Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)<br>
<br>
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to<br>
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy<br>
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)<br>
<br>
Ron Frazier<br>
<a href="tel:770-205-9422" value="+17702059422">770-205-9422</a> (O) Leave a message.<br>
linuxdude AT <a href="http://techstarship.com" target="_blank">techstarship.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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