[ale] what exactly does a long smart hdd test do?

[Jim Kinney]

Try badblocks in Linux. NOTE: that is dangerous to use on a mounted system.

OR - pull the drive into a newer system that has a bios that can handle it.

(seriously - dude! upgrade that dinosaur! it sucks down power like mad
doing very little)

On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 1:41 AM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> I'm running routine diagnostics on my hard drives. My normal practice is
> to run SpinRite on them, which reads each sector, then refreshes the
> magnetic fields by inverting and writing and inverting and writing them
> again (in the particular mode I'm using). Thus, every bit is tested both
> with a 0 and 1 and all the original data is refreshed. I don't want to get
> into a discussion as to the merits of this at the moment. I'm convinced
> it's a good idea. My problem is that I have one computer that's so old and
> the bios is so old and the hdd is so big, that SpinRite complains because
> the bios cannot access the whole drive. So, SpinRite won't run. Once
> Windows or Linux starts up, those systems can access the whole hdd.
> However, SpinRite runs strictly at the dos / bios level from a bootable CD.
>
> At the very least, I want to do a surface analysis be reading each sector.
> That, at least, will let the hdd controller review each sector and
> determine if it thinks there are any problems. In Windows, I can start a
> chkdisk, either graphically or on the command line, and specify the surface
> analysis option, and it will accomplish my goal.
>
> My problem is on the Linux side of the fence. I don't know how to do what
> I want there. I need to force the hdd to read all the sectors on the EXT4
> main partition as well as the swap partition. Of course, I'm wanting to do
> all this nondestructively. So, I'm wondering exactly what a long smart test
> does, and whether it will accomplish my goal. It not, what would you
> recommend?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>
> (To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to former
> messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
> address. Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very
> quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>


-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they
please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
- *2011 Noam Chomsky

http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20120511/fbdb0959/attachment.html