[ale] Did WD15EARX consume my weekend?

[PairOfTwins]

James:

I've read the article and used gdisk to create a fresh GPT, then 
recreate the partitions.  Installation went just fine except that Grub 
failed to install.  e2fsck turned up no errors, so I thought I could see 
the light at the end of the tunnel.  I then recreated the partitions 
with a bit of resizing, adding a BIOS boot at the beginning.

However, the next installation hung at 85% complete, with syslog showing 
errors in postgres pkg, and a seg fault.  A clean shutdown showed the OS 
partition was riddled with errors!

So why a clean installation one time and a hung installation and 
corrupted data the next?  I just verified that all start sectors are 
evenly divisible by 8.

Tom
=====================================================
On 05/13/2012 10:46 PM, James Sumners wrote:
> Use GPT for "advanced format" drives. Create your partitions with GPT 
> Fdisk (gdisk). If it's a boot disk, and your machine uses BIOS, then 
> use a hybrid boot record.
>
> In regard to the format specifically, my write up on it gets a fair 
> number of hits -- http://jrfom.com/2010/05/03/4kb-sectors/
>
> On Sunday, May 13, 2012, PairOfTwins wrote:
>
>     Anyone:
>
>     This was home server upgrade weekend, I thought.   Bought a
>     WD15EARX on
>     sale, installed Zentyal, and found after an apparently successful
>     installation, that the partition with the OS on it had pages of
>     errors,
>     according to e2fsck.
>
>     Next 2 installations failed during "Select and install software" step,
>     both stable and beta versions, though both CDs passed the iso
>     verify check.
>
>     I had partitioned ahead of time with fdisk and each start sector was
>     evenly divisible by 8.
>
>     Then I installed a freshly verified burn of Ubuntu Server 12.04 using
>     those same partitions.
>
>     When finished the alignment was whacked:
>
>     root at PartedMagic:~# fdisk -lu /dev/sda
>     Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
>     255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168
>     sectors
>     Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>     Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
>     I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
>     Disk identifier: 0x000ad2bd
>        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
>     /dev/sda1            2048     2930687     1464320   82  Linux swap
>     / Solaris
>     /dev/sda2   *     2930688    31602687    14336000   83  Linux
>     /dev/sda3        31604734  2930276351  1449335809    5  Extended
>     Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
>     /dev/sda5        31604736    34471935     1433600   83  Linux
>     /dev/sda6        34473984  2041513983  1003520000   83  Linux
>     /dev/sda7      2041516032  2930276351   444380160   83  Linux
>     root at PartedMagic:~#
>
>
>     Plus e2fsck showed a page of errors on the OS partition sda2, whose
>     alignment looks OK, though I had to force a check, as it thought
>     it was
>     clean.
>
>     root at PartedMagic:~# e2fsck /dev/sda2
>     e2fsck 1.42.2 (27-Mar-2012)
>     UbuntuSvr: clean, 55618/897600 files, 364573/3584000 blocks
>     root at PartedMagic:~# e2fsck -f /dev/sda2
>     e2fsck 1.42.2 (27-Mar-2012)
>     Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
>     Pass 2: Checking directory structure
>     Entry '.' in
>     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb/whci
>     (398464)
>     has an incorrect filetype (was 42, should be 2).
>     Fix<y>? yes
>     Entry 'hcd.h' in
>     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb/whci
>     (398464)
>     has an incorrect filetype (was 33, should be 1).
>     Fix<y>? yes
>     Entry '.' in ??? (398477) has an incorrect filetype (was 14,
>     should be 2).
>     Fix<y>? yes
>     Entry '..' in ??? (398477) has invalid inode #: 705041315.
>     Clear<y>? yes
>     Entry 'elan.h' in ??? (398477) has an incorrect filetype (was 9,
>     should
>     be 1).
>     Fix<y>? yes
>     Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
>     '..' in
>     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb/ftdi
>     (398477) is ??? (705041315), should be
>     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb (398243).
>     Fix<y>? yes
>     Error while adjusting inode count on inode 0
>     Pass 4: Checking reference counts
>     Inode 398243 ref count is 42, should be 41.  Fix<y>? yes
>     Pass 5: Checking group summary information
>
>     UbuntuSvr: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
>     UbuntuSvr: 55618/897600 files (0.2% non-contiguous),
>     364573/3584000 blocks
>     root at PartedMagic:~#
>
>     BTW the SMART error log is always clean.
>
>     I'm tired of googling, and ready for a fresh set of eyes to tell
>     me what
>     I'm missing here!
>
>     Tom
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>
>
> -- 
> James Sumners
> http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
>
> "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts 
> pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it 
> is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become 
> drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
>
> Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
> CH:D 59
>
>
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