[Techtalk] Hard drive dead or dying?

[Dave Young]

>On 7/6/07, David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk> wrote:
> My computer (Ubuntu Feisty) would not boot correctly a couple of days
> ago: it seemed to get into a loop with the following printed about
> every 7 seconds (all laboriously copied in longhand, since it wasn't
> logged!):
>
> ata1.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
> ata1.01: (BMDMA stat 0x65)
> ata1.01: cmd c8/00:08:80:b4:a8/00:00:00:00:00/f4 tag0 cdb 0x0 data 4096 in
>          res 51/01:08:80:b4:a8/00:00:00:00:00/f4 Emark 0x1 (device error)
> ata1.01: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 78165360, hpa_sectors : 78165360
> ata1.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 160086528, hpa_sectors : 160086528
> ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
> ata1.01: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 78165360, hpa_sectors : 78165360
> ata1.01: configured for PIO3
> ata1.01: EH complete
>
> Periodically there would be other messages.
>
> Most of this means nothing to me, but after several attempts I concluded
> that ata1.00 probably refers to /dev/sda, and ata1.01 to /dev/sdb, and
> that there was a fault with the second.
>
> I disconnected the drive, and the computer booted OK.  I have now
> commented out references to the partitions on /dev/sdb in /etc/fstab.
>
> The drive in question was giving minor problems a couple of years ago,
> and on advice I bought a new one, but kept the old one for backups
> etc.  Until now, it seems to have behaved pretty well.
>
> Can someone tell me this: has the drive now as-good-as died, or is there
> any hope of resurrection?
>
> David
>
> --
> David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk>
>
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