From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1MpJaq-0007xL-1x for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:24:32 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2DE85E0897; Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:24:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E140AE0897 for ; Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:24:30 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.44,417,1249254000"; d="scan'208";a="127697600" Received: from unknown (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.90]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 20 Sep 2009 11:24:29 +0100 Received: from [192.168.1.71] (unknown [192.168.1.71]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5FDA88418 for ; Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:24:27 +0100 (BST) Message-Id: From: Stroller To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <5bdc1c8b0909191701o26dad04el7cef899ef705f577@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: USB drive dead? (Commands to check?) Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:24:23 +0100 References: <5bdc1c8b0909191521j72388919w35e54b577b55ae60@mail.gmail.com> <5bdc1c8b0909191640x7f04baddgc5d42622a62808a5@mail.gmail.com> <200909200148.16167.volkerarmin@googlemail.com> <5bdc1c8b0909191701o26dad04el7cef899ef705f577@mail.gmail.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.936) X-Archives-Salt: 3aacb95c-25bc-48ff-9f2f-ec8185361fa8 X-Archives-Hash: 108c00693f5f9fe2f168e5d25911728f On 20 Sep 2009, at 01:01, Mark Knecht wrote: > On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 4:48 PM, Volker Armin Hemmann > wrote: > >>> >> >> seriously, I think you should try to get off everything you want to >> keep - and >> then replace the disk with a new one. If a disk starts throwing >> block errors >> it will only become worse. Don't worry about 'repairing' the file >> system as >> long as there is hardware damage. Try to get off the disk as much >> as possible - >> and then scrap it. > > I suspect you're right. It's just another $100 to go buy a new one.... > > Anyway, I'll see what I can set up to save the files that are still > there. Although he seems to be demonstrating in this thread an inability to snip long sections of quoted text, leaving the reader with many lines of irrelevance to scroll through, I agree with Volker. If the drive fails you're going to be spending $100, anyway. If it fails without having been replaced & your data pulled off it then you could find yourself floating down Effluent River and unable to start your outboard. I think this drive is quite likely to fail catastrophically, from my experience of having seen similar errors in the past. I really wouldn't trust this drive with important data right now. If you get your data off it and replace it in it's current capacity, there's nothing stopping you using it as a secondary drive in the future; I wouldn't trust it with important data right now, but if it's still chugging away in 6 months time then you can probably begin to have faith in it. Once you've gotten your data off the drive it wouldn't do any harm to format it nice with a clean filesystem; and writing a bunch of big unimportant files on the drive (e.g. `dd if=/dev/zero of=/ mnt/sda1/foo`) might allow it to map away a bunch of bad sectors. But right now you should probably act like the drive is definitely hosed. I don't think you should be saying "oh, this might cost me $100, I hope it doesn't" - you should be saying "s#!t d@mn! I had to buy a new hard-drive. But at least my data's ok". But maybe data isn't as important to you as it is to me. Relying on this drive for the backups of your Windows machines right now would be a mockery; around here sod's law would conspire for me to need one of those backups, were I to continue using a drive showing errors like this. I write as a guy you just bought yet another 500gb drive on Friday; I would too have preferred not to spend that money, but experience shows that frugality can sometimes be a mistake. Stroller.