Input/output error

[Panu Matilainen]

Quoting Jeremy Conlin <jeremyconlin at mail.weber.edu>:

> I just installed FC3 on a machine at home.  Everything seemed to work fine.
> I really like the way it looks.  I had FC2 on there, but decided to do a
> clean install, I didn't have anything on the computer yet.  This morning
> when I tried to ssh into the machine, I couldn't while I know I could last
> night.  I connected a monitor to it and there was an error message on the
> screen (sorry I don't quite remember what it was) and I couldn't do
> anything.  I simply rebooted and everything seemed fine.
> 
> Tonight, I just ssh'd into the machine but can't do anything because of an
> Input/output error.  This is the error I get:
> 
> [jlconlin at localhost src]$ ls
> ls: reading directory .: Input/output error
> [jlconlin at localhost ~]$ su
> -bash: /bin/su: Input/output error
> 
> Does this indicate something wrong with my system?  Is my hard drive
> failing?  I hope not because I don't have another hard drive.
> Thanks,
> Jeremy

Uhhuh, this sounds eeriely familiar. Upgraded my box to FC3 on Tuesday and
started getting "Unrecoverable offline sector" errors from smartd immediately,
on FC2 no warnings whatsoever. Yesterday the disk then died a horrible death...
including those "input/output error"s from everything, not to mention an endless
list of much nastier errors from the kernel on the console. Haven't yet had time
to install a new hd and see whether the old one is still alive at all / any data
left to salvage.

Oh and I'm NOT claiming it's FC3's fault. There have been quite heavy explosions
(some underground parking facility or such being built nearby) around here,
those could've damaged the disk, the box just hadn't been powered down for weeks
so the powercycling to upgrade to FC3 just might've been the last straw the disk
could take. So there is a perfectly reasonable explanation why the disk just
might have broken physically but it still feels a bit of a weird coincidence it
decided to die immediately after FC3-upgrade. Maybe I'll be a bit wiser after
getting the box back up with the new drive..

-- 
    - Panu -