fixing a box where the hard disc may failed

[James Wilkinson]

Tim wrote:
> I'm trying to rescue some data from a box where the hard disc *may* have
> failed.

You know about the smartctl -l error /dev/hda command, don't you? That
will show you if the *disk* thinks it needs replacing.

>  I had a few drive not ready notices, and needed to do fsck -y
> to fix all the numerous errors it complained about when trying to just
> do fsck, but then the problem originated from a wonky 4 pin power plug
> on the drive.  So I don't know if the drive really failed, or it just
> got contents scrambled.  If there really isn't anything wrong with the
> drive, I might as well keep using it.  Are those "drive not ready"
> messages always about real drive hardware faults?

You've got good backups anyway, right? (And you say you can get at the
data you need). It sounds like you really need to reinstall this box.


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