"One or more disks are failing" ?

[Bill Davidsen]

Scott Beamer wrote:
> On 07/04/2009 02:41 AM, Michael Schwendt wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Jul 2009 07:57:46 +0000 (UTC), Scott wrote:
>>
>>> For a number of weeks now I've been getting this notification (only when 
>>> in Fedora 11 & running GNOME) that "one or more disks are failing".
>> What do you get for "smartctl --all /dev/sda"? Perhaps a non-zero and
>> growing number of reallocated sectors?
> 
> Uhhh....

To avoid munging by mailer, this would have been a nice attach. Just a thought.

> 
> Actually, I got (106 lines of) all this:
> 
> $ sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda
> 
> smartctl version 5.38 [x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8
> Bruce Allen
> Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
> 
> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
> Device Model:     SAMSUNG HD103UJ
> Serial Number:    S13PJ1MQ606788
> Firmware Version: 1AA01112
> User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes
> Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
> ATA Version is:   8
> ATA Standard is:  ATA-8-ACS revision 3b
> Local Time is:    Sat Jul  4 02:46:25 2009 MST
> 
> ==> WARNING: May need -F samsung or -F samsung2 enabled; see manual for
> details.
> 
> SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
> SMART support is: Enabled
> 
> === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

> SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
> Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
> ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE
> UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
>   1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   100   064   051    Pre-fail  Always
>       -       8
>   3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   077   077   011    Pre-fail  Always
>       -       7820
>   4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       536
>   5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always
>       -       4

That's reasonable, if it isn't growing. But any bad spots are reallocated by 
testing before you get the drive, so the original count has been zero on my 
Seagate and WD drives. Don't have anything else spinning to check over the long 
holiday.

>   7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always
>       -       0
>   8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0025   100   100   015    Pre-fail
> Offline      -       10567
>   9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       6202
>  10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0033   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always
>       -       0
>  11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       0
>  12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       524

Looks like about twice a day, not uncommon. I don't totally trust POH (#9) as it 
is sometimes lower than my uptime. I suspect Seagate is reporting in days, yours 
looks right if the drive is eight months old.

>  13 Read_Soft_Error_Rate    0x000e   100   066   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       8

> 187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       2767
> 188 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       0
> 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   071   068   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       29 (Lifetime Min/Max 20/29)
> 194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   071   066   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       29 (Lifetime Min/Max 20/32)
> 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       9633546

That is really a lot, typically my three year old drives are showing single 
digits, often zero.

> 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       0
> 197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
>       -       2

> SMART Error Log Version: 1
> No Errors Logged
> 
> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 0
> Warning: ATA Specification requires self-test log structure revision
> number = 1
> Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining
> LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
> # 1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      6201
>      1818207693
> # 2  Short offline       Aborted by host               20%      6201
>      -
> # 3  Conveyance offline  Aborted by host               90%      6201
>      -
> # 4  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%      4469
>      -
> # 5  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%      4469
>      -
> 
> SMART Selective Self-Test Log Data Structure Revision Number (0) should be 1
> SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
> Warning: ATA Specification requires selective self-test log data
> structure revision number = 1
>  SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
>     1        0        0  Not_testing
>     2        0        0  Not_testing
>     3        0        0  Not_testing
>     4        0        0  Not_testing
>     5        0        0  Not_testing
> Selective self-test flags (0x0):
>   After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
> If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
> 
I confess I would not use that drive for anything critical, too much ECC for my 
taste. Google wrote a paper on matching SMART to failures, and concluded that it 
wasn't helpful in general. Errors somewhat predicted bad performance, but many 
drive fail hard without warning.

In looking at my own numbers I just scheduled a drive for redeploy, I have a 
favorable money to time ratio at the moment. ;-)


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot