On Tuesday 12 August 2003 12:58 pm, Dan| Colwell wrote: > Hi all, > > I have a recurring error message. In the last 2 months it has shown up > 5 times, the shortest span being 11 days apart. Here it is: > > "There is a problem with the disk "Macintosh HD". Some information may have > been lost. Check any recently used files for data loss, and use a disk > repair program on the disk."
This might be MacOS getting S.M.A.R.T. information from the HD. I am not sure whether MacOS actually can read S.M.A.R.T. or not, but you can query a drive under Linux and if S.M.A.R.T. is activated it will tell you whether the drive checks out or whether there is something suspicious going on. S.M.A.R.T. is not infallable but it's useful in some cases of incipient drive failure. Here's an explanation of what S.M.A.R.T. is: "Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology System (S.M.A.R.T.) was developed to monitor and attempt to detect hard drive failures. It uses added intelligence in the hard drive firmware to sense minor changes in the drive which usually lead to failures. One white paper claims that SMART can detect 70% of drive predictable drive failures." > > Sounded pretty serious to me......I have OS 9.2.1 on a 400 MHz Pismo > with 320 RAM. I cannot use my USB mouse but the trackball works. Time still > runs. Opened note pad, but froze on Simple Text. Control/Open-Apple/Power > button gets it to restart, but gets to smiling Mac and then continuously > loops through the restart process until I press the reset button on the > back. That gets it so I can start up fine, just needing to reset Time & > Date. I have run Norton Disk Doctor, DiskWarrior and Disk First Aid and all > checks out fine. Until it happens again. Are you getting clicking noises when this happens? Any other funny noises? Whines? Growls? > > I am anal about backing up (that little USB jump drive is sooo cool), > and I have just convinced my wife that I need a bigger HD anyway. (oops, > sorry, I should have mentioned I have 10GB, I believe it's the original. I > bought this for myself last Christmas...) I'm leaning towards the 40GB > Travelstar and hope that it will solve the problem and be a lot quieter BUT > would like to know more about this error and what to do to avoid it in the > future. I don't know if Pismos are susceptible to the "Sleep Of Death" but people have had very strange problems with IBM Travelstars and the magnetic switch that tells a Wallstreet that the lid is closed so put the machine to sleep. If you shield the drive in a strategic place with a non-conductive metal plate like a brass plate you can avoid the problem. I haven't heard of Pismos or Lombards having this problem but it's something to look into. Yeah, definitely replace that hard drive. If MacOS is able to receive S.M.A.R.T. messages from the hard drive that indicate the drive is in distress, replace it now while you still can. It is likely that you can recover information from the HD using an USB or Firewire external case. Oh yeah, definitely go OS X on your Pismo. I am not using it on my Wallstreet because of its slower processor and other limitations but there is no reason not to with your machine. Especially if you wind up with a 40GB HD. -.\\<-H- -- Michelle Klein-Hass Box 2273, Van Nuys, CA 91404-2273 Brought to you by Linux, KDE and KMail...try it, you'll like it! -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
