Re: [gentoo-user] using a HD with bad sectors
On Montag, 5. Mai 2008, Iain Buchanan wrote: Hi all, I have two 2.5in HD's, one 60Gb with a heap of bad sectors currently used in external Hd enclosure, and one 100Gb which seems in good condition, currently in my laptop. I'm upgrading my laptop, and I'd like to turn the old one into a myth frontend or something similar, so I want to put the 60Gb in it. I will then use the 100Gb in my external enclosure for travelling, backups, etc. The reason the 60Gb has bad sectors (I think) is because I dropped it (in it's enclosure). This was quite some time ago, and it doesn't seem to be dying any further, but I haven't done any comparisons on the bad sector count. I use nearly 100% of the space available, and regularly compare cksums, so if anything was deteriorating, I would know. The question is: should I use it at all (for any use, external HD or internal with operating system), or is it sufficient to let the fsck tool mark the bad sectors and just keep using it? badblocks mkfs. Maybe. And the 'monitoring tool' would be smartmontools. But I wouldn't trust a harddisk that got damaged in a drop. -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] using a HD with bad sectors
On Mon, 5 May 2008 09:10:54 +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: The question is: should I use it at all (for any use, external HD or internal with operating system), or is it sufficient to let the fsck tool mark the bad sectors and just keep using it? badblocks mkfs. Maybe. And the 'monitoring tool' would be smartmontools. But I wouldn't trust a harddisk that got damaged in a drop. On the other hand, if it's only being used as a MythTV front end, it will only contain the OS and software, no data. So a single backup would suffice (MythTV stores configuration data on the backend) and the only harm in the drive failing would be that you wouldn't be able to use it until you bought a new one and restored the backup. It depends on how long you can last without TV :) Then again, you could dispense with the hard drive altogether and PXE boot the laptop. -- Neil Bothwick Politicians are like nappies Both should be changed regularly, and for the same reason signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] using a HD with bad sectors
On 5 May 2008, at 04:14, Iain Buchanan wrote: ... The question is: should I use it at all (for any use, external HD or internal with operating system), or is it sufficient to let the fsck tool mark the bad sectors and just keep using it? ... Here the cheapest 2.5 harddrive I can buy is £26.05 + VAT, and it's a 5400rpm Maxtor 80gig drive. For my money it's not worth using a flakey drive. I use nearly 100% of the space available, and regularly compare cksums, so if anything was deteriorating, I would know. If you're confident in that assessment then you'll be fine with the old drive, but if you have to ask, then maybe I'd just replace it. Stroller. -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] using a HD with bad sectors
On Mon, 2008-05-05 at 11:14 +0800, Iain Buchanan wrote: Hi all, I have two 2.5in HD's, one 60Gb with a heap of bad sectors currently used in external Hd enclosure, and one 100Gb which seems in good condition, currently in my laptop. I'm upgrading my laptop, and I'd like to turn the old one into a myth frontend or something similar, so I want to put the 60Gb in it. I will then use the 100Gb in my external enclosure for travelling, backups, etc. The reason the 60Gb has bad sectors (I think) is because I dropped it (in it's enclosure). This was quite some time ago, and it doesn't seem to be dying any further, but I haven't done any comparisons on the bad sector count. I use nearly 100% of the space available, and regularly compare cksums, so if anything was deteriorating, I would know. The question is: should I use it at all (for any use, external HD or internal with operating system), or is it sufficient to let the fsck tool mark the bad sectors and just keep using it? Is there a way to monitor it's health in the external enclosure until I get my new laptop? Is counting the bad sectors enough? As I understand it, hard disks usually hide bad blocks from the OS as long as they can utilize spare blocks. That means that there might be a lot more bad blocks than you are aware of. Last week I had my own notebook hard disk (60Gig as well) dying on me: Bad blocks on a single partition, strange noises from time to time and the S.M.A.R.T offline self test aborting with read error before it even started. I found smartmontools (or anything that's just polling SMART) inappropriate. They still reported all is well although the self tests failed (and were logged as failed) and an overheating occurrence was logged (half a year ago the disk reached 53°C during normal operation for no apparent reason). Bad blocks were not registered at all! signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
[gentoo-user] using a HD with bad sectors
Hi all, I have two 2.5in HD's, one 60Gb with a heap of bad sectors currently used in external Hd enclosure, and one 100Gb which seems in good condition, currently in my laptop. I'm upgrading my laptop, and I'd like to turn the old one into a myth frontend or something similar, so I want to put the 60Gb in it. I will then use the 100Gb in my external enclosure for travelling, backups, etc. The reason the 60Gb has bad sectors (I think) is because I dropped it (in it's enclosure). This was quite some time ago, and it doesn't seem to be dying any further, but I haven't done any comparisons on the bad sector count. I use nearly 100% of the space available, and regularly compare cksums, so if anything was deteriorating, I would know. The question is: should I use it at all (for any use, external HD or internal with operating system), or is it sufficient to let the fsck tool mark the bad sectors and just keep using it? Is there a way to monitor it's health in the external enclosure until I get my new laptop? Is counting the bad sectors enough? thanks heaps! -- Iain Buchanan iaindb at netspace dot net dot au Better late than never. -- Titus Livius (Livy) -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] using a HD with bad sectors
Iain Buchanan wrote: Hi all, I have two 2.5in HD's, one 60Gb with a heap of bad sectors currently used in external Hd enclosure, and one 100Gb which seems in good condition, currently in my laptop. I'm upgrading my laptop, and I'd like to turn the old one into a myth frontend or something similar, so I want to put the 60Gb in it. I will then use the 100Gb in my external enclosure for travelling, backups, etc. The reason the 60Gb has bad sectors (I think) is because I dropped it (in it's enclosure). This was quite some time ago, and it doesn't seem to be dying any further, but I haven't done any comparisons on the bad sector count. I use nearly 100% of the space available, and regularly compare cksums, so if anything was deteriorating, I would know. The question is: should I use it at all (for any use, external HD or internal with operating system), or is it sufficient to let the fsck tool mark the bad sectors and just keep using it? Is there a way to monitor it's health in the external enclosure until I get my new laptop? Is counting the bad sectors enough? thanks heaps! this day in age, space is sooo cheap. atleast in the US. 60 gigs is weak. get a new drive. -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
