After a few failures, I both switched the manufacturer I used, and installed smartmontools to get a bit more advanced warning. Well, smartmon has started sending me messages about errors. Is my drive about to die, and should I get a warranty replacement?
Below is the diagnostic output of smartmon:
$ sudo smartctl -H -a /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.33 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is
http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: WDC WD2500JB-00GVA0
Serial Number: WD-WCAL71568994
Firmware Version: 08.02D08
User Capacity: 250,059,350,016 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Mon Oct 31 11:10:04 2005 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x84) Offline data collection activity
was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (6951) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
No General Purpose Logging support.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 88) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
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 0x000b 198 171 051 Pre-fail Always - 14
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 164 136 021 Pre-fail Always - 4341
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 040 Old_age Always - 15
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 092 092 000 Old_age Always - 6160
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 253 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 253 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 15
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 111 099 000 Old_age Always - 39
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 2
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x000a 200 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0009 194 194 051 Pre-fail Offline - 216
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 6099 hours (254 days + 3 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was doing SMART Offline or Self-test.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 08 ad 97 1a e0 Error: UNC 8 sectors at LBA = 0x001a97ad = 1742765
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 08 a6 97 1a 15 00 13:12:48.858 READ DMA EXT
25 00 08 36 88 1a 15 00 13:12:48.858 READ DMA EXT
25 00 20 b9 78 53 07 00 13:12:48.858 READ DMA EXT
25 00 20 f1 c7 5f 07 00 13:12:48.858 READ DMA EXT
25 00 20 91 11 87 06 00 13:12:48.858 READ DMA EXT
Error 1 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 6098 hours (254 days + 2 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was doing SMART Offline or Self-test.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 08 b8 83 1a e0 Error: UNC 8 sectors at LBA = 0x001a83b8 = 1737656
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 08 b6 83 1a 15 00 12:17:07.958 READ DMA EXT
35 00 08 0e 5c aa 19 00 12:17:07.958 WRITE DMA EXT
35 00 08 a6 8d 76 18 00 12:17:07.958 WRITE DMA EXT
35 00 08 1e 5a 62 13 00 12:17:07.958 WRITE DMA EXT
35 00 08 8e 4e 97 11 00 12:17:07.958 WRITE DMA EXT
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 6101 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 186 -
# 3 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 171 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 170 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 147 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 123 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 99 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 75 -
SMART 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.
