From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 29 02:14:38 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA0C016A4E2 for ; Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:14:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from mh1.centtech.com (moat3.centtech.com [207.200.51.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B35143D46 for ; Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:14:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from [192.168.42.24] (andersonbox4.centtech.com [192.168.42.24]) by mh1.centtech.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k7T2Eavn013974; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 21:14:36 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Message-ID: <44F3A30C.1080305@centtech.com> Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 21:14:36 -0500 From: Eric Anderson User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (X11/20060802) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: matthew@digitalstratum.com References: <44F3A211.7050907@digitalstratum.com> In-Reply-To: <44F3A211.7050907@digitalstratum.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.87.1/1745/Mon Aug 28 10:02:21 2006 on mh1.centtech.com X-Virus-Status: Clean Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Hard disk going-bad detection X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:14:38 -0000 On 08/28/06 21:10, Matthew Hagerty wrote: > Greetings, > > I have a hard drive that every now and then makes a sound like the head > is moving from one extreme to the other, then parking. It is hard to > explain, kind of a towk-kok-click with a metallic ring to it. If you > have heard a drive do this before, you know the sound. I heard a drive > do this to me a few months ago and it failed shortly thereafter. > > I have 3 drives in the system so it is very hard to know which drive it > is, so in an attempt to get a new drive before the one fails out right, > is there any way I can test the drives in place? One drive is primarily > my system disk (20G), the second (120G) has /usr mounted on it, and the > third (120G) is mounted, rsync'd, umounted every night to make a backup > of the other two. So, the backup drive I can test no problem, even > destructively if necessary. However, the two that make up the active > system I would like to be able to test without disrupting normal > operation if possible? But, I'll take the box offline for a bit if > necessary. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. You didn't mention what type of drives, so I'll assume ATA. Take a look at smartd. Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Sr. Systems Administrator Centaur Technology Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------