From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 29 02:16:38 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 8BFD116A4DA for ; Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:16:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from artifact.one@googlemail.com) Received: from nf-out-0910.google.com (nf-out-0910.google.com [64.233.182.189]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB04343D53 for ; Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:16:37 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from artifact.one@googlemail.com) Received: by nf-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id n29so96788nfc for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:16:34 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=googlemail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=UsNznRhA0jfwbgcjl+RsWozf01dTlLh4hRwQFDP1EqihPL8yKXrDC7tzYDHfr9Z3quoZ0NGo3P0C9AE4RAHIc9IfwQ3Vz5XNdNyYpRfgqbn+taL/BXBcEsFp3I0iQVg7Y9NwZDMYmaAqC+joDi3t0tKmdcl8x4atfWl5kV2Qw5Q= Received: by 10.49.94.20 with SMTP id w20mr426639nfl; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:16:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.49.54.3 with HTTP; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:16:28 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <8e96a0b90608281916g497196e5w74ffca9356672026@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 03:16:28 +0100 From: "mal content" To: matthew@digitalstratum.com In-Reply-To: <44F3A211.7050907@digitalstratum.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <44F3A211.7050907@digitalstratum.com> 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 02:16:38 -0000 On 29/08/06, 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. > Your setup is exactly identical to mine, even down to mount points and disk sizes. Try smartmontools, most drives support S.M.A.R.T so you should have no trouble: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/sysutils/smartmontools/ It's useful for identifying drives that are about to die. You shouldn't need to take the machine offline. MC