A Hard Disk is reporting health problems I am desperated

[hoboy]

I begin to experience this message"Disk utility: A Hard Disk is reporting health problems", I have reinstalled ubuntu11.04, that hasn't helped.
I am using dual-booting with windows 7, windows does not have the hard disk problems.

[nomko]

Try installing smartmontools, you can find it in synaptic.
In a terminal venster: sudo smartctl -s on -a /dev/*** > smartmontools.txt ,*** = mounting point of hard disc, i.e.: sda1 or sda2 this can be found with the command ls /dev/sd*. The last part of the command (> smartmontools.txt) is a text file created by smartmontools which shows the status of every hard disc. Post the output the disc who's got the health poblems.

[Grenage]

I begin to experience this message"Disk utility: A Hard Disk is reporting health problems", I have reinstalled ubuntu11.04, that hasn't helped.
I am using dual-booting with windows 7, windows does not have the hard disk problems.

Does Windows 7 check SMART data? Either way, while it could be a false alarm, I'd really recommend backing up any important data.

[sammiev]

Follow the instructions above for safety. I have had the same problem as you now for a year. Window reports all is well, well linux reports the error you have and still does. I am running will no issues. GL :)

[hoboy]

Try installing smartmontools, you can find it in synaptic.
In a terminal venster: sudo smartctl -s on -a /dev/*** > smartmontools.txt ,*** = mounting point of hard disc, i.e.: sda1 or sda2 this can be found with the command ls /dev/sd*. The last part of the command (> smartmontools.txt) is a text file created by smartmontools which shows the status of every hard disc. Post the output the disc who's got the health poblems.
when I use lucas@lucas:~$ ls /dev/sd*.
ls: cannot access /dev/sd*.: No such file or directory

[nomko]

when I use lucas@lucas:~$ ls /dev/sd*.
ls: cannot access /dev/sd*.: No such file or directory

Try hd instead of sd. What do you get then?

[hoboy]

Try hd instead of sd. What do you get then?

the same
ls: cannot access /dev/hd*.: No such file or directory


the same
ls: cannot access /dev/hd*.: No such file or directory

I don't know if this means anything at all.
ls /dev/ sd*.
ls: cannot access sd*.: No such file or directory
/dev/:
autofs loop4 ram6 stderr tty34 tty63 ttyS5
block loop5 ram7 stdin tty35 tty7 ttyS6
bsg loop6 ram8 stdout tty36 tty8 ttyS7
btrfs-control loop7 ram9 tty tty37 tty9 ttyS8
bus mapper random tty0 tty38 ttyprintk ttyS9
cdrom mcelog rfkill tty1 tty39 ttyS0 uinput
cdrw mem root tty10 tty4 ttyS1 urandom
char net rtc tty11 tty40 ttyS10 usb
console network_latency rtc0 tty12 tty41 ttyS11 usbmon0
core network_throughput scd0 tty13 tty42 ttyS12 usbmon1
cpu null sda tty14 tty43 ttyS13 usbmon2
cpu_dma_latency nvidia0 sda1 tty15 tty44 ttyS14 vcs
disk nvidiactl sda2 tty16 tty45 ttyS15 vcs1
dvd oldmem sda3 tty17 tty46 ttyS16 vcs2
dvdrw pktcdvd sda4 tty18 tty47 ttyS17 vcs3
ecryptfs port sda5 tty19 tty48 ttyS18 vcs4
fb0 ppp sda6 tty2 tty49 ttyS19 vcs5
fd psaux sda7 tty20 tty5 ttyS2 vcs6
full ptmx sdb tty21 tty50 ttyS20 vcsa
fuse pts sdc tty22 tty51 ttyS21 vcsa1
fw0 ram0 sdd tty23 tty52 ttyS22 vcsa2
hidraw0 ram1 sde tty24 tty53 ttyS23 vcsa3
hidraw1 ram10 sg0 tty25 tty54 ttyS24 vcsa4
hidraw2 ram11 sg1 tty26 tty55 ttyS25 vcsa5
hpet ram12 sg2 tty27 tty56 ttyS26 vcsa6
input ram13 sg3 tty28 tty57 ttyS27 vga_arbiter
kmsg ram14 sg4 tty29 tty58 ttyS28 zero
log ram15 sg5 tty3 tty59 ttyS29
loop0 ram2 shm tty30 tty6 ttyS3
loop1 ram3 snapshot tty31 tty60 ttyS30
loop2 ram4 snd tty32 tty61 ttyS31
loop3 ram5 sr0 tty33 tty62 ttyS4

[mikewhatever]

You should try and figure out what's wrong with the HDD, as 'health problems' is a rather vague term. In the Disk Utility, select your HDD and click the 'SMART Data' button, scroll through the entries looking for the ones marked in red. Post a screenshot.

If you want to use smartmontools, as suggested above, run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

sudo smartctl -s on -a /dev/sda > ~/Desktop/smartmontools.txt

The last command will create a text file on your desktop, attach it to the next post.

[dFlyer]

I begin to experience this message"Disk utility: A Hard Disk is reporting health problems", I have reinstalled ubuntu11.04, that hasn't helped.
I am using dual-booting with windows 7, windows does not have the hard disk problems.

My advice is to backup everything you want to keep. If your drive is starting to fail the sooner you do it the better. If it's bad sectors you might want to think about replacing it ASAP. Windows is more tolerant of bad sectors than linux.

[hoboy]

smartctl 5.40 2010-07-12 r3124 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Caviar Blue Serial ATA family
Device Model: WDC WD6400AAKS-07A7B0
Serial Number: WD-WMASY5431844
Firmware Version: 01.03B01
User Capacity: 640,135,028,736 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Tue Jun 21 18:35:54 2011 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===
SMART Enabled.

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
See vendor-specific Attribute list for failed Attributes.

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x85) Offline data collection activity
was aborted by an interrupting command from host.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 73) The previous self-test completed having
a test element that failed and the test
element that failed is not known.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (11160) 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.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 131) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x303f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

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 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 165 159 021 Pre-fail Always - 4725
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1846
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 122 122 140 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 621
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 093 093 000 Old_age Always - 5277
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1812
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 191
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1846
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 110 101 000 Old_age Always - 37
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 094 094 000 Old_age Always - 106
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 5277 -
# 2 Conveyance offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 5276 -

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.

[mikewhatever]

The errors definitely don't look good. Better be safe then sorry, so backup your files and look for a new HDD.

[psusi]

The drive is toast; get your data off of it and replace it asap.

[hoboy]

ok my last solution is I am going to buy a new stationary computer.
what is the best mark is the best ?
Compaq, hp ? what else ?
what is the best processor ?

[psusi]

I don't buy OEM computers, but if I did, it would be from Dell. Stay away from comcrap and HP.

[sammiev]

I don't buy OEM computers, but if I did, it would be from Dell. Stay away from comcrap and HP.

+1 and totally agree! but I would not buy dell either. GL :)

[rpaskudniak]

You should try and figure out what's wrong with the HDD, as 'health problems' is a rather vague term. In the Disk Utility, select your HDD and click the 'SMART Data' button, scroll through the entries looking for the ones marked in red. Post a screenshot.

If you want to use smartmontools, as suggested above, run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

sudo smartctl -s on -a /dev/sda > ~/Desktop/smartmontools.txt

The last command will create a text file on your desktop, attach it to the next post.
Er, Mikewhatever,

First, thanks for posting the tidbit about the Smartdata button, which I did not notice from the tool when it was opened by the [Examine] button.

I found this thread while searching for a solution to the same problem. We all know this is a vague term. It is the system that is being vague about both what kind of health problem and which disk is is that experiencing [un]said health problem.

For the benefit of othere users: Start the Disk Utility this way from the Ubuntu classic/gnome menu):
Systen -> Administration -> Disk Utility.

Indeed, I have found it reporting that my Western Digital 320KB drive is in imminent failure, with a high read-error rate and 43 bad sectors. Exactly what to do is another issue - I think a fsck now is in order Whatever, I'd better back it up ASAP! But from Windows; the good stuff is in NTFS.

Unfortunately, the Smart Data tool will not run the self-test, which would make things somewhat easier.

Bottom line: Use that Disk Utility as your starting point. Where to go from there, I'd also like some help!

Thanks.

[PartisanEntity]

Interesting enough my external USB Lacie drive has started reporting Disk Failure Imminent since two days. I am in the process of backing up right now.

The disk is relatively new, so my gut feeling tells me Ubuntu may be the issue. But making a backup nonetheless.

Will try to analyze the problem once the backup is done.

[switcha]

Hi folks,
Any news/updates on a resolution to this issue? I recently had the same issue with my wd elements 640 gig hd. Though, I originally encrypted the file system using the option that Disk Utility permits.
After doing this, I was locked out of my hd I couldn't access my data using the supplied password. It finally worked and I transferred my data. Since then, I have formatted it several times and the SMART Data self-tests fail.
Its weird because I have 157 sectors that are Current Pending Sector Count.
When I format it using xp disk management it appears healthy.
I have a feeling this issue has arisen from the disk utility encryption. See attachment for my smartmontools.txt output.