On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 09:07:13AM -0600, Chris Bennett wrote: > SMART is not the final word.
True > Try running badblocks from e2fsprogs. Neither is badblocks > Be sure you use it correctly. You will need the partitions unmounted for it It's rather hard to prove a disk isn't broken; a program may easily prove it is broken, though. Writing to all sectors will let the disk remap bad sectors. This may make a broken disk seem ok for a while, or just remap the one or two bad sectors in an otherwise OK disk. You never know. But what you do know is that badblocks assumes disks are simple devices, while modern-day disks are not simple. It's a usable tool if you understand its limits. Never underestimate controller, software and cables as a source of drive issues. A bad IDE cable caused me to waste embarrassingly many hours some years back.
