Quoting "J.C. Roberts" <list-...@designtools.org>:
> And I thought I was expected to be inconsistent. ;)
>
> Anyhow, I was upgrading from the Feb 2, to the most recent snapshot, and
> fsck is coming up with a problem on one of my partitions. I can probably
> get it working ("fix" is such a strong word) with `fsck -fy` but my real
> concern is if the drive is failing?
>
> atactl tells me everything is just fine?
>
> I have a nearly identical system, with the same type of disk, which
> reports similar atactl attributes... but then again, I don't really trust
> SATA/PATA drives very much or their supposedly "smart" monitoring.
>
> The data on the system is not only backed up, but it's also easily
> replaced since the machine is only used for src and ports builds. I think
> I might lose a total of a few newly downloaded distfiles since the last
> backup.
>
> What I really want to do here is understand *why* some portion of the
> disk has become unreadable?
I've seen the smart system report errors and have had them become
true a few times, but far more often I've seen the damn things report
"No proble, Boss" and then died a little later...
You could have any number of things going on giving you those read
errors. With the right test jig from the manufacturer you'd likely know.
My guess would be an op amp for one of the heads isn't quite working
right. The other possibility is that part of the disk wasn't coated right
and you have a weak spot, magnetically speaking.
But you'll never really know. At least you now have a new target, for
practice with. Sabot rounds are great for little disks...
--STeve Andre'
