Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Wojciech Puchar]

It's not like the badblocks command is particularly speedy, either.  I imagine
that *any* thorough drive test would take a long while given today's typical
drive size.


ca 2 hours on 500GB disk with bs=1m
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Geoff Fritz]

On Sun, Jun 07, 2009 at 07:49:41PM +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote:
> >
> > I've seen several mentions of "dd" in this thread, and I'll say that I've
> > seen several recommendations elsewhere to use a simple:
> >
> > dd if=/dev/ of=/dev/
> 
> forgot bs=1m or at least 64kB, unless you like to wait days with default 
> bs=512

Such things should be understood, more or less.  I didn't want to confuse the
issue with extra options.  But you are correct.  These options will greatly
speed up the process for dd.

It's not like the badblocks command is particularly speedy, either.  I imagine
that *any* thorough drive test would take a long while given today's typical
drive size.

-- Geoff
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Wojciech Puchar]

I've seen several mentions of "dd" in this thread, and I'll say that I've
seen several recommendations elsewhere to use a simple:

dd if=/dev/ of=/dev/


forgot bs=1m or at least 64kB, unless you like to wait days with default 
bs=512




to "refresh" the drive.  That is, dd will read the block(s), then attempt to
write them back, and if there are problems, the drive should re-map the sector



add conv=noerror,osync
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Geoff Fritz]

On Sun, Jun 07, 2009 at 10:43:40AM +0100, John . wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> Can anyone please recommend to me a program that will stress-test a
> disk? If it matters, two are connected by firewire, another via usb.
> Filesystem is ufs. I think I have a disk that might be about to fail,
> but it only sometimes errors when under stress. I need to see if it
> was a fluke or to really make it fail, so that I can get rid of it.

I believe that the "badblocks" util is what you're looking for.  It can
be found in the sysutils/e2fsprogs port.  It has both destructive and
non-destructive modes.  I've used it on Linux and FreeBSD, and it can
really exercise the disk well.

I've seen several mentions of "dd" in this thread, and I'll say that I've
seen several recommendations elsewhere to use a simple:

dd if=/dev/ of=/dev/

to "refresh" the drive.  That is, dd will read the block(s), then attempt to
write them back, and if there are problems, the drive should re-map the sector
to one without problems.  Though the dd_rescue/ddrescue/dd-rescue ports are
more tolerant of errors than the stock dd util.

Personally, I'd recommend badblocks before trying anything else.

-- Geoff
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Wojciech Puchar]

:D

okok, dd it is. I'll remove all data beforehand just in case. Thank
you all for your replies.
--


you may "cure" badblocks by

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk bs=1m

(but cleaning all data)

Disk will try to remap badblocks then.

But remember that it only make it's life a bit longer. this disk will 
fail again.

___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[John .]

Hi everyone

2009/6/7 Wojciech Puchar :
>> Check the downloads section at the disk manufacturer's website.  All the
>> disk vendors have utilities that can test their disks.
>
> by doing the same as dd of=/dev/null :)
>
> as least seagate one.

:D

okok, dd it is. I'll remove all data beforehand just in case. Thank
you all for your replies.
-- 
John
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Wojciech Puchar]

Check the downloads section at the disk manufacturer's website.  All the disk 
vendors have utilities that can test their disks.


by doing the same as dd of=/dev/null :)

as least seagate one.
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Wojciech Puchar]

That will show me thruput. I need to see if bad blocks or similar are
happening.


you will - dd will fail with error that case
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Wojciech Puchar]

Hello list,

Can anyone please recommend to me a program that will stress-test a
disk? If it matters, two are connected by firewire, another via usb.
Filesystem is ufs. I think I have a disk that might be about to fail,
but it only sometimes errors when under stress. I need to see if it


if it's about to fail then simply read it

dd if=/dev/disk of=/dev/null bs=1m


if it will not - disk is most probably OK.
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Michael David Crawford]

Check the downloads section at the disk manufacturer's website.  All the 
disk vendors have utilities that can test their disks.


Generally these utilities can use proprietary commands to exercise 
self-test functions that generally aren't accessible to non-proprietary 
test code.


Most of the utilities are DOS boot disk images.  You make either a 
floppy or a CD from them, then boot off of it.


Mike
--
Michael David Crawford
m...@prgmr.com

   prgmr.com - We Don't Assume You Are Stupid.

  Xen-Powered Virtual Private Servers: http://prgmr.com/xen
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Jerry]

On Sun, 7 Jun 2009 10:43:40 +0100
"John ."  wrote:

>Hello list,
>
>Can anyone please recommend to me a program that will stress-test a
>disk? If it matters, two are connected by firewire, another via usb.
>Filesystem is ufs. I think I have a disk that might be about to fail,
>but it only sometimes errors when under stress. I need to see if it
>was a fluke or to really make it fail, so that I can get rid of it.
>
>thanks

The best one I know of is SpinRite . I have actually
used it to rebuild disks that I was told by professional technicians
were beyond hope. Of course, it is not free, so you might not be
interested.

One feature I like about it is that it creates its own start-up disk. It
is totally system independent.

-- 
Jerry
ges...@yahoo.com

Absence makes the heart forget.


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Glen Barber]

On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 6:05 AM, John . wrote:
> Hi Glen, thanks for replying
>
>> You can use dd(1) to stress test disk I/O.  Something like this should work:
>>
>> dd if=/dev/${YOURDISK} of=/dev/null bs=1024k
>
> That will show me thruput. I need to see if bad blocks or similar are
> happening. Something like scandisk for instance.
>
> Maybe I'm thinking the wrong way. Maybe see if they have SMART and
> read from there?
>

Ah, I thought you wanted to stress test the throughput to get errors.

In that case, have a look at sysutils/smartmontools in ports.


-- 
Glen Barber
http://www.dev-urandom.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/glenjbarber
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[John .]

Hi Glen, thanks for replying

> You can use dd(1) to stress test disk I/O.  Something like this should work:
>
> dd if=/dev/${YOURDISK} of=/dev/null bs=1024k

That will show me thruput. I need to see if bad blocks or similar are
happening. Something like scandisk for instance.

Maybe I'm thinking the wrong way. Maybe see if they have SMART and
read from there?

cheers
-- 
John
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"

Re: please recommend a disk-exercising program?

[Glen Barber]

Hi, John

On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 5:43 AM, John . wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> Can anyone please recommend to me a program that will stress-test a
> disk? If it matters, two are connected by firewire, another via usb.
> Filesystem is ufs. I think I have a disk that might be about to fail,
> but it only sometimes errors when under stress. I need to see if it
> was a fluke or to really make it fail, so that I can get rid of it.
>

You can use dd(1) to stress test disk I/O.  Something like this should work:

dd if=/dev/${YOURDISK} of=/dev/null bs=1024k

-- 
Glen Barber
http://www.dev-urandom.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/glenjbarber
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"