From: Brian J. <bj...@ph...> - 2004-05-18 23:54:46
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Hi I've been using the smartmon tools package quite sucessfully on our linux systems for several months. When I saw there was a Cygwin version I thought I'd give it a try on my Windows2k machine. It worked just fine on my 80 Gbyte Western Digital disk: /usr/sbin/smartctl -a /dev/hda but trying my 160 Gbyte Maxtor DiamondMax 16: /usr/sbin/smartctl -a /dev/hdd returned with an error message and the suggestion to try: /usr/sbin/smartctl -s on /dev/hdd which in turn failed, and suggested adding something like "-T permissive". This hung Windows. On rebooting, the BIOS failed to detect the Maxtor disk, and it was making clicking noises. I removed the disk and placed it in an external USB enclosure. The clicking noises continued, and neither Windows nor Linux can see the disk. Ideally I'd like to be told there's a magic command that will restore the drive. Failing that, perhaps a warning should be added to the sourceforge web page. Thanks Brian Jackel |
From: Bruce A. <ba...@gr...> - 2004-05-19 01:42:35
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Hi Brian, Christian Franke (who manages the windows version of smartmontools) might have something to add. But let me give you my thoughts about this. > I've been using the smartmon tools package quite sucessfully on our > linux systems for several months. When I saw there was a Cygwin > version I thought I'd give it a try on my Windows2k machine. It > worked just fine on my 80 Gbyte Western Digital disk: > > /usr/sbin/smartctl -a /dev/hda > > but trying my 160 Gbyte Maxtor DiamondMax 16: > > /usr/sbin/smartctl -a /dev/hdd > > returned with an error message and the suggestion > to try: > > /usr/sbin/smartctl -s on /dev/hdd > > which in turn failed, and suggested adding something like "-T > permissive". This hung Windows. On rebooting, the BIOS failed to > detect the Maxtor disk, and it was making clicking noises. This (and the clicking noise) probably means that the Maxtor 160 had a hardware problem, and that asking it to monitor it's status pushed it over the edge. This is not a likely thing to happen, but as the number of smartmontools users climbs, it will happen from time to time. Please note that the ONLY thing that smartctl does is send SMART commands to the disk. These have been designed (in this case, by the Maxtor engineers) to monitor the disk, not to kill it. If the disk dies, it means that something is wrong with the disk, not that smartctl killed it. > I removed the disk and placed it in an external USB enclosure. The > clicking noises continued, and neither Windows nor Linux can see the > disk. The clicking noises mean 'mechanical/electrical failure'. While the 'smartctl -s on -T permissive' might have been 'the straw that broke the camel's back', it unfortunately would have happened anyway. The reason that '-s on' with no 'permissive' failed is because the disk was on its way out. > Ideally I'd like to be told there's a magic command that will restore > the drive. Here's one thing to try. See if the BIOS of the box has an 'enable SMART' or 'monitor SMART' option. If so, disable it. The BIOS might be checking the SMART status of the drive, and seeing that the drive is failing, it refuses to recognize it. > Failing that, perhaps a warning should be added to the sourceforge web > page. I'll think about this. The warning could say something like 'Warning: running self-tests (or even enabling SMART) on a marginal drive may push it past the failure point.' Cheers, Bruce |
From: <Chr...@t-...> - 2004-05-19 17:26:42
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Hi Brian, > ... but trying my 160 Gbyte Maxtor DiamondMax 16: > > /usr/sbin/smartctl -a /dev/hdd > > returned with an error message and the suggestion > to try: > > /usr/sbin/smartctl -s on /dev/hdd > > which in turn failed, and suggested adding something > like "-T permissive". This hung Windows. Do you remember the error messages, especially the one later ignored by "-T permissive"? > ... On rebooting, > the BIOS failed to detect the Maxtor disk, and it was > making clicking noises. > > I removed the disk and placed it in an external USB > enclosure. The clicking noises continued, and neither > Windows nor Linux can see the disk. > Last year, I had exactly the same failure (clicking, no detection on next boot) on two Maxtor disks, 4K060H3 and 6Y120P0. There was no smartctl, SMART BIOS setting or similar involved. (BTW: actually, with these crashes, my interest in SMART began and eventually leads to the smartctl windows port). I tried to connect the disks to several (~8) different PCs. Surprisingly, the BIOS of some old PIII detected the 60Gb disk. Many sectors of the disk were damaged, but I was able to save most of the data. This worked only on this specific PC, I never found out why (different IDE command sequences during initialization, Power supply voltage tolerance, ...?). All other PCs did not detect any of the two disks. Sometimes, a "funny" drive name was shown after power up. The 120Gb disk was only 3 weeks old and powered on at most 3 hours/day. Maxtor specific problem? As Bruce already pointed out, it is unlikely that the disk crash is related to some bug smartctl itself. The windows code was tested thoroughly on several windows machines. The windows SMART_IOCTL does not allow to send any possibly dangerous non-SMART IDE commands to the drive. Only for READ_LOG, another ioctl is used, but this is not used during "smartctl -s on" (see WARNINGS file). Cheers, Christian |
From: Bruce A. <ba...@gr...> - 2004-05-19 17:57:10
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> Last year, I had exactly the same failure (clicking, no detection on > next boot) on two Maxtor disks, 4K060H3 and 6Y120P0. There was no > smartctl, SMART BIOS setting or similar involved. (BTW: actually, with > these crashes, my interest in SMART began and eventually leads to the > smartctl windows port). > > I tried to connect the disks to several (~8) different PCs. > Surprisingly, the BIOS of some old PIII detected the 60Gb disk. Maybe this is not so surprising. The BIOS of the old PIII probably didn't check the SMART status of the disk. Many modern BIOSes check the SMART status of the disk, and ignore the disk if the SMART status is "FAILING". This can usually be disabled in the BIOS settings, but it's often hard to find the correct sub-sub-sub menu in the BIOS GUI. Cheers, Bruce |
From: <Chr...@t-...> - 2004-05-20 18:55:37
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>>I tried to connect the disks to several (~8) different PCs. >>Surprisingly, the BIOS of some old PIII detected the 60Gb disk. >> >> > >Maybe this is not so surprising. The BIOS of the old PIII probably didn't >check the SMART status of the disk. Many modern BIOSes check the SMART >status of the disk, and ignore the disk if the SMART status is "FAILING". > > Does the BIOS really ignore the disk? It should at least display the disk model and an error message. At least on one of the PCs used, the SMART check was disabled. I later tested this disk with Maxtor's PowerMax which does not depend on BIOS. It detects the 60Gb disk only on this PC. Mysterious.... >This can usually be disabled in the BIOS settings, but it's often hard to >find the correct sub-sub-sub menu in the BIOS GUI. > > Yes, and if we are really lucky, BIOS documentation tells us, that SMART can be enabled or disabled. On a recent ASUS A7N8X Board, I didn't find any SMART setting in BIOS. Is SMART checking missing or always enabled? Cheers Christian |