Re: Which disk is failing?
On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 08:32:28AM -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
> Gregory Seidman put forth on 7/22/2010 6:38 AM:
> > I have a RAID1 (using md) running on two USB disks. (I'm working on moving
> > to eSATA, but it's USB for now.) That means I don't have any insight using
> > SMART. Meanwhile, I've been getting occasional fail events. Unfortunately,
> > I don't get any information on which disk is failing.
>
> Are any USB communication errors being logged along with the md and ext3 errors?
I'm not seeing anything in /var/log/{dmesg,syslog,kern.log}. Is there
somewhere else I should be looking?
> Are you sure it's a disk drive problem and not an issue with the kernel
> drivers, system BIOS, USB controller, cabling, or a combination thereof?
I'm not 100% sure, but it's the most likely possibility.
> How long (days, weeks, months, years) did this exact setup function properly
> before you started seeing these problems?
Months. I switched from Mac hardware to PC hardware when the Mac
motherboard finally died after 10 years a few months ago. Most of the same
hardware (cables, drives, enclosures, etc.) had been working well for a
couple of years before that.
> Did you recently perform any major software upgrades (kernel/drivers)
> shortly before this problem surfaced?
No.
> Is this a laptop? If so which make/model?
Nope, it's a tower:
ThinkCentre M52 3.2GHz Intel Pentium IV Desktop PC
> What's the make/model of the USB disk drives?
The two USB drive enclosures are different makes and models, and I don't
have them handy to check (I'm at work right now). They aren't no-name crap,
though. Incidentally, one is an eSATA & USB, the other is IEEE1394 and USB.
The drives are either Seagate or Western Digital. I don't remember which at
this point, since it's been a while since I put them in their enclosures.
> What is the age of each piece of hardware we're discussing?
The tower was purchased refurbished, but is probably circa 2004. The
drives, cables, and enclosures are no more than two years old.
> Stan
--Greg
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