Re: localhost kernel: ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Hi, Charles.
On Aug 28 2007, Charles Plessy wrote:
> I have rebooted on an Ubuntu live CD, and after mounting the partition,
> I get the following error while browsing the directory tree:
Just for curiosity, which Ubuntu CD did you use? Any gusty image? It
only gives me psychedelic colors when I boot boot them.
Images prior to tribe-4 had a problem with the initramfs that they
didn't load the ide-core module and the installation died *really* quite
soon. :-(
I see that you are in the NMs queue like me and one of my objectives if
I actually happen to be a Debian Developer will be to get the powerpc
port in shape and not let it fall behind as it has with Ubuntu (which is
now a "port", meaning that it doesn't receive any attention).
In my very humble opinion, it is quite important to support the powerpc
platform now.
I say this because Apple is dropping support for all PowerPC computers
that were based on any chips up to G3 with the next release of MacOS X
and, thus, there is quite a lot of users that would benefit from a fine
operating system that Ubuntu Linux is.
But thank $DEITY that we have Debian around.
Ok, enough about Ubuntu.
> Aug 28 02:52:47 ubuntu kernel: [ 498.947455] ata1: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
> Aug 28 02:52:47 ubuntu kernel: [ 498.947461] ata1: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }
> Aug 28 02:52:53 ubuntu kernel: [ 505.091286] ata1: translated ATA stat/err 0x51/40 to SCSI SK/ASC/ASCQ 0x3/11/04
>
> I am wondering it my hard drive is dying or if it is another hardware
> problem...
Based on this alone, I would say that your disk is dying. Quickly,
backup all the data on that disk and install smartmontools.
Read the documentation on it and run a long off-line test (you can still
continue working with your computer). Then, look at the results.
If the drive still has some spare good sectors for reallocation, one
thing that interestingly may help here is to backup the drive, write
something to *all* sectors of the drive (which will cause the drive to
reallocate the good sectors) and restore back the data.
The "UncorrectableError" message may suddenly disappear for the reasons
cited above.
Writing just a "ddrescue /dev/zero /dev/xxx", where xxx is your whole
drive device would get the job done.
> Can anybody confirm that these errors are not saying that the drive is
> dying ?
I'd say that your drive is dying.
> Bonus question : if necessary, can I plug the disk on a i386 machine and
> run ddrescue on it?
Yes. I've done this a couple of times and it worked as well as a
userspace tool could work (i.e., don't expect miracles).
Regards, Rogério Brito.
--
Rogério Brito : rbrito@{mackenzie,ime.usp}.br : GPG key 1024D/7C2CAEB8
http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito : http://meusite.mackenzie.com.br/rbrito
Projects: algorithms.berlios.de : lame.sf.net : vrms.alioth.debian.org
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