Re: Is my hard disk dying?

[fbhjr@fhase.net (Frederick B. Henry Jr.)]

On Saturday 16 Oct 2004 17:39:58 +0100, Jamie L. Penman-Smithson wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Recently I've been seeing messages like this in kern.log:
> 
> Oct 16 14:42:42 oasis kernel: hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x21
> Oct 16 14:42:52 oasis kernel: hda: DMA timeout error
> Oct 16 14:42:52 oasis kernel: hda: dma timeout error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
> Oct 16 14:42:52 oasis kernel:

[...]


> In addition, it keeps making alarming clicking sounds, so I'm assuming
> that it's about the die on me. Considering that this laptop isn't even a
> year old (10 months), it's annoying.
> 
> The drive itself is a Toshiba MK6021GAS. Leaving the laptop powered down
> for a few hours seems to fix the problem, but it seems to reappear after a
> week or two.
> 
> Any ideas, or suggestions?


I have had the same symptoms (dma drive errors and funny clicking/clacking
head noises) *twice* on a Dell laptop and both times the drive crashed hard
not long after the symptoms appeared. I would definitely do a thorough
backup asap. One drive was a Toshiba and the other an IBM Travelstar. The
second time it happened the drive was under a year old.  With hard drives
it can truly be a crap shoot.

Cheers,

Fred Henry, Jr.