Re: bad sectors on disk

[Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net>]

On Friday 12 February 2016 02:42:19 Thomas Schmitt wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Ritesh Raj Sarraf wrote:
> > > >     From the report, it says that there are 0 bad blocks. So is
> > > > this a bug in e2fsprogs ?
>
> David Wright wrote:
> > Does one I/O error mean that you have a bad block necessarily?
>
> I personally do not believe in a bad spot here, but in a bad bus.
> Throwing out blocks which fall victim to a bus glitch would then
> unnecessarily kill files and reduce disk capacity.
>
Is the OP talking about a sata interfaced device?  If so, is the sata 
cable a semi-reddish, tending toward hints of magenta color?  And more 
than 1 year old? 

That particular color of sata cables has a very poor record of 
satisfactory service at my location, and in my travels I have a tendency 
to collect spare sata cables that are NOT that "hot red' color. When a 
cable gets flaky, it gets replaced with a tan one or a black one and 
that seems to be the best long term fix.

As a CET*, with a long term relationship with cables that used that 
particular plastic dye to color one of a multiconductor cable, such as 
in the microphone cable of a CB Radio, first encountered here in the 
later 60's as radios from the J.A.Pan company started flooding the US 
market, it was this 'hot red' colored wire in a mic cable that always 
broke, and you could cut it back 2 cm figuring on cutting off the 
fraction of that which had failed and resoldering the connector to fresh 
wire.  Except when I saw that color. After a year or 2, there was no 
wire remaining in that tubing, just a reddish copper dust!  Whatever 
gave it that color, literally dissolved, or oxidized the copper in 3 
years time at the maximum.

Sata cables, having even smaller gage conductors, it stands to reason 
would fail even faster and that has been my experience.

A quick test, pull the side off the box, put a tail on the messages 
logfile, then take a stick about the size of a lead pencil, and prod 
each such cable, moving it an inch or so.  If the log explodes with sata 
reset messages, you have one of those time bombs.  Replace it, with one 
that is not that "hot red" color.

*CET=Certified Electronics Technician.

> Have a nice day :)
>
> Thomas

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
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