[ale] Palimpsest Disk Utility

[rs at ale.spam.futz.org]

>1. Is this utility accurate?

I rarely use drive utilities... boot into linux and user smartctl to test the
drive...

	smartctl -t short /dev/sdX

wait the indicated time, then

	smartctl -l selftest /dev/sdX

If it passes, then repeast using '-t long' instead of '-t short'. This is the
first thing I do on all new drives, before I use them. The second thing is to
run the multi-pass read/write bad-block test, using the '-c -c' option to
e2fsck.  It takes forever on modern drives, but if I'm gonna fill up a drive
with my precious data, I want to have some confidence in it.  And I've had to
send back a new drive before for failing one of these tests...


-- 
Arguing with an Engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud.
After a while you realize the pig is enjoying it.