[ale] what exactly does a long smart hdd test do?

Fri May 11 17:51:17 EDT 2012

You realize that she could be out performed by a raspberry pi, right? It
would pay for itself in energy savings in just a few months.
On May 11, 2012 10:00 AM, "Ron Frazier (ALE)" <
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

> Hi Jim,
>
> Isn't there anything I can run while the file system is mounted?  Read
> only analysis would be fine.
>
> In defense of my old (computer) lady, she's still kickin' pretty good
> after 10 years.  It's a toshiba laptop.  Of course, I've added some
> upgrades here and there.  The display hinges broke, but it works fine with
> an external monitor.  It has a Pentium 4 single core processor at 2.4 Ghz,
> 1 GB of ram, and a 320 GB (I think) hdd.  I don't even want to talk about
> the price of such a machine in 2002, but it wasn't pretty.  She actually
> runs Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows XP pretty well.  Starting up the system or
> large programs is a bit slow, but once they're running, it works pretty
> well.  I started to say I could watch hulu on her, but, when I went back
> and tested it, the video is pretty jerky.  I guess the new versions of
> flash are just too much of a cpu hog.  I think 1/4 frame video at 30 fps
> would probably work, but I can't figure out how to shrink a hulu screen.  I
> think you can shrink a netflix video to a small size.  She has no problem
> keeping my wireless internet busy at 16 Mb!
>  ps.
>
> I've thought of retiring her, but it just seems so heartless.  Nowdays,
> she runs Ubuntu all the time so I can jump over there and test things even
> though I may have Windows running on the other machines.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
> Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >Try badblocks in Linux. NOTE: that is dangerous to use on a mounted
> >system.
> >
> >OR - pull the drive into a newer system that has a bios that can handle
> >it.
> >
> >(seriously - dude! upgrade that dinosaur! it sucks down power like mad
> >doing very little)
> >
> >On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 1:41 AM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
> >atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi guys,
> >>
> >> I'm running routine diagnostics on my hard drives. My normal practice
> >is
> >> to run SpinRite on them, which reads each sector, then refreshes the
> >> magnetic fields by inverting and writing and inverting and writing
> >them
> >> again (in the particular mode I'm using). Thus, every bit is tested
> >both
> >> with a 0 and 1 and all the original data is refreshed. I don't want
> >to get
> >> into a discussion as to the merits of this at the moment. I'm
> >convinced
> >> it's a good idea. My problem is that I have one computer that's so
> >old and
> >> the bios is so old and the hdd is so big, that SpinRite complains
> >because
> >> the bios cannot access the whole drive. So, SpinRite won't run. Once
> >> Windows or Linux starts up, those systems can access the whole hdd.
> >> However, SpinRite runs strictly at the dos / bios level from a
> >bootable CD.
> >>
> >> At the very least, I want to do a surface analysis be reading each
> >sector.
> >> That, at least, will let the hdd controller review each sector and
> >> determine if it thinks there are any problems. In Windows, I can
> >start a
> >> chkdisk, either graphically or on the command line, and specify the
> >surface
> >> analysis option, and it will accomplish my goal.
> >>
> >> My problem is on the Linux side of the fence. I don't know how to do
> >what
> >> I want there. I need to force the hdd to read all the sectors on the
> >EXT4
> >> main partition as well as the swap partition. Of course, I'm wanting
> >to do
> >> all this nondestructively. So, I'm wondering exactly what a long
> >smart test
> >> does, and whether it will accomplish my goal. It not, what would you
> >> recommend?
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance.
> >>
> >> Sincerely,
> >>
> >> Ron
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >--
> >James P. Kinney III
> >
> >As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
> >consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as
> >they
> >please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
> >- *2011 Noam Chomsky
> >
> >http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> >*
>
>
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>
> (To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to former
> messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
> address.  Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
> quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>
>
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