How do I figure out which drive has failed?

phunni · 2012-11-01 15:36:18

My computer has 3 hard drives - one of which has now completely failed. Because I'm using them all in a logical volume, this now means that my computer can't boot.

All of which is fine - I can easily replace the drive and rebuild the computer. Except for one thing: how do I figure out which physical drive is the one which died? I can see the errors referring to sdc (although I'm aware that the letter might change between boots), but how can I tell which actual hard drive that's referring to?

alphaniner · 2012-11-01 15:42:46

In Linux, you can use hdparm/sdparm to get its serial number.

hdparm is the most straightforward to me as I'm less familair with sdparm:

# hdparm -I /dev/sdc
/dev/sdc:

ATA device, with non-removable media
	Model Number:       WDC WD2502ABYS-02B7A0                   
	Serial Number:      WD-WCAT1H255551
...

Last edited by alphaniner (2012-11-01 15:44:44)

phunni · 2012-11-01 15:45:45

Thanks - are those commands available when booted into the installer as a rescue disc?

x33a · 2012-11-01 15:52:09

Both of those are available in the core repo, you can easily install them even in the live environment.

alphaniner · 2012-11-01 16:03:42

You might also consider a 'proper' rescue distro, such as System Rescue CD.

aking9 · 2012-11-01 17:01:07

you could try smartmontools to do a check of each disk.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SMART

Arch Linux

#1 2012-11-01 15:36:18

How do I figure out which drive has failed?

#2 2012-11-01 15:42:46

Re: How do I figure out which drive has failed?

#3 2012-11-01 15:45:45

Re: How do I figure out which drive has failed?

#4 2012-11-01 15:52:09

Re: How do I figure out which drive has failed?

#5 2012-11-01 16:03:42

Re: How do I figure out which drive has failed?

#6 2012-11-01 17:01:07

Re: How do I figure out which drive has failed?

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