Arch Linux

new2arch

Member

Registered: 2008-02-25

Posts: 235

Smartmontools and HD

Hi guys,

Would these results be of any concern to you guys?

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       1
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   252   252   025    Pre-fail  Always       -       2062
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       520
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   252   252   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000e   252   252   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0024   252   252   015    Old_age   Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       280
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   051    Old_age   Always       -       2
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       165
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   088   088   000    Old_age   Always       -       123239
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       7
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   163   076   000    Old_age   Always       -       25 (Lifetime Min/Max 17/54)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1480
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   252   252   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0036   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
201 Soft_Read_Error_Rate    0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       288
225 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       10818

I'm especially worried about Hardware_ECC_Recovered, Spin_Retry_Count and Raw_Read_Error_Rate.

The HD in question is a new Samsung lappie disk that performs well but I've heard Samsung's hasn't been in the market long enough to be considered reliable.

Last edited by new2arch (2008-06-12 13:37:43)

Laertes

Member

From: Munich

Registered: 2007-04-08

Posts: 66

Re: Smartmontools and HD

I also have a Samsung laptop HD 7 months old. You can find my values in this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=49905. My greatest concern with this HD is the high growing rate of Load_Cycle_Count.

Last edited by Laertes (2008-06-12 19:01:11)

new2arch

Member

Registered: 2008-02-25

Posts: 235

Re: Smartmontools and HD

I also have a Samsung laptop HD 7 months old. You can find my values in this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=49905. My greatest concern with this HD is the high growing rate of Load_Cycle_Count.

Try adding:

hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda > /dev/null

...in your rc.local. The Load_Cycle_Count is still climbing but at much slower rate.
I saw your smartctl output and I would worry more about your 'Reallocated_Sector_Count' than your load cycle counts. It suggests, if I'm not mistaken, that some sectors on your drive are not accessible/readable.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure how much attention one should pay to these outputs, since it is quite clear many drives fail without producing any S.M.A.R.T message prior to failure. I have also read some drives needs to be calibrated in order for it to render accurate smartctl output. And interpreting smartctl data isn't the easiest, at least for me.
Well, drives will inevitably fail sooner or later so I'm always backing up all important data just in case. But re-installing an OS and making the configurations perfect etc is something I don't want to do often though. :-(
I bought the Samsung drive because not only because it was cheaper but also they were also among the few manufacturers that still produced smaller drives (60-80 GB) that my old Thinkpad R40 could handle. Time will tell if the drive will last at least 3-4 years.

By the way, does your drive produce some intermittent loud clicks? Not easy to replicate the sound but it sounds thicker than a simple click, someone referred it as a 'super click'.

Laertes

Member

From: Munich

Registered: 2007-04-08

Posts: 66

Re: Smartmontools and HD

All is related. The clicks are heard when the heads load-unload (this thread is about that: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=39258&p=1), and each time you heard the click the Load_Cycle_Count is increased by 1 as well. In my case, using hdparm -B 254 no clicks are heard and Load_Cycle_Count doesn´t grow but the temperature gets higher 5 or 6 degrees and the HD freezes for some seconds when writing big files.

I know Reallocated_Sector_Count is far more serious, but I guess you have to worry only when it goes up, and in my HD is 11 since I first installed it, I don't think it should be a problem yet.

But as you said, I don´t know how much attention we should pay to this. Better backup often.