Arch Linux

AndreLDM

Member

From: Brazil

Registered: 2013-07-25

Posts: 8

[Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

Hello there, my first post here.
First of all, I'm very happy with Arch Linux, the best distro I've used so far.
But sadly not everything is perfect.
The problem is: my hard drive is clicking a lot when accessed and is slow to "answer". It clicks like crazy when opening a browser, during boot and even with something like ls -R /usr.

Before you ask:
1. I have tried replacing the sata slot on motherboard, replaced the sata cable, even the hard drive itself, first I was using a 250Gb Samsung, then a 500Gb Samsung and now a brand new 500Gb Toshiba.
2. I have googled and searched here on forums.
3. hdparm -B254 /dev/sda does not help

The strange thing is that during the 3~4 weeks after installing Arch, it works very nicely, after that these clicks start to happen. Same behaviour with the three HDD, the current is Advanced Format, but things were normal up to now.
My second drive, which runs Win7, doesn't display any issue.

If anyone could help me out, I'd be very pleased, because I don't wanna change my distro.

My setup: Core2Duo E6550, NVidia GTX 460, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L, 6GB DDR2, 500Gb Samsung(only Win7), 500Gb(only Arch).

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda:

/dev/sda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
	Model Number:       TOSHIBA DT01ACA050                      
	Serial Number:      43S6RMVNS
	Firmware Revision:  MS1OA750
	Transport:          Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0; Revision: ATA8-AST T13 Project D1697 Revision 0b
Standards:
	Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x0029) 
	Supported: 8 7 6 5 
	Likely used: 8
Configuration:
	Logical		max	current
	cylinders	16383	16383
	heads		16	16
	sectors/track	63	63
	--
	CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064
	LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455
	LBA48  user addressable sectors:  976771055
	Logical  Sector size:                   512 bytes
	Physical Sector size:                  4096 bytes
	Logical Sector-0 offset:                  0 bytes
	device size with M = 1024*1024:      476938 MBytes
	device size with M = 1000*1000:      500106 MBytes (500 GB)
	cache/buffer size  = 23652 KBytes (type=DualPortCache)
	Form Factor: 3.5 inch
	Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 7200
Capabilities:
	LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
	Queue depth: 32
	Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
	R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16	Current = 16
	Advanced power management level: disabled
	DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 
	     Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
	PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
	     Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
	Enabled	Supported:
	   *	SMART feature set
	    	Security Mode feature set
	   *	Power Management feature set
	   *	Write cache
	   *	Look-ahead
	   *	Host Protected Area feature set
	   *	WRITE_BUFFER command
	   *	READ_BUFFER command
	   *	NOP cmd
	   *	DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
	    	Advanced Power Management feature set
	    	Power-Up In Standby feature set
	   *	SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
	    	SET_MAX security extension
	   *	48-bit Address feature set
	   *	Device Configuration Overlay feature set
	   *	Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
	   *	FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
	   *	SMART error logging
	   *	SMART self-test
	    	Media Card Pass-Through
	   *	General Purpose Logging feature set
	   *	WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
	   *	64-bit World wide name
	   *	URG for READ_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT
	   *	URG for WRITE_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT
	   *	WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
	   *	{READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
	   *	Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
	    	unknown 119[7]
	   *	Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
	   *	Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
	   *	Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s)
	   *	Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
	   *	Host-initiated interface power management
	   *	Phy event counters
	   *	NCQ priority information
	    	Non-Zero buffer offsets in DMA Setup FIS
	    	DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
	    	Device-initiated interface power management
	    	In-order data delivery
	   *	Software settings preservation
	   *	SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
	   *	SCT Write Same (AC2)
	   *	SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
	   *	SCT Features Control (AC4)
	   *	SCT Data Tables (AC5)
Security: 
	Master password revision code = 65534
		supported
	not	enabled
	not	locked
	not	frozen
	not	expired: security count
	not	supported: enhanced erase
	112min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 5000039ff6d126b8
	NAA		: 5
	IEEE OUI	: 000039
	Unique ID	: ff6d126b8
Checksum: correct

Last edited by AndreLDM (2013-08-01 01:11:10)

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

Use smartmontools to test teh SMART.  Bad sounds coming from the drive itself sound like a partially sticking or failing drive head... do it asap.  Hopefully it is not failing, but if it is, you want to know now rather than later.

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,608

Website

Re: [Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

In my experience, noisy/clicking drives are usually about to fail and should be replaced. I recommend running the "long" S.M.A.R.T. test via "smartctl -t long" to get an accurate reading.

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cfr

Member

From: Cymru

Registered: 2011-11-27

Posts: 7,178

Re: [Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

Welcome to Arch I have to second WonderWoofy's suggestion except that you should back up any data you care about before you do anything else, including smart tests. This is not because they are dangerous but if the drive is failing, you don't know how long you have and you don't want to waste that time testing it if you could be using it to save data. However, when you've done that, install smartmontools and use them. Don't just look at the final overall health status, though, look through smartctl -a /dev/sdX and run any tests which are supported. Then run that command again to view the results of those tests.

I must say it seems very unlucky if this has happened with three drives and it is hardware failure. What happened to the first two drives? Did you return them?

If those drives are now being used without problems for some other purpose, that would likely rule out hardware failure although I would still run the smart tests on the current drive to be certain.

Last edited by cfr (2013-07-26 00:37:10)

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AndreLDM

Member

From: Brazil

Registered: 2013-07-25

Posts: 8

Re: [Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

Thanks guys for the tips.
I tried to boot back on Arch, the drive started click wildly, so I gave up and rebooted into windows.
Using Everest's SMART tool the following was detected:

ID    Attribute Description  Threshold  Value  Worst   Data         Status
07    Seek Error Rate        67         67     67      4784158      Pre-Failure: Imminent loss of data is being predicted

The others drives aren't new, I've used them for some time on others machines and the 250GB one I have used for almost one year with Xubuntu installed.
Right now I'm not using them. I'll take them, check the SMART info, if they are ok, then I'm gonna install Ubuntu and use for while.
Tomorrow I'll tell you how did it go.

AndreLDM

Member

From: Brazil

Registered: 2013-07-25

Posts: 8

Re: [Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

After making lots of trials here with sata cables and power supply connectors, I discovered that the problem is one, the only, power connector that was connected to arch's hdd, it fails intermittently.
As of now, both 500GB disks are ok (even smartctl reports my toshiba drive as healthy). Sadly the 250GB is no more
Thanks for the attention and sorry for the inconvenience.

satanselbow

Member

Registered: 2011-06-15

Posts: 538

Re: [Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

@Andre:

Put the "dead" harddrive in a zip lock bag and then put it in the freezer for a couple of days - many hdd can get "stiction" which generates the clicking but a deep freeze can "cure" the problem. Wouldn't necessarily use it for anything mission critical afterwards - but can make for a nice bit of extra static storage

AndreLDM

Member

From: Brazil

Registered: 2013-07-25

Posts: 8

Re: [Solved] HDD Clicking and slowish

I'll give it a try, drive is dead anyway... Thanks!