Hard drive (?) problem...

Pierre-Alexandre · 2009-03-17 00:04:57

Hello everyone,

I have a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop with the latest Arch Linux configured and running well.

I noticed a strange problem which seems to happen sporadically. Sometimes, I'll happen quite a few times in a row and in another time it'll appear every 5 minutes.

I hear a strange noise which _seems_ to be coming from my hard drive. It clicks, then there's a spinning sound, then re-clicks again. Meanwhile Xorg will get a cpu useage spike to arround 10-20% each core (assuming the computer was at idle before arround 1-2%)

I tried various commands using hdparm, mostly hdparm -b 255, -S 0 and -A 0. No luck there.

Anyone have an idea?

Edit: Actually, there seems to be Python instance getting more cpu and mem usage when it happens (process name: Python).

I'm even more confused.

Last edited by Pierre-Alexandre (2009-03-17 00:11:25)

dschrute · 2009-03-17 02:16:23

Sounds like it could be a drive read/write issue. Is anything showing up in any log files ?

I'd run the diag utility from whatever manufacturer made your drive - dlgdiag for Western Digital for example. I think many recent ones are available on Ultimate Boot CD - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ or better, directly from the manufacturers' downloads.

I've seen more than one HD start with symptoms like that, and get worse...

As for the python thing, it sounds like something that uses python is hitting an area of disk that is causing the problems.

skottish · 2009-03-17 02:24:55

It would also be a very good time to make sure that everything important is backed up if you don't do it regularly.

Pierre-Alexandre · 2009-03-17 14:09:49

It's very random... I just used my computer for 2 hours without it happening.

So it's probably the hd dieing. Argh!

Well, thanks!

Pierre-Alexandre · 2009-03-17 14:20:30

Here is the copypasta of the output of the smartctl -a command...

pierre-alexandre ~  $  sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Momentus 5400.3
Device Model:     ST9120822AS
Serial Number:    5LZ68X90
Firmware Version: 3.CDD
User Capacity:    120,034,123,776 bytes
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   7
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Wed Mar 18 10:17:13 2009 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82)    Offline data collection activity
                    was completed without error.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)    The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever 
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:          ( 426) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:              (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)    Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)    Error logging supported.
                    No General Purpose Logging support.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:      (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:      ( 111) minutes.
SCT capabilities:            (0x0001)    SCT Status supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
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   118   092   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       171251326
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   099   099   085    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   099   099   020    Old_age   Always       -       2042
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   078   060   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       8716154724
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   095   095   000    Old_age   Always       -       4776
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   034    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   098   098   020    Old_age   Always       -       2060
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       2
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   064   049   045    Old_age   Always       -       36 (Lifetime Min/Max 26/39)
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1055
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   037   037   000    Old_age   Always       -       126409
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   036   051   000    Old_age   Always       -       36 (0 10 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   073   060   000    Old_age   Always       -       132126145
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
202 TA_Increase_Count       0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      4408         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         2         -
# 3  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%         1         -
# 4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-17 00:04:57

Hard drive (?) problem...

#2 2009-03-17 02:16:23

Re: Hard drive (?) problem...

#3 2009-03-17 02:24:55

Re: Hard drive (?) problem...

#4 2009-03-17 14:09:49

Re: Hard drive (?) problem...

#5 2009-03-17 14:20:30

Re: Hard drive (?) problem...

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