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#1 2010-10-14 14:17:20

scire
Member
Registered: 2009-11-16
Posts: 16

LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

I recently set up a new workstation, with a Western Digital 1TB SATA3 Caviar Black (WD1002FAEX) hard drive as my boot drive.

System specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 760
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3
RAM: Mushkin Silverline 2x2GB DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz 7-10-10-24
HDs: Western Digital 1TB Sata3 Caviar Black(boot) Western Digital 1TB Sata2 Caviar Green(media)
PSU: Seasonic S12 ii 620W
Kernel 2.6.35-ARCH, GRUB bootloader.

Note that my motherboard doesn't support SATA3, but a SATA3 drive should work in a SATA2 port.
I formatted my Caviar Black HD to use LVM, with:

/boot       ext2
LVM
   |- /tmp    reiserfs
   |- /var      reiserfs
   |- /home  ext4
   |- /          ext4
   |- swap

After trying to access my secondary drive (a 1TB WD Caviar Green), I got a ReiserFS error which locked up my computer and bricked my HD. It lasted a total of... about 2 days.
I took it in, got it replaced as DOA. I figured all of my problems were due to a single bad piece of hardware. Then this takes me to my replacement drive.
I formatted the replacement Caviar Black to use LVM as well, with:

/boot      ext2
swap
LVM
   |- /tmp    reiserfs
   |- /var      reiserfs
   |- /home  ext4
   |- /          ext4

This lasted about 4 days, and then died on me again, though this time it was giving me ext4 errors in addition to the ReiserFS errors.
It would appear that my replacement drive has now also been bricked. Is it possible that this is caused by the file system? Is it a hardware compatibility issue? Or is it just me having terrible luck?

Last edited by scire (2010-10-14 14:18:03)

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#2 2010-10-14 15:39:08

mir
Member
Registered: 2010-08-25
Posts: 59

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

Even a bug in a file system cannot harm a hard drive in this way.

Have you checked your RAM?

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#3 2010-10-14 16:01:02

scire
Member
Registered: 2009-11-16
Posts: 16

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

mir wrote:

Even a bug in a file system cannot harm a hard drive in this way.

Have you checked your RAM?

So that confirms what I thought. I've checked my ram using the ramcheck in the menu when booting the Arch install CD, and I didn't have any errors. Should I be checking it with something else?

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#4 2010-10-14 16:34:41

mir
Member
Registered: 2010-08-25
Posts: 59

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

I am by no way an expert on hardware ... I've once experienced similar problems that were caused by a faulty RAM chip, that's why I came up with this first.

There's a lot of stuff that can be wrong with a computer, starting with the power supply, disk cables, SATA interface, mainboard, disk cage, could be a heat problem ... if you're very "lucky", you've got an incompatibility of hard drive and SATA interface, or there's a bug in the disk driver itself. If you really need to debug this, swap each of these components with an alternative  ... it's very, very tedious.

Just for information, I've used and am still using ReiserFS (reiser3) on top of LVM and never had a problem with it. Usually there's not enough load in everyday use that this could be any kind of real test, though.

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#5 2010-10-14 16:47:32

scire
Member
Registered: 2009-11-16
Posts: 16

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

Thanks for the input, mir!

mir wrote:

There's a lot of stuff that can be wrong with a computer, starting with the power supply, disk cables, SATA interface, mainboard, disk cage, could be a heat problem ... if you're very "lucky", you've got an incompatibility of hard drive and SATA interface, or there's a bug in the disk driver itself. If you really need to debug this, swap each of these components with an alternative  ... it's very, very tedious.

This was suggested to me by a workmate; Taking everything out, and trying just the HD, and things like that. My question was: How do I know when I've found my problem? Given that my replacement drive is now bricked, if I get a third one, there is no way to troubleshoot and know when I've found my problem. The first drive last me two solid days, and the replacement last me 4 or so; what's to say that the next one wouldn't crap out after 8 days? If it was a hardware incompatibility, would the problem not have shown up immediately for both drives?
I will run another memory test when I get the chance just to see if that may be the problem.

Given that this has happened to two of my drives, I would say that the problem is likely something to do with my system, I'm just not sure how I can find out where it's stemming from without wasting weeks-worth of time and lots of trips to the store (don't even mention the money).

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#6 2010-10-14 17:11:32

mir
Member
Registered: 2010-08-25
Posts: 59

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

Why do you think your hard drive is bricked? Have you tried to reformat and using it with a different box?

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#7 2010-10-14 17:18:37

scire
Member
Registered: 2009-11-16
Posts: 16

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

It no longer spins, and isn't being detected by my machine. I put it into an external HD enclosure, and it isn't detected by my laptop either.

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#8 2010-10-15 06:33:16

mir
Member
Registered: 2010-08-25
Posts: 59

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

That's just weird. I've no idea how that could happen, sorry.

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#9 2010-10-21 18:16:41

scire
Member
Registered: 2009-11-16
Posts: 16

Re: LVM + ReiserFS = Bricked HD?

Well thank you very much for the help, Mir! I got that HD replaced, and it's now been going strong for 4 days. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that it was just a bad batch of HDs! big_smile

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