READ_DMA48 error interpretation

[Chuck Swiger]

On Jan 16, 2007, at 1:13 PM, Richard Lynch wrote:
> I know the messages below mean the hard drive or IDE cards are having
> problems.  But is this like RED ALERT or more like YELLOW or what?

If you have current backups, it's a yellow alert.  Otherwise...

> And what do I do about it?
>
> umount and fsck everything a lot?
> swap cards/drives around until it stops?
> Ignore it and pray?

Try installing the sysutils/smartmontools port and run a drive self- 
test.  That will give you a much better assessment of the state of  
the drive and whether it is likely to completely fail in the next 24  
hours...

-- 
-Chuck