HD Errors

[Gayn Winters]

> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of 
> Robert McIntosh
> Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 7:53 AM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: HD Errors
> 
> 
> OK,
> 
> It's a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB ATA/133 hard drive 
> (EIDE).  It's 
> in a Dell Dimension P133v.  I also have a Dell Optiplex GX1 
> which only 
> supports a hard drive of 80 GB max.  This machine is at least 
> as old as 
> the optiplex, so it's likely to support at most 80 GB as 
> well, not 120 GB.
> 
> I ran Maxtor's HD Diagnostic tools on the drive and the test, 
> with the 
> exception of the long, full test, came back as "passed".  So, I have 
> reasonable confidence that the problem isn't the drive.
> 
> FreeBSD says during drive formatting that there may be weird 
> errors for 
> drives misreporting size.  Are the errors that I'm seeing likely 
> reflective of this?  What should my concern level be?
> 
> Thanks again,
> Robert
> 
> Tamouh H. wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I'm seeing the following messages in /var/log/messages and am 
> >> concerned about the integrity of the hard drive:
> >>
> >>> ad0: WRITE command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> cd9660: RockRidge Extension
> >>> ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> cd9660: RockRidge Extension
> >>> ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> cd9660: RockRidge Extension
> >>> ad0: WRITE command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> ata0: resetting devices .. done
> >>> ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >>> ata0: resetting devices .. done
> >>> swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: #ad/0x20001, 
> >> blkno: 5488, 
> >>> size: 4096
> >>> ad0: WRITE command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >> Are the ad0 messages showing the hard drive is having 
> >> hardware problems?
> >>
> >> Many thanks,
> >> Robert
> > 
> > Very likely, backup your important date, grab a HD 
> manufacturer disk and test out the drive then post results 
> here with the hard drive manufacture name/model.
> > 
> > Tamouh
> > 
Hello Robert,

Please don't top post.  It is difficult for someone joining the
conversation to understand what is going on and to help.

Have you taken Tamouh's advice and backed up your data?  If not, do it
now!

Regarding size:  What size differences do you see?  Maxtor's
diagnostics, BIOS, dmesg, fdisk, etc?  I doubt this is your problem.

Cables:  Be sure you've got good and proper cables, that the drive's
jumper is set appropriately to master or slave (and not to Auto), that
both ends are tight as is the power cable.

Heat:  Does the drive feel extraordinarily hot?  If so, replace it now!

Does FreeBSD eventually boot and run?  I.e., does it get past resettings
of the hard drive ad0?  If so, then you should definitely run the more
exhaustive diagnostics.  (Do this AFTER you are sure of your cabling and
AFTER your backup.)  Given your problem, I wouldn't put too much faith
in the quick diagnostics.  

You could try "refreshing" your drive:  
dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/ad0 bs=1m

I notice the whole bus ata0 reset a couple times.  Do you have another
drive that you can put into that machine and see if you get the same
errors?  If so, you may just need to give up on that board.  You could
see if Dell has diagnostics for your P133v, and if they do, run them.

Most likely the errors you see in dmesg are occuring on most reads and
writes, and hence your performance is going to be bad.  It will also get
worse whether it is the bus or the drive.  If you can't find and fix
your problem, make sure your backups are frequent...

Do you have a small slice on your 120G drive that you could devote to
Red Hat (or Fedora)?  If so, and if it gives similar error messages,
then Dell support would help you.

Good luck,

-gayn