Quoting Frank Duignan (frank.duignan at gmail.com):
> I've got an ide disk that is showing a "short read" error on a sector. I
> don't simply want to format it and perhaps hide an underlying problem. I
> really would like to know whether this is an actual error or simply an after
> effect of a bad shutdown. Any suggestions?
Going by experience, I'd say 'short read' sounds a little ominous -- and
the first thing you should do is update your backups -- but if you want
to give the disk a chance, you might consider taking the machine
offline, copying the filesystems elsewhere for safekeeping, and running
'badblocks -wv' on the device, (e.g., 'badblocks -wv /dev/hdb').
If you have a little more time, try the manufacturer HD utilities. Some
of the manufacturers include pseudo-low-level formatting routines, that
can in some cases do wonders for an aging ATA disk.
(see 'Hard Drive Utilities' on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Hardware)
--
Cheers,
Rick Moen Tua mater tam antiquior ut linguam Latine loquatur.
rick at linuxmafia.com
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