Re: failing disk, or not?

[Bill Hacker <wbh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Matthew Dillon wrote:
> :I'm seeing some disk errors in dfly that I cannot reproduce with other
> :OS checking the partition:
> :
> :ad4: UDMA ICRC error writing fsbn 249842603 of 110387664-110387679 (ad4 bn 249842603; cn 15551 tn 250 sn 38) retrying
> :ad4: UDMA ICRC error writing fsbn 249842603 of 110387664-110387679 (ad4 bn 249842603; cn 15551 tn 250 sn 38) retrying
> :ad4: UDMA ICRC error writing fsbn 249842603 of 110387664-110387679 (ad4 bn 249842603; cn 15551 tn 250 sn 38) retrying
> :ad4: UDMA ICRC error writing fsbn 488278315 of 229605520-229605535 (ad4 bn 488278315; cn 30393 tn 234 sn 28) retrying
> :ad4: UDMA ICRC error writing fsbn 488278315 of 229605520-229605535 (ad4 bn 488278315; cn 30393 tn 234 sn 28) retrying
> :ad4: UDMA ICRC error writing fsbn 488278443 of 229605584-229605599 (ad4 bn 488278443; cn 30393 tn 236 sn 30) retrying
>
>     This doesn't sound like a disk failure to me.  It sounds like a driver
>     problem.
>
> :atapci1: <Generic PCI ATA controller> port 0xec00-0xec7f,0xeb00-0xeb0f,0xb70-0xb73,0x970-0x977,0xbf0-0xbf3,0x9f0-0x9f7 irq 11 at device 10.0 on pci0
> :ad4: DMA limited to UDMA33, non-ATA66 cable or device
> :ad4: 190782MB <ST3200822AS> [387621/16/63] at ata2-master BIOSDMA
>
>     That's not good.  It can't identify the controller.  It's amazing that
>     it works at all.
>
>     Could you run pciconf -l?
>
> :A bit of history, I did have a system lockup -- I could switch virtural
> :terminals but no keyboard input was accepted -- a week or two ago,
> :didn't file bug because I was half-hazard experimenting (in user space)
> :and couldn't explain well enough, at the time all I was doing, now I
> :don't even remember. A fsck was required, and with a 95Gb /usr, that
> :took quite a while. (welcome comments on why softupdates didn't help
> :here), also the /usr partition was near or over 100% capacity, but I
> :never got disk full errors, ie didn't *completely* run out of space.
> :
> :At this point can I be sure my disk is failing or could there be some
> :driver instability? The full dmesg is below.
> :
> :Don't see it in dmesg, but ad4 is a 200Gb Seagate drive, on a nvidia
> :sata controler.  Disk Product Number ST3200822AS, Part Number 9W2854-301
> :
> :Thanks,
> :// George
>
>     Update to the latest, just in case recent big fixes might have
>     something to do with the lockup you experienced. 
>
>     Softupdates does not prevent fsck from running.  We don't have a
>     solution at the moment.  FreeBSD has implemented a background
>     fsck but I just don't like that solution.
>    
> 					-Matt

JMNSHO, but a 'background' fsck is like boarding
a train that hasn't yet arrived.

. ... Leaves one standing on the tracks!

Not a good place to be .... ;-)

Bill