Disk errors

[Mike Jeays]

On Fri, 2005-09-30 at 16:48, Gerard Seibert wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:31:58 -0400, Mike Jeays <Mike.Jeays at rogers.com>
> Subject: Disk errors
> Wrote these words of wisdom:
> 
> > I am getting one or two of these a day on a Western Digital 80GB disk
> > How concerned should I be?  The machine seems reliable otherwise.
> > 
> > ad0: WARNING - READ_DMA UDMA ICRC error (retrying request) LBA=61092255
> > ad0: WARNING - READ_DMA UDMA ICRC error (retrying request) LBA=61314367
> > ad0: WARNING - READ_DMA UDMA ICRC error (retrying request) LBA=7139615
> 
> ***** REPLY SEPARATOR *****
> On 9/30/2005 4:43:22 PM, Gerard Seibert Replied:
> 
> I am not sure what free disk diagnostic programs are available, but I
> have used Steve Gibson's 'SpinRite' < http://grc.com > with great
> success in the past. If there is something wrong with the disk or
> controller, it will find it. Just run it at the highest level, level 5
> I believe.
> 

Thanks for the suggestion.  I didn't fancy spending $89 US on software
to test a single 80GB disk, because I can buy a new one for about the
same price.

I googled for free tools, and found DFT by Hitachi.  I downloaded the
bootable CD version, and tested my disk with it.  DFT didn't report any
errors, and so I will carry on using the disk, and make sure I have good
backups.  The tool was easy to download and use, but I don't have any
evidence about how good it is at finding errors - so far.

DFT can be found at:
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm