HDD failure?

[corge]

My HDD seemingly works perfectly fine, I was able to install Slackware 12.0 to it, and post install I can read and write to the device.
However, when I attempt to perform a hdparm -t performance test on the device I get the following errors:

hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=16500, high=0, low=16500, sector=xxxx
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector xxxx

Where "xxxx" is an arbitrary number that changes with every peek at the kernel pool data.


Why does this only happen when I attempt the performance test?

[i92guboj]

That's usually very bad news, I would use smartctl, if possible revise the cables, or better, try it in another box. You could also use badblocks to test the whole disk if it doesn't support SMART. If there're only a few bad sectors and there's nothing critical broken you might be able to continue using it after a reformat (in such a case, you will need to check the man page for the correct mkfs.*, in particular, for mkfs.ext3 it's -c, or -cc).

This is assuming that badblocks reports something, of course.

[Grandebasta]

Backup your system and data, then reformat your HDD with gparted.
Then reinstall your operation system, and copy your file system and data back again.
See if the problem is gone...

[i92guboj]

Note that a regular reformat doesn't involve a badblocks check, and hence it will not solve anything related to defective sectors. As said, check the relevant fsck man page for that. There's no reason to use a graphical parted frontend to format a partition.

Backups are always a good idea, however you might have some problems due the the defective sectors, if that's really the problem.