Hard drive runs continually

[exploder]

I did not realize the drive was noisy, mine doesn't make any noise. Sounds like the drive might be failing. You might try running the drive manufacturers utility to see if the drive is getting ready to fail. Journaling is normal but the noise level you are describing is not. Backing up your data like you are doing is the smart thing to do. 

[Ditzian]

I did not realize the drive was noisy, mine doesn't make any noise. Sounds like the drive might be failing. You might try running the drive manufacturers utility to see if the drive is getting ready to fail. Journaling is normal but the noise level you are describing is not. Backing up your data like you are doing is the smart thing to do. 

It is a WD drive.  WD only had programs for Microsoft OS's.  I tried the Windows version using Wine, but it show no physical drives and so will not run.  I tried the DOS version and it simply does not run right from the start.  Do you know of a way to test the drive from Linux?

Jan

[Ditzian]

I just found GSmartControl. I am now trying it.

Jan

[T6]

the DOS program to diagnose the disc requires that you create a bootable iso, there is many apps capable of do that

if you find too much errors in the read write count this is a symptom of a hardware failure

[Ditzian]

I rean the GSmartControl long test.  I have the output, and my guess is that all is OK, but I am not sure how to read it.  If someone can read this, I will post it. 

Meanwhile, I think that I stumbled on what is happening.  I seem to remember that this is a WD Green drive, and there are discussions about the fact that this WD Green drives loads and unloads its heads repeatedly (high LCC count).  This may be what I am hearing.

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?p=49019#p49019

The above thread has a possible solution that involves running a script.  I may try that, after waiting for additional input from those who understand the issue better than I.

Jan

[Tuxfriend]

What does your drive do when typing this as root in a terminal:

hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

It should make your HDD drive run continually, without 'hiccups'.

[Ditzian]

What does your drive do when typing this as root in a terminal:

hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

It should make your HDD drive run continually, without 'hiccups'.

[root@localhost jan]# hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 setting Advanced Power Management level to 0xfe (254)
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
 APM_level      = not supported


Jan

[T6]

can you copy the output generated after the 2 minutes test done by gsmartcontrol?

there is a button to export if i remember correctly

[Ditzian]

can you copy the output generated after the 2 minutes test done by gsmartcontrol?

there is a button to export if i remember correctly

Here is the full test (3 hours) output:


smartctl version 5.38 [i586-mandriva-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0
Serial Number:    WD-WMATV0819693
Firmware Version: 05.00K05
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Tue May 17 15:46:34 2011 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84)   Offline data collection activity
               was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
               Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)   The previous self-test routine completed
               without error or no self-test has ever
               been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:        (18600) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:           (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
               Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
               Suspend Offline collection upon new
               command.
               Offline surface scan supported.
               Self-test supported.
               Conveyance Self-test supported.
               Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)   Saves SMART data before entering
               power-saving mode.
               Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)   Error logging supported.
               General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:     (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:     ( 214) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:     (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:           (0x303f)   SCT Status supported.
               SCT Feature Control supported.
               SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   224   220   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       8783
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       294
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   077   077   000    Old_age   Always       -       17294
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       177
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       70
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       294
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   102   095   000    Old_age   Always       -       48
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     17294         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     17291         -
# 3  Conveyance offline  Completed without error       00%       430         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.


If you really want the two-minute quick test output, I will have to rerun it.

Jan

[T6]

"Here is the full test (3 hours) output:"

i asked for the 2 minutes specifically.

all is fine from that report

is that new hard disk? i see a small time count but not sure if i'm reading minutes or hours, if those are minutes your hard disk has less than 1 month of light usage? 12 hours more or less

my hard disk reports 850+ days of use, last error i had was 500+ days ago lol

[Ditzian]

"Here is the full test (3 hours) output:"

i asked for the 2 minutes specifically.

all is fine from that report

is that new hard disk? i see a small time count but not sure if i'm reading minutes or hours, if those are minutes your hard disk has less than 1 month of light usage? 12 hours more or less

my hard disk reports 850+ days of use, last error i had was 500+ days ago lol

I reran the two-minute test and here is the output.  I am not sure if this is diffrerent from what I already posted, but it was what appeared after the test when I pressed the View Output button:


smartctl version 5.38 [i586-mandriva-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0
Serial Number:    WD-WMATV0819693
Firmware Version: 05.00K05
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Tue May 17 18:28:09 2011 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x85)   Offline data collection activity
               was aborted by an interrupting command from host.
               Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)   The previous self-test routine completed
               without error or no self-test has ever
               been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:        (18600) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:           (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
               Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
               Suspend Offline collection upon new
               command.
               Offline surface scan supported.
               Self-test supported.
               Conveyance Self-test supported.
               Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)   Saves SMART data before entering
               power-saving mode.
               Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)   Error logging supported.
               General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:     (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:     ( 214) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:     (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:           (0x303f)   SCT Status supported.
               SCT Feature Control supported.
               SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   224   220   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       8783
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       294
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   077   077   000    Old_age   Always       -       17297
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       177
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       70
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       294
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   104   095   000    Old_age   Always       -       46
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     17297         -
# 2  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     17294         -
# 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     17291         -
# 4  Conveyance offline  Completed without error       00%       430         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.


I think that the drive is about a year old, but I am not sure.  I left the computer running most of the time, day and night, until yesterday, when I began to shut it down after two hours because of the noise.

Jan

[T6]

then it is 17000 minutes>283 days, almost a year of constant usage, good

the only value i see that could represent a problem is the temperature, your hard disk is running at 46°c

that is hot but not much but ideally should be colder, 38 to 40

mine is 45 but this is a old unit and my psu is rather small, when the psu is not powerful hard disk and system chipset works hotter

[Ditzian]

"Here is the full test (3 hours) output:"

i asked for the 2 minutes specifically.

all is fine from that report

is that new hard disk? i see a small time count but not sure if i'm reading minutes or hours, if those are minutes your hard disk has less than 1 month of light usage? 12 hours more or less

my hard disk reports 850+ days of use, last error i had was 500+ days ago lol

It is not particularly new, I think it is a year old.  I normally leave the system on all the time, only now that the noise is present, I have set it to go off after two hours and I cold boot.

[I_can_see_the_light]

What does your drive do when typing this as root in a terminal:

hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

It should make your HDD drive run continually, without 'hiccups'.

[root@localhost jan]# hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 setting Advanced Power Management level to 0xfe (254)
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
 APM_level      = not supported


Jan

I've had a drive that didn't support manually setting APM, tough luck is the only thing I can say.

In another post I saw that your Load cycle count was low (between 200-300) and that means that your problem probably isn't with "head parkings" but possibly the drive spinning down and then up again? You could try changing the "spin down" time by issuing:

hdparm -S 300 /dev/sda

The spin-down time is now set to 300s (5mins).

Hope that helps.

[Ditzian]

I tried the reset you recommended.  I am not sure of the result.  There seems to be a reduction of the disk spinning, but I still hear it, far more frequently than every 15 minutes.  I am not sure if I am just getting used to it or if it is decreasing.  I do note that the sound is not correlated with the disk light.  Sometimes the light is on but not the sound, and sometimes I hear the disk start and stop without the light.


Jan