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badblocks -svw output? [solved]


theYinYeti
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Hello,

 

I bought a 1000GB Samsung F1 S-ATA2 hard disk. As suggested a couple of times on this forum lately, I launched

badblocks -svw /dev/sda

to check it was OK.

I had previously no knowledge of this command, and I had no idea of the time it would require to complete. I launched it in the evening, and it said it was writing "0xaa" all over. As it was quite slow, I left it running overnight.

At some point, it changed from writing to reading "0xaa". Some time later, it switched from reading to another pass at writing, but this time "0x55".

 

But I had to leave for work, so I reluctantly interrupted this process at about 25% of this second writing session, and switched the PC off. The program, apart from a constant progress indication, gave no information, either of success or of failure.

 

Now I wonder: was it all pointless? What can I deduce from a completed first pass ("0xaa")? What failure might have slipped unseen given the remaining 3 passes ("0x55", "0xff", "0x00") were not run?

 

Should I run it again until completion in the week-end?

 

Yves.

Edited by theYinYeti
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Now I wonder: was it all pointless? What can I deduce from a completed first pass ("0xaa")? What failure might have slipped unseen given the remaining 3 passes ("0x55", "0xff", "0x00") were not run?

 

Should I run it again until completion in the week-end?

 

Yves.

 

It will do a complete 'write/read back' test of your entire disk byte by byte with 4 different patterns ((0xaa, 0x55, 0xff, 0x00, so basically 4 write cycles followed by 4 read and verify cycles) that are chosen to highlight any defects, so yes it can take a very long time (depending on the speed of the ATA/SATA interface and the speed and the size of the disk)

 

If you type "man badblocks" on a terminal or console window, you get more information about it's options and what it does.

 

As long as you get only the normal progress counter no errors are dedected.

If it starts displaying sector numbers one per line, then those are defective sectors, like this:

 

254678

256789

256790

256791

345678

 

If the first pattern pass was complete without errors you can be reasonably safe the disk is ok, but if you can afford the time I would let it run the full test, I have had once a (second-hand) disk that started showing errors only with the 3rd pattern.

 

Now was it all pointless? It depends, if you value the data you will put on the disk I thinks it's very much worth it to invest even 24-36 hours (can be much less depending on size of disk and speed) for peace of mind that the disk is flawless, you only have to do it once at the beginning of the life of the disk anyway.

Edited by tux99
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Thank you Tux99,

 

Although I do value the data I'll put on this disk, considering it is a new drive (not second-hand) and it should be reasonably safe given the test already passed, I'll leave it at that, and just use it as it is, because I'll also setup a backup of the important data on another disk, so I probably won't be unlucky enough to have two failing drives at the same time.

 

Yves.

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