Need some help with checking the status (and fix) of a HDD

1st Official Post

    I use my old HTPC running OpenELEC 6.0.3 (I know, it's old, and it's not "right") as my file server. My new HTPC is a NUC running LibreELEC 8.1.2.

    During the upgrade to LibreELEC 8.1.2 I've found out that something is not right with one of my disk. When I think of it, it's been like this a couple of month, but was first now I tried to watch a video stored on that disk. It's buffering, and just slow.

    A couple of month ago, I tried to move some large files to that disk from another disk, and it didn't work as it should. Now I guess I know why.

    Can someone please help me run some kind of command, that check the disk for error, and might be able to fix these errors?

    Thanks.

    I run

    smartctl -a /dev/sdd1 | pastebinit

    and got this. VeJU

    /Söder

    • Official Post

    Normally a HDD/SSD will have a reserve area to copy contents to in case of problems. If that area becomes full, the real problems begin. If the SMART data is correct, this drive has been working for more than 4 years. Some drives will work fine beyond those 4 years, others can encounter problems. Your mileage will vary.

    Copy the contents to other drives as much as possible, and get some replacement. Once a drive is starting to crash, there is no way back. The two tests in the smart.log of the HDD are showing read errors. You can try running a full SMART test, but the outcome is probably also not good. I usually use the disk tool in a PartMagic Live session to check drives for errors.

    Quote from Klojum

    Normally a HDD/SSD will have a reserve area to copy contents to in case of problems. If that area becomes full, the real problems begin. If the SMART data is correct, this drive has been working for more than 4 years. Some drives will work fine beyond those 4 years, others can encounter problems. Your mileage will vary.

    Copy the contents to other drives as much as possible, and get some replacement. Once a drive is starting to crash, there is no way back. The two tests in the smart.log of the HDD are showing read errors. You can try running a full SMART test, but the outcome is probably also not good. I usually use the disk tool in a PartMagic Live session to check drives for errors.

    Thanks for the reply. Yeah, the disk is 5 years old I think. It's a WD Red 3TB, so, it's not a cheap disk. I also got 3 other 1TB Samsung F1 disks that are 9 years old. =(

    Will look in to a replacement. Maybe buy a NAS instead. Any recomendation? Maybe for 2 disks, be able to run Transmissions with "a lot" of connections, and maybe be able to run a mysql-db.

    About saving the data, that's why I thought about running some kind of command that could try to correct some errors, since now when I try to copy data to other disk, it's slow and I get input/output errors I think it was...

    /Söder

    • Official Post

    A NAS itself will not prevent disks from failing, but a RAID setup with 3+ drives can work around problems a little longer compaired to single disk solutions. A ready-to-go NAS has its pluses and minuses. They all can do MySQL databases these days. It is relatively more expensive, and the firmware may offer an overload of functionality, but setting it up is pretty straight forward. Using a PC with a couple of disks in RAID can be cheaper, but setting it up properly requires technical knowledge. Also, a NAS is not a backup solution.

    Quote from soder

    About saving the data, that's why I thought about running some kind of command that could try to correct some errors

    If the errors are genuine disk errors, there is no magic command to reverse those errors.

    Quote from Klojum

    A NAS itself will not prevent disks from failing, but a RAID setup with 3+ drives can work around problems a little longer compaired to single disk solutions. A ready-to-go NAS has its pluses and minuses. They all can do MySQL databases these days. It is relatively more expensive, and the firmware may offer an overload of functionality, but setting it up is pretty straight forward. Using a PC with a couple of disks in RAID can be cheaper, but setting it up properly requires technical knowledge. Also, a NAS is not a backup solution.

    If the errors are genuine disk errors, there is no magic command to reverse those errors.

    I do not get errors, The files seems ok. It's just very slow copying them to another disk.

    /Söder

    • Official Post

    I think @Klojum is correct, once a disk starts to not perform correctly, it's time to look for a replacement. It could be anything, controller error, wear and tear, or just corruption.

    You don't say what the disk is formatted as - NTFS, EXT3/4 etc or how much free space you have as this might be a cause of the issue (NTFS defrag?).

    The best way to be sure is to backup the whole disk (In your case this may not be easy with 3TB) and then reformat your disk and copy back the data. This will usually show up any errors. If you hear unusual noises from the drive (clicking or grinding), it's time to bin it.

    I think WD do some utilities for checking disks but they are only available for Win and Mac.

    You could also try FTP'ing files to and from the drive and see if any errors are reported and check the I/O rates.

    Quote from Iridium

    I think @Klojum is correct, once a disk starts to not perform correctly, it's time to look for a replacement. It could be anything, controller error, wear and tear, or just corruption.

    You don't say what the disk is formatted as - NTFS, EXT3/4 etc or how much free space you have as this might be a cause of the issue (NTFS defrag?).

    The best way to be sure is to backup the whole disk (In your case this may not be easy with 3TB) and then reformat your disk and copy back the data. This will usually show up any errors. If you hear unusual noises from the drive (clicking or grinding), it's time to bin it.

    I think WD do some utilities for checking disks but they are only available for Win and Mac.

    You could also try FTP'ing files to and from the drive and see if any errors are reported and check the I/O rates.

    I will look into something new. QNAP TS-251+ with a WD Red 8TB maybe.

    But I want to try to save the data first, and right now it's to slow to transfer it somewhere to another disk. At least in that computer it is now..

    The disk is formated in ext4. It's a 3TB disk and after I removed some tvshows, there's 1TB movies left.

    /dev/sdd1 2.7T 968.9G 1.6T 37% /var/media/hdd4

    /Söder

    • Official Post

    If it's only a data transfer speed that's the problem, and there are no errors, or spurious sounds, then it doesn't sound like the disk is failing.

    If you can explain fully and exactly the full details of the two machines, especially LAN cards and the method of transfer (SMB, NFS, UPnP, Pvr etc). Also give details of time taken to copy a 1G file from A -> B and B -> A.

    If possible can you attach the 3TB HDD to your NUC and see if a SATA/IDE read is just as bad.

    It could just be a network card issue and not the disk

    In a try to see if I could fix something with the HDD to easier transfer files to a new HDD, I switched some sata cables in the computer.

    First, I just put the problem disk in a new sata port on the motherboard. During boot the disk wasn't mounted in /media even though it's recognised in BIOS.

    I then switched cabled on the problem disk with a another disk, and I still can't find the disk in /media now.

    What is it I have to do, to get the disk to mount in the system? (The system is an old OpenELEC 6.0.3, but I guess it's the same...).

    Thanks..

    /Söder