On Wed, 3 Mar 2010 11:02:41 +1100 L <yuanlux@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi > > The hard disk on a laptop shows failing error "Disk had many bad > sectors' it suggests 'backup data and replace disk. Of course, this > test information was generated by Palimpsest Disk Utility on F12. > However, when I used self-test utility from BIOS (HP 6710), it passed > all tests. > > > Which result is reliable, one from Palimpsest Dish Utility or BIOS > self-test utiltity? Generally speaking the BIOS code asks the drive for its opinion and displays that. It's usually as good a guide as you get for overall state. If the drive vendors firmware with low level detailed access to the innards can't tell then probably neither can anything else. Remembering - Many disk failures don't show up via SMART at all - You only see the BIOS one at boot - You should have a backup anyway because you might need it for other reasons (eg accidents as root) Bad sectors are not neccessarily a problem (the drive will have replaced them with spare ones when written). Unreadable sectors indicates a problem somewhere - you have a sector 'live' on disk which cannot be re-read. It's the trend that is likely to be more important. If it had 12 bad sectors a year ago and it has 12 today why worry. If it had 1 last week, 5 yesterday and 12 today then its a bit different. Alan -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
