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I hear some squeaking noises sometimes when I use my computer so I ran smartctl. This is the results:

    === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      5953         37922655
# 2  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      5953         37922655
# 3  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      5953         37922655
# 4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       429         -
# 5  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%       429         -
# 6  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       429         -
# 7  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       429         -

Is this a bad sign of it failing?

EDIT

sudo smartctl -d ata -H /dev/sda is ran which ouputs:

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Please note the following marginal Attributes:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   055   044   045    Old_age   Always   In_the_past 45 (0 7 56 19)
4
  • What software is that? The failures look bad but it's hard to tell if you don't know what it's supposed to be. Have you tried other testing software? What does the S.M.A.R.T information say? See also: Similar HDD question Jan 22, 2011 at 14:05
  • 1
    That is SmartCTL. To my knowledge I don't know any other software in Linux that does that. Any search for "hard drive test utility" brings me to SmartCTL. This is Linux BTW. Jan 22, 2011 at 14:09
  • Airflow_Temperature_Cel can be ignored. Running S.M.A.R.T. tests strains the drive which often pushes it over a threshold temperature. There are temp. limiters that will shut it down before any damage is possible, anyway.
    – tyblu
    Jan 22, 2011 at 16:42
  • So is everything else fine then? I haven't noticed any system slowdown. Jan 22, 2011 at 21:08

2 Answers 2

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I had a similar situation a few days ago with a 500GB SeaGate drive. The short SmartCTL test would not complete.

I downloaded a bootable drive-testing ISO from the manufacturer's website (SeaTools) and ran that. It also provides short and long tests, but prompted to repair at the end of the long test. IIRC, Western Digital and Hitachi also provide bootable environments to test their drives. You'll need to dig around their websites or use a search engine to find them.

PS: any squeaking noises from a drive are obviously not good. Check that the noise is coming from the drive and not one of the fans for example. Also ensure that the drive is mounted securely.

PPS: I suggest BACKING UP everything of value BEFORE running any other tests on the drive, such as the bootable testing environments I mentioned above.

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That doesn't look good. Try running the short and long smartctl drive tests, but before you do that copy off any important data ASAP.

If the drive tests indicate problems, try running badblocks

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  • I'll just edit my post above and I'll get back to you the long tests. It says around an hour and a half to finish. Jan 22, 2011 at 14:21

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