[plug] S.M.A.R.T update

[Denis Brown]

Hello,

A few days ago I posted a request for info regarding SMART drive error
erradication tools and have found that repartitioning for use with Debian
GNU/Linux did the trick.  No more errors at boot-up.  I have grabbed the
smart-ide deb and installed it so I should have a chance to catch errors
if the drive really *was* seriously ill.   Thanks for the "ontrack" lead
but it didn't seem to offer any more for the SMART problem than the IBM
diagnostics.  But worth a try :-)

This would probably be the same scenario for other distros
(repartition & initialise fixes such errors); nothing magical about Debian
in that regard, I expect.

I know that Debian comes in for some criticism at times due to its
non-bleeding-edge policy but I must say I was delighted with the ease
with which it happily climbed onto the laptop :-)  My first foray with
dual-boot, first with pcmcia.  The dual boot was easy thanks to
pre-reading.  The pcmica and the associated Xircom adapter I had thought
would require more research.  Nope, it was detected at first
boot-up.  Original Xircom was an old II-CE and the replacement is a
RealPort.  Drivers selected automagically (xirc2cs for the II-CE,
tulip-something-cs for the RealPort)   Only niggle is the RealPort
sometimes throws errors.  Must examine the logs when time permits, but
whatever they are, ultimately no data loss occurs.

Tempting to try other distros, given some free time.

Cheers and thanks,
Denis