[plug] Hard disk Testing

[Paul Arch]

<snip>
> > Just wondering if anyone knows of a hard disk testing program similar to
> > Memtest x86 for memory?
<snip>
> Try using 'smartctl'
> Try 'badblocks' to do a surface scan. BACK UP FIRST - just in case.
> Try using 'bonnie++' to thrash the disk mechanism.
> Craig Ringer

I forgot to reply to a post Craig did a few days ago ( [plug] Machine
crashing )
I was having a problem with a machine which was giving a kernel oops on
reading a directory structure.
 eg.  du -s /Backups/pc1/

 The filesystem was reiserfs, and I was thinking maybe the HDD was on its
way out.  I tried Craigs suggestion of smartctl, but this did not show up
any problems with the HDD. Also, badblocks didnt return anything that
indicated a badblock.

 In the end, I ran memtest86 and found I had dodgy ram in the machine (256mb
ddr simm) :(  After taking this out though, I still couldnt read the
directory structure without getting the kernel oops.
So I concluded :
*.  Dodgy ram caused reiserfs to write something to HDD which reiserfs
couldnt handle reading back (bug maybe?)
*.  use smartctrl to monitor HDDs :)
In the end, I put the directory that was causing problems aside (didnt need
the data ! ) and everything looks sweet.  Shall keep an eye on the system,
but shall also try bonnie++ to give the system a workout.

cheers