[ale] I/O Disk errors

[Matty]

On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 12:25 PM, Preston
Boyington<preston.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> I just set up a fresh Debian server and believe that either my
> controller or the hard drive might be bad.
>
> I have two USB external drives connected and was
> consolidating/organizing my files when I first got hit with the I/O disk
> error while it was copying the files over.  When this happens NOTHING
> works (SSH, FTP, SAMBA, NFS).  I can't even use ctrl-alt-del to restart
> the thing.
>
> I vaguely remember seeing some kind of 'sync error'(?), but will run
> smarttools when I get back to the apartment and check the error logs.
>
> I installed Debian 5.02 (latest Stable) via a netinstall and the drive
> is formatted XFS.
>
> Anyone have an idea of what else it might be or suggestions on how to
> nail down the problem?

I typically run an extended SMART self-test and badblocks (not really
applicable since you are using XFS) when I encounter there issues.
These may be of some value to you:

http://prefetch.net/articles/diskdrives.smart.html

http://prefetch.net/blog/index.php/2006/08/27/checking-devices-for-bad-sectors/

Hope this helps,
- Ryan
--
http://prefetch.net