[ale] Did WD15EARX consume my weekend?

PairOfTwins PairOfTwins at mindspring.com
Tue May 15 11:08:50 EDT 2012


Jim:

Actually, memtest failed!  Much to my surprise, the screen turned 
seriously red.  I swapped RAM out and memtest was fine.

I've just finished repartitioning, reinstalling, and then copying nearly 
1 TB of data.  The 2 target partitions both passed e2fsck, and a compare 
of 2 movies passed also.  I'm happy now.

The value of a second opinion!  I was focused on the NEW hardware, where 
the problem WASN'T.

Tom

BTW - Win7 couldn't even see the hard drive due to a missing driver.
===============================================


On 05/15/2012 07:34 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> crud. bad drive is highly likely.
>
> win7 install failure will convince them as will the tool suggested by 
> James Sumners. If the purchase was days ago, I would return it to the 
> point of purchase and buy a replacement from a different store to 
> avoid same batch issues. Most drive makers will replace warranty 
> drives with a refurbished drive - i.e., not a brand new drive.
>
> Hmm. The last check I would do would be a connection check. I would 
> replace the drive data cable (and use a different sata socket on the 
> motherboard) and then loosen and retighten the screws that mount the 
> board to the drive. Loosen all screws, give the board a wiggle and 
> maybe a canned air blast underneath, then tighten and retest. If this 
> is a newly built drive, the Thailand factories may be still shaking 
> out the bugs from the flooding.
>
> Also interesting would be to see if the cmp and diff tests return the 
> same failure location after reboot (i.e., a cool down and then spin 
> up). If they move, the data is correct on the drive but the read is 
> failing. If they don't, it's inconclusive as to what failed, read vs. 
> write.
>
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 7:25 PM, PairOfTwins 
> <PairOfTwins at mindspring.com <mailto:PairOfTwins at mindspring.com>> wrote:
>
>     Jim:
>
>     Yup, it fails to copy large files accurately, though it takes a few
>     seconds to conclude that the original and the copy differ, using
>     cmp and
>     diff.
>
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian# ls -lh
>     total 2.2G
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  28K Aug 28  2010 Kubuntu\ 10.04.1\ Alternate\
>     amd64.torrent
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  28K Aug 28  2010 Kubuntu\ 10.04.1\ Desktop\
>     i386.torrent
>     -rw-r--r-- 1  999  999  38M Aug 28  2010
>     debian-505-amd64-businesscard.iso
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6.1K Aug 28  2010
>     debian-505-amd64-businesscard.iso.torrent
>     -rw-r--r-- 1  999  999 132M Aug 28  2010 debian-505-amd64-netinst.iso
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11K Aug 28  2010
>     debian-505-amd64-netinst.iso.torrent
>     -rw-r--r-- 1  999  999 648M Aug 28  2010
>     debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  26K Aug 28  2010
>     debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso.torrent
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  26K Aug 28  2010
>     debian-505-ia64-CD-1.iso.torrent
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  26K Aug 28  2010
>     debian-505-ia64-kde-CD-1.iso.torrent
>     -rw-r--r-- 1  999  999 689M Aug 28  2010
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso
>     -rw-r--r-- 1  999  999 699M Aug 28  2010
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
>
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian# cmp
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso differ:
>     char
>     130322440, line 489461
>
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian# cmp
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso differ: char
>     346914824, line 1287567
>
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian# cmp
>     debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
>     debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso differ:
>     char
>     103817224, line 1184532
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian#
>
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian# diff
>     debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
>     Files debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso and
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/debian-505-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso differ
>
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian# diff
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
>     Files kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso and
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso differ
>
>     root at PartedMagic:/media/sdb1/iso/Debian# diff
>     kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso
>     Files kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso and
>     /media/sda5/iso/Debian/kubuntu-10.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso differ
>
>     Now to convince WD that their drive is faulty, I think I'll wipe it
>     clean and see if Win7 will complete installation.
>
>     Thanks,
>     Tom
>     =================================================
>     On 05/13/2012 10:47 PM, Jim Kinney wrote:
>     > That really sounds like a majorly bad drive. Pop it into an external
>     > case, format it as a single partition and copy a bunch of large
>     files
>     > over to it (.iso's are good) then run a diff. I'd bet the diff
>     fails.
>     > I suspect the drive has been dropped and the head is misalligned.
>     > Return it ASAP.
>     >
>     > On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 9:16 PM, PairOfTwins
>     > <PairOfTwins at mindspring.com <mailto:PairOfTwins at mindspring.com>
>     <mailto:PairOfTwins at mindspring.com
>     <mailto:PairOfTwins at mindspring.com>>> wrote:
>     >
>     >     Anyone:
>     >
>     >     This was home server upgrade weekend, I thought.   Bought a
>     >     WD15EARX on
>     >     sale, installed Zentyal, and found after an apparently
>     successful
>     >     installation, that the partition with the OS on it had pages of
>     >     errors,
>     >     according to e2fsck.
>     >
>     >     Next 2 installations failed during "Select and install
>     software" step,
>     >     both stable and beta versions, though both CDs passed the iso
>     >     verify check.
>     >
>     >     I had partitioned ahead of time with fdisk and each start
>     sector was
>     >     evenly divisible by 8.
>     >
>     >     Then I installed a freshly verified burn of Ubuntu Server
>     12.04 using
>     >     those same partitions.
>     >
>     >     When finished the alignment was whacked:
>     >
>     >     root at PartedMagic:~# fdisk -lu /dev/sda
>     >     Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
>     >     255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168
>     >     sectors
>     >     Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>     >     Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
>     >     I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
>     >     Disk identifier: 0x000ad2bd
>     >        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
>     >     /dev/sda1            2048     2930687     1464320   82
>      Linux swap
>     >     / Solaris
>     >     /dev/sda2   *     2930688    31602687    14336000   83  Linux
>     >     /dev/sda3        31604734  2930276351  1449335809    5  Extended
>     >     Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
>     >     /dev/sda5        31604736    34471935     1433600   83  Linux
>     >     /dev/sda6        34473984  2041513983  1003520000   83  Linux
>     >     /dev/sda7      2041516032  2930276351   444380160   83  Linux
>     >     root at PartedMagic:~#
>     >
>     >
>     >     Plus e2fsck showed a page of errors on the OS partition
>     sda2, whose
>     >     alignment looks OK, though I had to force a check, as it thought
>     >     it was
>     >     clean.
>     >
>     >     root at PartedMagic:~# e2fsck /dev/sda2
>     >     e2fsck 1.42.2 (27-Mar-2012)
>     >     UbuntuSvr: clean, 55618/897600 files, 364573/3584000 blocks
>     >     root at PartedMagic:~# e2fsck -f /dev/sda2
>     >     e2fsck 1.42.2 (27-Mar-2012)
>     >     Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
>     >     Pass 2: Checking directory structure
>     >     Entry '.' in
>     >     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb/whci
>     >     (398464)
>     >     has an incorrect filetype (was 42, should be 2).
>     >     Fix<y>? yes
>     >     Entry 'hcd.h' in
>     >     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb/whci
>     >     (398464)
>     >     has an incorrect filetype (was 33, should be 1).
>     >     Fix<y>? yes
>     >     Entry '.' in ??? (398477) has an incorrect filetype (was 14,
>     >     should be 2).
>     >     Fix<y>? yes
>     >     Entry '..' in ??? (398477) has invalid inode #: 705041315.
>     >     Clear<y>? yes
>     >     Entry 'elan.h' in ??? (398477) has an incorrect filetype (was 9,
>     >     should
>     >     be 1).
>     >     Fix<y>? yes
>     >     Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
>     >     '..' in
>     >     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb/ftdi
>     >     (398477) is ??? (705041315), should be
>     >     /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic/include/config/usb
>     (398243).
>     >     Fix<y>? yes
>     >     Error while adjusting inode count on inode 0
>     >     Pass 4: Checking reference counts
>     >     Inode 398243 ref count is 42, should be 41.  Fix<y>? yes
>     >     Pass 5: Checking group summary information
>     >
>     >     UbuntuSvr: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
>     >     UbuntuSvr: 55618/897600 files (0.2% non-contiguous),
>     >     364573/3584000 blocks
>     >     root at PartedMagic:~#
>     >
>     >     BTW the SMART error log is always clean.
>     >
>     >     I'm tired of googling, and ready for a fresh set of eyes to tell
>     >     me what
>     >     I'm missing here!
>     >
>     >     Tom
>     >     _______________________________________________
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>     >
>     >
>     >
>     > --
>     > --
>     > James P. Kinney III
>     >
>     > As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
>     > consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as
>     > they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the
>     > outcome.
>     > - ////2011 Noam Chomsky
>     >
>     > http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
>     > ////
>     >
>     >
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>
> -- 
> -- 
> James P. Kinney III
>
> As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to 
> consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as 
> they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the 
> outcome.
> - ////2011 Noam Chomsky
>
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> ////
>
>
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