Ubuntu
gnome-disk-utility package

how to repair bad sectors - SMART Data

Asked by Irwin

SMART Data & Self-tests shows 10 bad sectors on the hard disk. Is there any way to fix this similar to fdisk?

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Mika Wahlroos
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Best Mika Wahlroos (mpw) said : 		#1

Hi,

You can't really fix this, at least not easily. That's the number of sectors that the drive itself reports as bad (or reallocated -- see "reallocated sector count" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.#Known_ATA_S.M.A.R.T._attributes for more details). The disk will just automatically avoid using those sectors.

You might want to keep checking the number now and then and see that it does not increase over time. If the number does not increase from 10 and the disk is otherwise healthy, there's probably nothing to worry about, and you need not do anything to fix it.

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marcus aurelius (adbiz) said : 		#2

that depends. are you dual booting from windoze? if you are, you get get utilities from the hard drive manufacturer to mark bad sectors as unusable, but they all run off windoze. i find that linux doesn't have an adequate way of marking bad sectors.

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Benjamin (skivvy51) said : 		#3

Hi

I am using Ubuntu 10.04LTS. I am running Ubuntu exclusively. No dual boot.

According to Disk Utility my hard-drive has 12 bad sectors. This is supposed to be a sign of "imminent disk failure". However, I am not so sure about that because everything is still working fine.

To add to the original question - should I replace the drive because of those 12 bad sectors?

PS - I have backed up most of my important data, so when I have finished backing it all up the disk can blow to pieces. ;)

To Irwin - I suggest that you back your stuff up, just in case.

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Mika Wahlroos (mpw) said : 		#4

Benjamin,

12 doesn't sound like a large figure (it's not that uncommon to have a few reallocated sectors without a serious drive problem), but if the drive warns of imminent failure, you should immediately back up your data just to be sure. Of course, having already done that is even better. :-)

If the drive is still under warranty, I'd expect that a SMART failure status would also mean you can get it replaced.

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Irwin (iffonseca) said : 		#5

Thanks, I'll check to see it does not worsen