Ubuntu
yelp package

disable disk health warning in karmic

Asked by nokangaroo

Just installed karmic on my iMac 7.1 (cloned it from my mbp install). Works perfectly well, including sound, but how can I disable the annoying "failing harddisk" warning? As the disk is still good enough for Mac OS (smart status is "verified), I do not intend to replace it just yet. Or is there a good reason for ubuntu to be such a princess on a pea?

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Ubuntu yelp Edit question
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Mika Wahlroos
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Best Mika Wahlroos (mpw) said : 		#1

You can disable the warning the following way:

1. Open System > Administration > Disk Utility
2. If the correct disk is not being selected already, select it on the list of disks to the left.
3. The utility should show you the SMART status of the disk, and next to that there should be a link for "More Information". Click it to open detailed SMART information.
4. You can tick the "Don't warn me if the disk is failing" checkbox to disable _all_ warnings regarding the health of this disk.

As to whether you really want to disable these warnings or replace the disk as soon as possible, I'm no expert. You might want to check the details of the SMART warning and see what causes it. If the warning is about a high number of bad sectors (or a high reallocated sector count), you may want to watch for a while if the number stays the same over time or if it's increasing. If it's increasing, you'll want to replace the disk, but if it's staying the same for a long time, it may still be okay. If you're unsure and especially if the disk contains valuable data, personally I'd prefer to err on the side of caution.

I imagine some other disk tools might only begin to warn you when the overall self-assessment provided by the disk itself falls below "healthy" while it seems the disk utility in Ubuntu may already warn you about things such as a high reallocated sector count even when the disk still reports its overall condition as "healthy". I don't know if that provides a more accurate assessment of the need to replace the disk or not.

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nokangaroo (nokangaroo-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#2

Thanks Mika Wahlroos, that solved my question.