Re: [gentoo-user] Filesystem corruption - reiserfs? - won't boot, "filesystem couldn't be fixed :("

[Stroller]

On 3 Mar 2010, at 14:00, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 4:24 AM, Stroller <stroller@××××××××××××××××××.uk
> > wrote:
>> There seem to have been a few people posting with filesystem
>> corruption in
>> the last week or two. It seems to be my turn, so I hope it isn't
>> contagious.
>> The cause here is quite clear - whilst rummaging in the server
>> cupboard
>> yesterday, power to the machine was accidentally disconnected.
> ...
>  Sorry for your problems. I've had a rash of machine problems over
> the last 6 weeks. No fun. I feel for you.
>
>   In my most recent case what looked like a simple disk corruption
> problem was really a prelude to the drive just plain going bad. Have
> you tried smartctl to see what it says about the drive at this point?
>
>   It would be even more frustrating to chroot in, do all the work,
> think you had it fixed and then the underlying foundation of your
> house crumbles beneath you 3 weeks from now.

I don't think this is a problem. I would love to know what others  
think of the `smartctl` output:


root@sysresccd /root % smartctl -H /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i486-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce  
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Please note the following marginal Attributes:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE       
UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
   9 Power_On_Seconds        0x0012   001   001   020    Old_age    
Always   FAILING_NOW 44803h+12m+16s

root@sysresccd /root % smartctl -i /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i486-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce  
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Fujitsu MPA..MPG series
Device Model:     FUJITSU MPF3204AT
Serial Number:    05030567
Firmware Version: 0028
User Capacity:    20,496,236,544 bytes
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   5
ATA Standard is:  ATA/ATAPI-5 T13 1321D revision 1
Local Time is:    Wed Mar  3 14:14:31 2010 UTC
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

root@sysresccd /root %


This looks to me like smartctl is going "OMG! What an ancient drive!"  
- it's a 20gig EIDE drive and if my pocket calculator is correct  
(44803/24/365), it's seen 5 years of active use - and that's the  
"marginal attribute" referred to.

Like I said, the power plug was accidentally pulled on this drive, so  
I'm inclined to attribute the corruption only to that, not to the  
drive actually failing.

The drive is in a computer that has rarely been turned off in the last  
couple of years, and is also in a warm environment, conditions which  
are ideal. I appreciate the latter seems unintuitive, but in fact  
studies have showed that drives in somewhat warm environments last  
longer than those that are cooled.

That it passes the "SMART overall-health self-assessment test"  
suggests to me that it is chugging away quite happily.

I would have dismissed your concerns were it not for the capitalised  
"FAILING_NOW" in the output. Like I say, I think this is just smartctl  
declaring "OMG! this drive is old!", but I open this matter to the  
list for discussion (should you wish).

I think I'm actually nearly ready to migrate off this system. The  
power was actually pulled as I installed 3 new (to me) rackmount  
machines in the server cupboard - the plan is to have identical  
machines running RAID, so that in the case of ANY problems I have  
spares available. I have take nightly backups of the important data on  
this machine, however I'd prefer it to run just a couple or a few  
weeks longer to allow me to migrate at my own leisure.

Stroller.