Thoughts on Technology

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

HOWTO: Check Hard Drive Health with Linux

Posted on 15:11 by Unknown
I've been experiencing full system lockups on my netbook off and on for the last few weeks now. Up until recently though they had been few and far between so I'd just been ignoring the issue. A few days ago however they got bad enough to the point where I had to restart my system three times in the same hour.

Needless to say shortly after that I started running system checks. A quick boot into memtest showed that my RAM was A-OK (which is good considering one stick of RAM is stuck to the netbook's mother board). The next piece of hardware I checked was my netbook's SSD. Almost all modern hard drives have "SMART" controls today to allow you to check their current health status.

I booted my netbook from a Bodhi live USB drive and did a quick:

sudo apt-get install gsmartcontrol

GSmartControl is a GUI front end for smartmontools - a library that lets you interface with your drive's SMART controls and run various health checks on the drive. The interface is fairly straight forward and right clicking on one of the displayed drives gives you the ability to begin checking it.


There are options for a short test (which takes a minute or two) or a longer test (which can take up to several hours on larger drives to complete - depends on the size of your drive).


After my netbook finished the longer test I was greeted with some bad news - my SSD was failing in one area and getting close to failing in others:


At any rate GSmartControl is a fantastic tool for checking the health of your drive that is fairly easy to use. Hopefully the results of your drive check will be better than my own!

~Jeff Hoogland
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in hardware, howto, open source | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • HOWTO: Test E18, EFL 1.8.0, and Terminology 0.4.0 on Bodhi Linux
    As of this past weekend the testing builds of the Enlightenment window manager DR18 (E18 for short) are in the Bodhi Linux testing repositor...
  • Blackboard - No Linux for Online Education
    In addition to being a Linux Advocate and working 40+ hours a week I am also a full time student. Due to schedule constraints I often take ...
  • My Beef with the iPad
    Now I've written a couple of pieces about the iPad thus far and if you read through them you will see that the device has failed to imp...
  • HOWTO: Watch Netflix on Bodhi Linux
    Not being able to utilize the Netflix video streaming service has been an issue on the Linux desktop for the past few years. This is due to...
  • HOWTO: Starcraft 2 on Linux with Wine
    Okie dokie - so I've mentioned before that I play Starcraft 2 under my Linux install with no issues. Since the game's official rel...
  • Clarifying details about E17 and Compositing
    I just wanted to take a moment to clarify the state of compositing with the Enlightenment desktop. In two recent reviews of Bodhi Linux ...
  • Steam Client and Source Games Porting to OSX
    So the devil called me this afternoon and said they where having a snowstorm in hell. In other news Valve announced that their revolutionar...
  • Asus Tech - You will NOT fool me Twice
    So I wrote a post at the start of this month describing a positive experience with Asus's support involving my netbook that was runnin...
  • Bodhi Linux ARM Beta Release for Genesi Smartbook
    Edit/Update: You can find the latest release here ->  http://www.bodhilinux.com/downloads_mobile.php Much to my fiancée's dismay my l...
  • Cedega vs Crossover Games - Hands on Review
    Most people who use Linux for desktop use are well aware of the one of the largest issues facing the platform: Lack of commercial software. ...

Categories

  • 3g modem
  • adobe
  • android
  • appeal
  • apple
  • arm
  • art
  • asus tablet
  • benchmark
  • bodhi
  • bordeaux
  • cedega
  • chakra
  • chrome os
  • chromebook
  • cockatrice
  • codeweavers
  • comic
  • cricket wireless
  • crysis
  • cxgames
  • debian
  • dell duo
  • diablo3
  • distro review
  • dtf
  • e18
  • eandora
  • eccess
  • elementary
  • elive
  • enlightenment
  • fedora
  • firefox
  • gaming
  • genesi
  • gnome
  • google
  • google chrome
  • google wave
  • handheld device
  • hardware
  • helios
  • howto
  • html5
  • ideapad
  • interview
  • ipad
  • jolicloud
  • kde
  • l4d2
  • laptops
  • lenovo
  • linux
  • lxde
  • macbook
  • math
  • maxima
  • media
  • meego
  • milestone
  • mint
  • mir
  • mk802
  • moblin
  • n900
  • netflix
  • nexus 7
  • nvidia
  • open pandora
  • open source
  • opengl
  • opera
  • operating systems
  • palm
  • phones
  • promotion
  • python
  • qt
  • rant
  • raspberry pi
  • reviews
  • sabayon
  • software
  • source games
  • spotlight
  • sprint
  • starcraft2
  • steam
  • t-mobile
  • tutorial
  • ubuntu
  • unigine
  • unity
  • wayland
  • web application
  • windows
  • windows 7
  • wine
  • wxmaxima
  • xfce

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (20)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (9)
  • ▼  2012 (57)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ▼  November (4)
      • MK802 Media PC Review
      • HOWTO: Check Hard Drive Health with Linux
      • Two Years of Bodhi, Three Years of Blogging
      • Raspberry Pi vs MK802
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (4)
    • ►  July (9)
    • ►  June (4)
    • ►  May (4)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (6)
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2011 (107)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (5)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (9)
    • ►  July (8)
    • ►  June (7)
    • ►  May (10)
    • ►  April (9)
    • ►  March (13)
    • ►  February (9)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2010 (122)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (10)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (17)
    • ►  July (10)
    • ►  June (9)
    • ►  May (14)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (8)
  • ►  2009 (27)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (10)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile