🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4ge63u$79k@ob1.uws.EDU.AU>, m.dunn@uws.edu.au says...

Thanks all those who responded to my posting about a trashed hard disk on a 
web/news server.  Just some follow-up info in case it's useful to somebody.

One thing I didn't explain in my previous message was that the machine in 
question was running on-board IDE, so controller "card" problems were not 
going to be an issue unless the mainboard was faulty.  I suspect it would 
have not worked at all in this case.  Also, the machine is protected by a 
*very expensive* UPS which runs our critical servers.

Anyhow, I was completely unable to use the trashed linux root partition.  
Using Linux fdisk and recreating and re-typing the partition didn't help.

So I ran FDISK on the partition and changed it to a DOS partition, then ran 
DOS FORMAT.  It had problems with many sectors, but formatted it anyway.  
Then I ran Norton Disk Doctor / surface scan, and could see several bad 
sectors.  It appears the drive is *physically* bad.  

The first drive, a Seagate 1080Mb, failed after six months because the drive 
speed started wavering all over the place.  The second, under warranty - a 
Seagate 1080Mb Decathlon, developed bad sectors after 3 months.  Now it's 
gone to be replaced under warranty.

The machine is a web server incorporating a ftp server and minor news 
services.  It is quite busy at times, but I wouldn't have thought it busy 
enough to kill hard drives.

Anyhow, it has now been fitted with *two* Seagate Medalist (- this place only 
buys Seagate ... ) 600Mb drives, one for the linux filesystem and one for 
web/ftp data.  We will see what happens...  I have no idea where these drive 
models "fit" in terms of quality, and I don't have the option of choice.

I am reluctant to draw any conclusions from all the above, but...?

cheers,
michael