On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 7:46 PM, Chris Adams linux@cmadams.net wrote:
To me, it is a bit surprising how the failure of the hard disk can be predicted (and with a time projection)!
One of the lines you listed was the "reallocated sector count". Basically, when you buy a 500G drive, it really has more space than that. Some of the sectors are reserved and not reported to the system. When the drive detects a bad sector, it relocates it to one of the reserved sectors. Once it has relocated a certain number, it reports the drive as failing (possibly because it is out of reserved sectors to use).
I have already done a full backup. Should I wait for some days to check out whether the alarm is true or not?
Given there were a bunch of reallocated sectors, I'd replace it as soon as possible and then destroy it.
Thanks, Chris, for your very useful clarification -- I now understand better the things at issue.
Paul