Interpreting smartctl data -

[Bob Goodwin]

I just salvaged the hard drive from an 
abandoned DirectTV box that "smoked." 
Note: With their approval ...

I'm just trying to determine how much 
confidence I can have in it. It was 
interesting to see that it was formatted 
Linux XFS initially. I reworked it with 
gparted and ext4 to test it. Presently 
it is in a USB adapter connected to a 
USB2 port on this computer. It appears 
to have been running for 2.6+ years, I 
have a number of drives with at least 
that much time on them and they are 
still going.

Any thoughts on making sense of smrtctl 
are appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 
[x86_64-linux-4.9.13-201.fc25.x86_64] 
(local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, 
Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Pipeline HD 5900.2
Device Model:     ST3500312CS
Serial Number:    5VV9WJQQ
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0490e4346
Firmware Version: SC13
User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes 
[500 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    5900 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database 
[for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D 
revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s 
(current: 1.5 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Wed Mar 15 13:01:12 
2017 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has 
SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   
074   074   000    Old_age Always       
-       23096
  10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   
100   100   097    Pre-fail Always       
-       0
  12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   
100   100   020    Old_age Always       
-       85

> I just salvaged the hard drive from an
> abandoned DirectTV box that "smoked."
> Note: With their approval ...
>
> I'm just trying to determine how much
> confidence I can have in it. It was
> interesting to see that it was formatted
> Linux XFS initially. I reworked it with
> gparted and ext4 to test it. Presently
> it is in a USB adapter connected to a
> USB2 port on this computer. It appears
> to have been running for 2.6+ years, I
> have a number of drives with at least
> that much time on them and they are
> still going.
>
> Any thoughts on making sense of smrtctl
> are appreciated.

Gnome-disks will give you clearer information. Run the tests using that
instead.
> Thanks,
>
> Bob
>
> smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318
> [x86_64-linux-4.9.13-201.fc25.x86_64]
> (local build)
> Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen,
> Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
>
> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
> Model Family:     Seagate Pipeline HD 5900.2
> Device Model:     ST3500312CS
> Serial Number:    5VV9WJQQ
> LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0490e4346
> Firmware Version: SC13
> User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes
> [500 GB]
> Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
> Rotation Rate:    5900 rpm
> Device is:        In smartctl database
> [for details use: -P show]
> ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D
> revision 4
> SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
> (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
> Local Time is:    Wed Mar 15 13:01:12
> 2017 EDT
> SMART support is: Available - device has
> SMART capability.
> SMART support is: Enabled
>
> 9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032
> 074   074   000    Old_age Always
>   23096
> 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013
>
> 100   100   097    Pre-fail Always
>   0
> 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032
>
> 100   100   020    Old_age Always
>   85
>
>
>
> --
> Bob Goodwin - Zuni, Virginia, USA
> http://www.qrz.com/db/W2BOD
> box10  FEDORA-25/64bit LINUX XFCE Fastmail POP3
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

perl -pe 's/^\s+//g' *.py

[Bob Goodwin]

On 03/15/17 13:48, [e-mail] 
wrote:
> > Any thoughts on making sense of smrtctl
> > are appreciated.
>
> Gnome-disks will give you clearer information. Run the tests using that
> instead.

+

Perhaps if I had the right command. The 
man page only shows three options.

I tried: # gnome-disks --block-device  
/dev/sdd

But the result is not much and wants to 
include all the drives in the computer 
too ...

[Robert Nichols]

On 03/15/2017 01:10 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> On 03/15/17 13:48, [e-mail] wrote:
> > > Any thoughts on making sense of smrtctl
> > > are appreciated.
> >
> > Gnome-disks will give you clearer information. Run the tests using that
> > instead.
>
> Perhaps if I had the right command. The man page only shows three options.

Perhaps if you would indicate what command you actually ran, ... .

The manpage for smartctl 6.5 has a lot more than three options. Either
"-A" or (more inclusive) "-a" should be relevant.

[Denis Leroy]

smartctl is your friend when it comes to evaluating a disk drive health. 
Keep in mind, though, that SMART is not fool proof. Some disk damage may 
not be caught by SMART, but if SMART says your drive is damaged, then it 
probably is.

First, check the overall health status ((replace /dev/sda with the 
approriate disk device in your case):

# smartctl -H /dev/sda

will give you a PASSED or FAILED test. Note that I've seen disks that 
make helicopter sounds and still have a PASSED status. This is not very 
accurate, but the attributes do give interesting values, like the power 
cycle count, or overall power on hours.

A much better overall indicator is the error log. A non-empty error log 
is a huge read flag:

# smartctl -l error /dev/sda

Finally, the best thing to do is to have the disk firmware run a 
self-test. There are two types: short (a few minutes) and long (maybe an 
hour). Run a short test first, then a long test if that passes, to be sure:

# smartctl -t short /dev/sda

Then monitor the result with

# smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda

To run the long test,

# smartctl -t long /dev/sda

Hope this helps.

Denis
(works in storage)

On 03/15/2017 06:37 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> I just salvaged the hard drive from an abandoned DirectTV box that 
> "smoked." Note: With their approval ...
>
> I'm just trying to determine how much confidence I can have in it. It 
> was interesting to see that it was formatted Linux XFS initially. I 
> reworked it with gparted and ext4 to test it. Presently it is in a USB 
> adapter connected to a USB2 port on this computer. It appears to have 
> been running for 2.6+ years, I have a number of drives with at least 
> that much time on them and they are still going.
>
> Any thoughts on making sense of smrtctl are appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob
>
> smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-linux-4.9.13-201.fc25.x86_64] 
> (local build)
> Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, 
> www.smartmontools.org
>
> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
> Model Family:     Seagate Pipeline HD 5900.2
> Device Model:     ST3500312CS
> Serial Number:    5VV9WJQQ
> LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0490e4346
> Firmware Version: SC13
> User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
> Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
> Rotation Rate:    5900 rpm
> Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
> ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
> SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
> Local Time is:    Wed Mar 15 13:01:12 2017 EDT
> SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
> SMART support is: Enabled
>
> 9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   074   074   000    Old_age 
> Always       -       23096
>  10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail 
> Always       -       0
>  12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age 
> Always       -       85

[Bob Goodwin]

On 03/15/17 14:59, Denis Leroy wrote:
> smartctl is your friend when it comes 
> to evaluating a disk drive health. 
> Keep in mind, though, that SMART is 
> not fool proof. Some disk damage may 
> not be caught by SMART, but if SMART 
> says your drive is damaged, then it 
> probably is.
>
> First, check the overall health status 
> ((replace /dev/sda with the approriate 
> disk device in your case):
>
> # smartctl -H /dev/sda
>
> will give you a PASSED or FAILED test. 
> Note that I've seen disks that make 
> helicopter sounds and still have a 
> PASSED status. This is not very 
> accurate, but the attributes do give 
> interesting values, like the power 
> cycle count, or overall power on hours.

+

That I did which resulted in:

9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   
074   074   000    Old_age Always       
-       23096
  10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   
100   100   097    Pre-fail Always       
-       0
  12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   
100   100   020    Old_age Always       
-       85

that I posted earlier.
> A much better overall indicator is the 
> error log. A non-empty error log is a 
> huge read flag:
>
> # smartctl -l error /dev/sda

+
# smartctl -l error /dev/sdd
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 
[x86_64-linux-4.9.13-201.fc25.x86_64] 
(local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, 
Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
> Finally, the best thing to do is to 
> have the disk firmware run a 
> self-test. There are two types: short 
> (a few minutes) and long (maybe an 
> hour). Run a short test first, then a 
> long test if that passes, to be sure:
>
> # smartctl -t short /dev/sda

+
# smartctl -l selftest /dev/sdd
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 
[x86_64-linux-4.9.13-201.fc25.x86_64] 
(local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, 
Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision 
number 1
Num  Test_Description    
Status                  Remaining 
LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed 
without error       00% 0         -
> Then monitor the result with
>
> # smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda
>
> To run the long test,
>
> # smartctl -t long /dev/sda
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Denis

+

Yes that helps, the sort of help I was 
looking for, I am encouraged that the 
drive is probably as safe to use as any 
of the other used ones I have on hand. 
Most I depend on were purchased new, but 
the time builds up on then also. All 
things considered I haven't had many 
drive failures [as a home user] over the 
years ...

Thanks much for your response,

Bob

[Bob Goodwin]

On 03/15/17 14:55, Robert Nichols wrote:
> On 03/15/2017 01:10 PM, Bob Goodwin 
> wrote:
> > On 03/15/17 13:48, 
> > [e-mail] wrote:
> > > > Any thoughts on making sense of 
> > > > smrtctl
> > > > are appreciated.
> > >
> > > Gnome-disks will give you clearer 
> > > information. Run the tests using that
> > > instead.
> >
> > Perhaps if I had the right command. 
> > The man page only shows three options.
>
> Perhaps if you would indicate what 
> command you actually ran, ... .
>
> The manpage for smartctl 6.5 has a lot 
> more than three options. Either
> "-A" or (more inclusive) "-a" should 
> be relevant.

+

I think you missed "Gnome-disks will 
give you clearer information. Run the 
tests using that
instead." Which I was responding to.

I tried: # gnome-disks --block-device  
/dev/sdd

I had asked about smartctl but it was 
suggested that gnome-disks might be 
easier to use and I was responding to that.

I agree that smartctl has an extensive 
man page,

[Chris Murphy]

# smartctl -x /dev/sdX

Optionally piped to fpaste and post the URL.

[Robert Nichols]

On 03/15/2017 03:00 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> On 03/15/17 14:55, Robert Nichols wrote:
> > On 03/15/2017 01:10 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> > > On 03/15/17 13:48, [e-mail] wrote:
> > > > > Any thoughts on making sense of smrtctl
> > > > > are appreciated.
> > > >
> > > > Gnome-disks will give you clearer information. Run the tests using that
> > > > instead.
> > >
> > > Perhaps if I had the right command. The man page only shows three options.
> >
> > Perhaps if you would indicate what command you actually ran, ... .
> >
> > The manpage for smartctl 6.5 has a lot more than three options. Either
> > "-A" or (more inclusive) "-a" should be relevant.
>
> I think you missed "Gnome-disks will give you clearer information. Run the tests using that
> instead." Which I was responding to.
>
> I tried: # gnome-disks --block-device  /dev/sdd
>
> I had asked about smartctl but it was suggested that gnome-disks might be easier to use and I was responding to that.
>
> I agree that smartctl has an extensive man page,

OK. Your first post just showed some output from smartctl with no indication of how you got it.

The output from "smartctl -A" will include information about the number of reallocated sectors, which is important in evaluating the overall health of the drive. S.M.A.R.T will not consider a drive to be near failure until it has almost used up its supply of spare sectors. That is far beyond the point where most people would consider the drive extremely unreliable. Once a drive starts using a significant quantity of spare sectors, the situation frequently cascades rapidly to total failure.

[Bob Goodwin]

On 03/15/17 18:17, Chris Murphy wrote:
> smartctl -x /dev/sdX

+

If I did this right it should be at:

https://da.gd/sldkA -> 
https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/~~WGMtiW1SjbHFQuVIgBnF5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL...

[George N. White III]

On 15 March 2017 at 14:37, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> I just salvaged the hard drive from an abandoned DirectTV box that
> "smoked." Note: With their approval ...

If the DTV box was heavily used it might be considered a high I/O
application, but typical few hours a day use shouldn't be hard on the drive.
> I'm just trying to determine how much confidence I can have in it. It was
> interesting to see that it was formatted Linux XFS initially. I reworked it
> with gparted and ext4 to test it. Presently it is in a USB adapter
> connected to a USB2 port on this computer. It appears to have been running
> for 2.6+ years, I have a number of drives with at least that much time on
> them and they are still going.

Running linux with heavy I/O  (such as remote sensing, video, or numerical
modelling) it is rare these days to have drives fail until the warranty has
expired, but also rare for them to last much beyond the warranty period.
With light I/O drives can last much longer that the warranty. I try to
replace drives on high I/O boxes when they reach end of warranty.  The most
recent drive failures I have encountered involved very full disks and user
complaining about slowdowns. In each case, smartctl showed errors, and for
the few that were still under warranty the smartctl results were enough to
get the authorization to return a drive for warranty replacement.
> Any thoughts on making sense of smrtctl are appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob
>
> smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-linux-4.9.13-201.fc25.x86_64]
> (local build)
> Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke,
> www.smartmontools.org
>
> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
> Model Family:     Seagate Pipeline HD 5900.2
> Device Model:     ST3500312CS
> Serial Number:    5VV9WJQQ
> LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0490e4346
> Firmware Version: SC13
> User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
> Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
> Rotation Rate:    5900 rpm
> Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
> ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
> SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
> Local Time is:    Wed Mar 15 13:01:12 2017 EDT
> SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
> SMART support is: Enabled
>
> 9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   074   074   000    Old_age Always
>   23096
>
> 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail Always
>   0
>
> 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age Always
>   85

Try to find the warranty period.   I don't trust drives past the warranty
period. but
use them for non-critical roles if I think they were not used for high I/O
workloads.

We need to see the full report, but the error reports are pretty easy to
spot.
see:
https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Analyzing_a_Faulty_Hard_Disk_using_Smar...

[George N. White III]

On 15 March 2017 at 20:24, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> On 03/15/17 18:17, Chris Murphy wrote:
> > smartctl -x /dev/sdX
>
> If I did this right it should be at:
>
> https://da.gd/sldkA -> https://paste.fedoraproject.or
> g/paste/~~WGMtiW1SjbHFQuVIgBnF5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL9gydE=/

That just shows: "/home/bobg/Desktop/hd.test"

[Bob Goodwin]

On 03/15/17 20:02, George N. White III 
wrote:
> -- 
> George N. White III 
> <[e-mail] 
> >
> Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia

+

Ok, this should work, else I'll give up :-)

https://da.gd/BxB5 -> 
https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/~OO~kvj3ivc4VwPmzxrQiV5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL...

Thanks,

Bob

[Bob Goodwin]

On 03/15/17 20:02, George N. White III 
wrote:
> On 15 March 2017 at 20:24, Bob Goodwin 
> <[e-mail] 
> > wrote:
> On 03/15/17 18:17, Chris Murphy wrote:
>
>     smartctl -x /dev/sdX
>
> +
>
> If I did this right it should be at:
>
> https://da.gd/sldkA ->
> https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/~~WGMtiW1SjbHFQuVIgBnF5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL9gydE=/
> <https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/%7E%7EWGMtiW1SjbHFQuVIgBnF5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL9gydE=/>
>
>
> That just shows: 
> "/home/bobg/Desktop/hd.test"
>
> -- 
> George N. White III 
> <[e-mail] 
> >
> Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia

+
Once more, I can read this on my 
browser, probably should have tested it 
that way first time around.

https://da.gd/UTWv -> 
https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/uz9uxrIQusCNoM9L95xrjl5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL...

Sorry for the noise ...

[George N. White III]

On 15 March 2017 at 22:09, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> Once more, I can read this on my browser, probably should have tested it
> that way first time around.
>
> https://da.gd/UTWv -> https://paste.fedoraproject.or
> g/paste/uz9uxrIQusCNoM9L95xrjl5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL9gydE=/

No cause for concern in this, but the USB interface isn't giving all the
information.   I'd connect the drive with the
native interface (e.g., put it in a spare system) and run the long test.
Another concern is that the drive may have
some custom firmware.  See if you can download a data sheet -- drives
manufactured to OEM specs for
a specific application seldom have data sheets -- and check for firmware
updates on the vendor's support site.

[Denis Leroy]

The output looks good to me.

You should be able to run the long test, even through the USB interface. 
Good point about the firmware update, although a quick look on the web 
doesn't indicate an update is available. Many disk drives firmware can 
be updated from Linux with the hdparm tool (hdparm --fwdownload), 
although it may be easier to use the Windows or mac tools provided by 
the manufacturer, if you have those OSes available to you.

On 03/16/2017 11:28 AM, George N. White III wrote:
> On 15 March 2017 at 22:09, Bob Goodwin <[e-mail] 
> > wrote:
> +
> Once more, I can read this on my browser, probably should have
> tested it that way first time around.
>
> https://da.gd/UTWv ->
> https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/uz9uxrIQusCNoM9L95xrjl5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL9gydE=/
> <https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/uz9uxrIQusCNoM9L95xrjl5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL9gydE=/>
>
>
> No cause for concern in this, but the USB interface isn't giving all 
> the information.   I'd connect the drive with the
> native interface (e.g., put it in a spare system) and run the long 
> test.  Another concern is that the drive may have
> some custom firmware.  See if you can download a data sheet -- drives 
> manufactured to OEM specs for
> a specific application seldom have data sheets -- and check for 
> firmware updates on the vendor's support site.
>
> -- 
> George N. White III <[e-mail] >
> Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
>
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

[George N. White III]

On 16 March 2017 at 07:44, Denis Leroy  wrote:
> The output looks good to me.
>
> You should be able to run the long test, even through the USB interface.
> Good point about the firmware update, although a quick look on the web
> doesn't indicate an update is available. Many disk drives firmware can be
> updated from Linux with the hdparm tool (hdparm --fwdownload), although it
> may be easier to use the Windows or mac tools provided by the manufacturer,
> if you have those OSes available to you.

I had one batch of drives that needed a firmware update.  The drives were
all in USB cases, but to apply the firmware updates using the vendor's
utility I had to remove each drive from the USB case and install in an old
PC.

_______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

[Denis Leroy]

> I had one batch of drives that needed a firmware update.  The drives 
> were all in USB cases, but to apply the firmware updates using the 
> vendor's utility I had to remove each drive from the USB case and 
> install in an old PC.

Yes, that sounds familiar :-)

I did manage to update a couple of Seagates here through USB with 
hdparm, but it took a bit of trickery to figure out the right options 
and to extract the actual firmware binary file from the manufacturer 
downloadables.

[Robert Nichols]

On 03/15/2017 08:09 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> Once more, I can read this on my browser, probably should have tested it that way first time around.
>
> https://da.gd/UTWv -> https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/uz9uxrIQusCNoM9L95xrjl5M1UNdIGYhyRLivL...

That looks fine. The drive has no reallocated sectors, and apparently sat there well cooled and seldom power cycled during the ~2.6 years it was in use. It's a Seagate drive, so the high raw values for Raw_Read_Error_Rate, Seek_Error_Rate, and Hardware_ECC_Recovered can be ignored (those are not simple error counts). About the only downside is that it's a relatively small (500GB) 5900 RPM drive, so it's going to be slower than today's drives.

[Bob Goodwin]

On 03/16/17 09:48, Robert Nichols wrote:
> That looks fine. The drive has no 
> reallocated sectors, and apparently 
> sat there well cooled and seldom power 
> cycled during the ~2.6 years it was in 
> use. It's a Seagate drive, so the high 
> raw values for Raw_Read_Error_Rate, 
> Seek_Error_Rate, and 
> Hardware_ECC_Recovered can be ignored 
> (those are not simple error counts). 
> About the only downside is that it's a 
> relatively small (500GB) 5900 RPM 
> drive, so it's going to be slower than 
> today's drives.
>
> -- 
> Bob Nichols

+

Yes, I have been buying WD 1TB drives, 
7200 rpm, sometimes Seagate when the 
price is right. I don't have a specific 
need for this one, it was an old TV 
device that they had not provided a 
return label for, told my daughter to 
toss it and she thought I might want the 
hard drive. It took considerable effort 
to get to it, even some loss of blood on 
sharp edges. The drive was in a separate 
housing with a fan. The device was one 
of five, from the spare bedroom I 
believe, probably had little use.

Imight put Fedora 26 alpha on it when 
it's available.

Thanks to all who responded. I keep 
adding information to my notes.

Bob

[George N. White III]

On 16 March 2017 at 11:19, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> Yes, I have been buying WD 1TB drives, 7200 rpm, sometimes Seagate when
> the price is right. I don't have a specific need for this one, it was an
> old TV device that they had not provided a return label for, told my
> daughter to toss it and she thought I might want the hard drive. It took
> considerable effort to get to it, even some loss of blood on sharp edges.
> The drive was in a separate housing with a fan. The device was one of five,
> from the spare bedroom I believe, probably had little use.
>
> Imight put Fedora 26 alpha on it when it's available.

Experiences like this are invaluable when you encounter problems on an
important system.    Upgrading firmware is outside most user's comfort
zone, but after you have done it a few times you will feel comfortable
backing up a drive on a key system and upgrading firmware.   Learning to do
a flash update using linux could come in handy someday.

I was interested to see that the drive was formatted with linux XFS.   XFS
never worked well on 32-bit Intel linux because it was written for RISC and
used deeply nested function calls with long argument lists, but DVR's often
used PPC or MIPS SoC processors and XFS is well suited to DVR workloads.