Is my USB drive dying?

[Chris Murphy]

On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 7:12 PM, Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote:
>
> On 11/30/2014 08:27 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
>
> On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 6:10 AM, Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com>
> wrote:
>
> Logwatch says:
>
> --------------------- Kernel Begin ------------------------
>
>  WARNING:  Kernel Errors Present
>     EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): e ...:  80 Time(s)
>     sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense Key : Recovered Error [current] [descr ...:  14
> Time(s)
>   ---------------------- Kernel End -------------------------
>
>
> And in /var/log/messages I see:
>
> Nov 30 07:41:11 homebase kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense Key : Recovered
> Error [current] [descriptor]
> Nov 30 07:41:11 homebase kernel: Descriptor sense data with sense
> descriptors (in hex):
> Nov 30 07:41:11 homebase kernel:        72 01 04 1d 00 00 00 0e 09 0c 00 00
> 00 00 3a a6
> Nov 30 07:41:11 homebase kernel:        00 32 00 06 40 50
> Nov 30 07:41:11 homebase kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] ASC=0x4 ASCQ=0x1d
>
> Googling: sense key recovered error 0x4 0x1d, suggests it's just an
> abnormal success message. Use 'smartctl -x /dev/sdc' to extract SMART
> info from the drive. If this fails, then it's probably not the best
> chipset in the world, hence some commands including smart commands,
> aren't working.
>
>
> You are a better searcher than I...
>
> # smartctl -x /dev/sdc
> smartctl 5.43 2012-06-30 r3573 [x86_64-linux-2.6.32-431.23.3.v6.x86_64]

This is a somewhat old version of smartmontools. Current is 6.3.

> (local build)
> Copyright (C) 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net
>
> /dev/sdc: Unknown USB bridge [0x059f:0x1053 (0x006)]
> Smartctl: please specify device type with the -d option.

Well it might be worth looking on the smartmontools site to see if
ther's a -d option that'll work with your bridge. It might even be
listed.

>
> Use smartctl -h to get a usage summary
>
> ARGH!!!  This is an HP SFF; I would have to dig out which model, but that
> would not help.  If the USB bridge is unknown, that fact that it is an HP,
> probably will not help.
>
> Or is it the drive?  It has been in constant use for 3 years:


It's not the drive. It's most likely the USB>SATA bridge chipset.
Those were pretty much junk 4+ years ago when it came to passing
through the full ATA command set, including things like SMART
commands, and SCT.



>
> 1TB Porsche Design P'9230 External Hard Drive - SuperSpeed USB 3.0
>
> Can get a replacement now for 1/2 the price.  In fact can get a 2Tb USB
> drive for $80 right now.

These days I wouldn't accept an enclosure that doesn't fully support
returning all of the results from a smartctl -x. I just bought super
cheapy PUREX enclosures for some laptop drives for $6 each. They're
USB 3.0, and smartctl -x returns everything including PHY events, and
smartctl -l scterc also works (and is nearly mandatory for any kind of
RAID, the alternative being changing the linux SCSI command timer).



-- 
Chris Murphy