Could we neglect the SMART error?

[hiwa]

Recently, I frequently get a same SMART error:

Mar 21 12:50:56 localhost smartd[3783]: Device: /dev/hda, 1 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors

I don't understand the meaning of the error.
They are at regular thirty minutes intervals when, may be, smartd does run.

My smartctl -H always tells PASSED and smartctl -A shows '-' for WHEN_FAILED column of every #ID row.

Could we neglect the error, or is there anything that should be done?

[mrBen]

Yes, you can neglect the error. It is indicating that there is a damaged sector on the drive, but the drive electronics will successfully work around it. You may even be able to reset the SMART setup so that it ceases to report it.

However.....

- Always watch to see if this number increases, as this could indicate an iminent failure. (Which is what SMART is for)
- Always keep regular backups just in case.....

[leonpmu]

How old is yur hard disk?

Are you getting any other errors? Check /var/log/messages to see if you are getting error seek messaes.
If you are, chances are that your drive might be slowly dying...

[hiwa]

Thanks mrBen and leonpmu.

> watch to see if this number increases
Always '1'. But plural 'sectors.'

> How old is yur hard disk?
Working since Jul. 2001. (Maxtor, 40G, 5300rpms, airport class noisy)

> Are you getting any other errors? Check /var/log/messages to see if you are getting error seek messaes.
I think I don't see any. Smartd message is one and only(unreadable sector).

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by hiwa
Always '1'. But plural 'sectors.' It's plural because the authors of the program probably didn't take into account the possibility of there ever being only one sector. (Or they did, and decided it wasn't worth it.) They just made a format string that looks like:

"Device: %s, %d Currently unreadable (pending) sectors"

and then substituted a string (containing "/dev/hda") for the %s, and a number (1) for the %d.

[hiwa]

My hda is working since July 2001.

[smartd reports]
from Mar 5 2005 to Feb 28 2006:
Device: /dev/hda, 1 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors

from Mar 1 2006 to May 19 2006:
Device: /dev/hda, 2 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors

from May 20 2006 to Jun 1 2007(today):
Device: /dev/hda, 3 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors

I am considering the replace of the hard disk for hda on my 1.7 GHz P4 machine. My question is: how could we run current working system from the new hda disk? Would you explain the step-by-step procedures for that end?