Is my hard disk failing?

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1

I am using KDE Manjaro Stable branch with all the updates installed.

Recently, my computer has started hanging abruptly. It has hanged just as I logged in to my KDE Plasma session, it has hanged as I started visiting websites like Twitter and Facebook, it has hanged even when I have launched the terminal.

So, I did:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda

It produced the following output:

smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.0.2-2-MANJARO] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Green
Device Model:     WDC WD10EZRX-00L4HB0
Serial Number:    WD-WCC4J2539617
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2b4741288
Firmware Version: 01.01A01
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database 7.3/5319
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Wed Nov  2 15:55:50 2022 IST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84) Offline data collection activity
                                        was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever 
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:                (13680) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 156) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x3035) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       9648
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   139   137   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       4025
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   092   092   000    Old_age   Always       -       8312
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   081   081   000    Old_age   Always       -       14060
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   092   092   000    Old_age   Always       -       8284
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       465
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   134   134   000    Old_age   Always       -       200908
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   105   090   000    Old_age   Always       -       38
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       8

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Interrupted (host reset)      10%     14052         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

There were three Pre-fail attributes and several Old_age attributes.

I did a short test using:

sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda

It just produced ‘PASSED’ as a result.

Does it mean that my hard disk is about to fail? Will it be wise to install a new hard disk?

2

Hi @deshmukh,

  • Pre-fail: AFAIK that is just the kind of test. Meaning it’ll the test will probably fail, and thus warm you before the drive fails.
  • Old_age: AFAIK this will fail because of use. Age.

Looking here:

You’ll notice the WHEN_FAILED column is empty for all tests. This and:

…makes me think your HDD is OK.

Your profile indicates you are using Testing branch, so I rather think that is reason for the instability. Run:

journalctl --boot=-1 --priority=3

Where:

  • The --boot= parameter is the boot when the last instability occurred. This can be adjusted to -1 for the previous boot, -2 for the one before that, and so on and so forth.
  • The --priority= parameter will limit the output to warnings and errors.

…to perhaps get a better idea of what causes the instability.

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