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I am a new user of ubuntu. I just installed ubuntu 13.10. I suspect that my hard drive has some problems (maybe bad sectors). Ubuntu fails to mount my hard drive. but when I go to settings/system info I have 626 GB. How can I make sure that my hard drive is Okay or not ? I I would be very thankful if somebody gives me a clear explanation (for a newb !) about what I can do to find out such problems, and how to deal with them (if any).

I only have one hard drive, and have not installed Windows alongside Ubuntu, I just have ubuntu...

Thank you so much !

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You can use smartmontools utilies to check the health of your HDD. You can install them by running:

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

To display detailed SMART information for a SATA drive, type:

sudo smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdX

(replace X with the letter of your drive)

Then check the output in this section too see if any errors were logged:

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       Completed without error       00%     21595     -

Also check the WHEN_FAILED column for any failures:

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME    FLAG    VALUE    WORST    THRESH TYPE    UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
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  • Thanks ! one more thing , I just checked my Smart data and self-tests, The assessment is that "the drive is going to fail soon" The temperature of Hdd is 40 centigrades (104 farenheint) . What should I do now ? Please help
    – the8thone
    May 21, 2014 at 17:29
  • Then you need to start backing up your data and replace the HDD. SMART errors usually indicate that the HDD needs to be replaced. If it still has warranty you can you to your supplier and replace it for free.
    – cioby23
    May 21, 2014 at 17:31
  • does it help If I format my hard drive ?
    – the8thone
    May 21, 2014 at 17:37
  • I tried to format, but I got this error : Error unmounting /dev/sda1: Command-line `umount "/dev/sda1"' exited with non-zero exit status 1: umount: /: device is busy. (In some cases useful info about processes that use the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1)) (udisks-error-quark, 14)
    – the8thone
    May 21, 2014 at 17:43
  • most of the time it does not help. But if you want to try you need to boot from a live CD or USB and format it using Gparted or a similar tool
    – cioby23
    May 21, 2014 at 18:23
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Ubuntu comes with a tool called gnome-disks-tool, it can be launched by searching for "disks" from the launcher.

You can select the problematic drive from the left and then if you click on the cog button on the far top right you will get a menu. From there select "SMART data & self-tests".
You will be presented from a Window which will provide various information, if it things your drive is healthy or not.
There is also a button at the bottom to run either quick or extended tests called "Start self-test"

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  • I just checked my Smart data and self-tests, The assessment is that "the drive is going to fail soon" The temperature of Hdd is 40 centigrades (104 farenheint) . What should I do now ? Is the only way replacing my hard drive ?
    – the8thone
    May 21, 2014 at 17:33
  • I tried to format but I got this error : Error unmounting /dev/sda1: Command-line `umount "/dev/sda1"' exited with non-zero exit status 1: umount: /: device is busy. (In some cases useful info about processes that use the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1)) (udisks-error-quark, 14)
    – the8thone
    May 21, 2014 at 17:44

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