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up vote 14 down vote favorite
2

Are there tools for this?

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Sorry, I dont know how to add comment, so I will post this as question. (OK, I know now, I need 50 rep. points) Will sudo /touch/forcefsck check all my HDD's/parrtion's or just the one where Ubuntu is installed? – Miroslav Ranković Nov 23 '10 at 22:47
You misunderstood. touch is an application. Use sudo touch /forcefsck – B. Roland Jul 21 '11 at 11:02

5 Answers

up vote 12 down vote

Boot with Ubuntu Live CD, and select TEST MEMORY with memtest+ See this IMG, don't wait graphical GUI(if it has), look at this img: Test Memory

For test HDD, you can use SMART data reader, palimpsest disk untility, in System > Administration > Disk untility, and check your SMART data, look at this img: SMART DATA

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Disk Utility doesnt work for me. I get error because I use entire disk. – vrcmr Nov 23 '10 at 19:53
Hi! You say, that your root partition doesn't checkable with "Check filesystem" button? – B. Roland Nov 23 '10 at 22:27
yes I can't check it. – vrcmr Nov 24 '10 at 21:49
Yeah, you might be in a live system. Use a Live CD, and if it requires, use "Unmount Volume" button! – B. Roland Nov 25 '10 at 17:45
up vote 6 down vote

Hard disk:

  • open up a command line, (Applications → Accessories → Terminal) and type

    sudo touch /forcefsck

    then reboot your computer. The operating system will perform a hard disk check (fsck) for you during the boot.

Ram:

  • When the system is booting, just after the POST (power-on self test) screen, hit the ESC key a few times until you see the GRUB boot menu.

    You should see a list of different Linux kernels. Right at the bottom, there's an option captioned somethimg like Memtest86, this will thoroughly test your memory for corruption (also, it will take ages).

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Your suggestion for hard disk work for me. Suggestion for Ram doesn't work. – vrcmr Nov 23 '10 at 19:48
what do you mean by it doesn't work? – Stefano Palazzo♦ Nov 23 '10 at 22:36
Clarification: the "hard disk check" with fsck is actually a filesystem integrity check, not a hard disk surface check or something. – Lekensteyn Jul 21 '11 at 10:35
up vote 5 down vote

For HDD, you can use badblocks program which is installed with the e2fsprogs program. It's a command-line program and a read-only scan can be performed with:

sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda

-v causes verbose information to be displayed, /dev/sda is the device name of the disk.

For RAM, you can find memtest86+ on any live CD or USB. It'll prompt you if there's something wrong with your RAM.

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1  
I can't find badblocks in the archive – Jorge Castro Nov 22 '10 at 2:27
1  
It's in e2fsprogs which should be installed by default. – poolie Nov 23 '10 at 23:42
just type $ which badblocks to see if you have it installed, but by sure you will. – Robert Vila Nov 9 '12 at 4:27
up vote 4 down vote accepted

My solution for 10.04 (That works for me)

To test RAM I use Live CD 10.04 I reboot my computer with it in cd drive then I choose my language then I choose Test Ram.

For testing HDD works sudo touch /forcefsck

Found also this tutorial on youtube with additional information.

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up vote 2 down vote

If you don't have Ubuntu installed yet, then boot from an install CD, press Esc while it's booting, and you should have the option to check both memory and the hard disk.

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