Ubuntu 16.10, Kernel 4.8.0.45-generic
I have an external hard drive connected. It is configured with the ext4 file system. It has 600 GB of important family photos and videos on it. I have a backup of it, so we are not in imminent danger of losing all that data. It is a fairly new (purchased about 18 months ago) 5TB drive.
Recently, whenever I try to copy or move a file from that drive, the system gives me this error message: "Error Code 9: Bad file descriptor". This happens only when that drive is the source of the copy or move - When I attempt copying or moving of files from other sources/drives, I do not get that error.
My guess is that the drive is failing, but I don't know that for certain. I have run fsck (via gparted) on the drive. The first time it reported an uncountable number of errors, but it said it was able to fix all of them. I repeated running fsck on it a couple more times after that, each time it reported no problems. Since then, my problem has been gone. But, my concern is, How do I know if it is only a lucky, temporary reprieve?
How can I determine for sure that the external hard drive is failing?
If it is, how can I determine if simply reformatting it and copying the data back onto it will be fine, versus having to replace it?
Or..... Is my guess incorrect, and the description of my problem indicate something else is wrong?
Thanks.
Here is the result of running the smartctl command, I do not know how to interpret these results (the "WHEN_FAILED" column had only dashes in it):
main1@system1:~$ sudo smartctl -a -d sat /dev/sdi [sudo] password for main1: smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.8.0-45-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Western Digital Green Device Model: WDC WD60EZRX-11MVLB1 Serial Number: WD-WX21DC42E2TP LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2b6db3009 Firmware Version:
80.00A80 User Capacity: 6,001,141,572,096 bytes [6.00 TB] Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical Rotation Rate: 5700 rpm Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: ACS-2, ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s) Local Time is: Tue Apr 4 20:24:33 2017 CDT 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: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
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: ( 4064) 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: ( 694) 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 - 1
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 202 187 021 Pre-fail Always - 8883
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 3408
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 089 089 000 Old_age Always - 8454
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 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 3405
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 196 196 000 Old_age Always - 3259
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 076 076 000 Old_age Always - 372574
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 102 093 000 Old_age Always - 50
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 - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
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.
main1@system1:~$
