SMART errors - are they for real? or, BIOS weirdness?

[Tim]

Tim:
>> I had a system using LVM fail to boot, and when assessed using another
>> drive (that would boot), got error reports like the above.  Wherever the
>> errors were, it was some place that LVM really did not like.  I used dd
>> to overwrite the entire drive, to try and force a write to wherever it
>> was, and force the drive to try and fix what it could, and the errors
>> got cleared up.
>> 
>> Nothing else I had tried cleared up the errors.  The system got
>> reinstalled, without LVM, just to see if the drive would keep on
>> working, and it has.  It's many months later, and there's no error
>> reports, including while making deliberate checks.
 

Robin Laing:
> I have had the same issue with a Western Digital as well.  A WD5200 
> started giving these errors in FC6.  Less than a year old.
> 
> I have since replaced the drive and put the WD in a USB carrier.  Two 
> complete wipes and reformats and tests and no errors found.
> 
> I wonder if it is an issue with SMART and the drives? 

This was also a WD.  I've had three in a row cark it, after the second
that was the last of them I'd buy.  The third was given to me.  I'm less
than impressed by anything they've made, so my bet's on there being
something crappy about them (whether they have real drive faults, or
badly managed fault detection).

-- 
(This box runs FC5, my others run FC4 & FC6, in case that's
 important to the thread.)

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