Windows 10: Smartctl

Should the file smartctl.exe be removed?Kenneth

:)

 

SMART Error for HDD, cannot mount drive

Reading anything from the drive

In Ubuntu (Linux) you couldn't mount the drive, but it sounds like you gave up too easily, there's a world of difference between "filesystem inconsistencies / wasn't cleanly unmounted" that won't let an automatic mount, and "not recognized as a device, can't read a single sector" that you can read data & work with. Mounting can fail if windows is in "fast shutdown" mode, or there's filesystem errors, so it's definitely not a show stopper that it couldn't mount.

If a new /dev/sdX appears then you can read (or at least attempt to read) the drive, and read SMART info & attempt tests. Since it's a USB drive, after connecting it a new device /dev/sdX (X could be any letter) should show up, see dmesg & /var/log/syslog for info (especially errors if there's no new device - without a device it might not be possible to read anything, or even harder to try).

If you can read anything from the /dev/sdd device then it's looking much better that ddrescue (in package named gddrescue) or testdisk / photorec or something can get some data. Probably need root rights too, with sudo. Like sudo testdisk /dev/sdd or sudo photorec /dev/sdd.

• A very basic "read a little" with dd would be:
  
  
  reading the first M (=1024*1024 bytes) from the drive, and
  
  • bs= is how many bytes to read/write in each "block"
    
  • count= is the number of "blocks" to take
    
  • skip=N skip N ibs-sized blocks at start of input
    
  • Just don't mix up the of=, it will overwrite almost anything!
    
• To skip 1000M's and then read 1M, use:
  
  

Data Recovery

See File recovery - ArchWiki and/or DataRecovery - Community Help Wiki for more info, it can be involved. gddrescue has a great (but dry) GNU ddrescue Manual too, and search the web for lots more info.

testdisk & photorec are the easiest to use IMO, I don't even bother with foremost or scalpel. Their homepages have good guides, see TestDisk's & TestDisk Step By Step and PhotoRec's & PhotoRec Step By Step. If testdisk can read the existing files, then copying them might be fairly easy, photorec doesn't save original filenames or directory structure.

Sometimes errors will show up when attempting reads & they might fail, error messages will probably flood dmesg & /var/log/syslog then, I like to keep a terminal open running dmesg -w &/or tail -f /var/log/syslog to see new errors as they arrive. If you've got the space on another device, making a whole copy with gddrescue might be a good idea, it tries to skip over error sectors and read all the "good stuff" first, then try errors again later (or read "backwards", jump around, etc).

SMART & smartctl

You could use smartctl (in the smartmontools package) to read the SMART data & find out what it's errors are, even run new tests (but if the drive is failing, more tests could run down the clock on it's remaining life, so a backup first might be prudent). Here's my "notes" on smartctl:

Commands to generate reports:

• sudo smartctl --all /dev/sdX - prints all SMART info
  
• sudo smartctl --xall /dev/sdX - prints all SMART and non-SMART info
  

If you're tracking changes, you could run a test every so often, saving it to a date-named file with:

To just get the "stats":

sudo smartctl -A /dev/sdX > $(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H.%M")-sdX-smart-A

Tests

Use the option -t TYPE where TYPE is one of:

short maybe ~2min

conveyance maybe ~5m

long maybe ~55m

offline maybe ~73m (4380s)

[times are examples from an old drive]

But not all drives support all tests.

The -c option has a "Self-test execution status:" line that tells the current test's % remaining (if a test is running).

To see status could use:

 

Windows Server 2012 R2 How to check HDD health?

That works well for getting info about the drives (here's the batch I just wrote quick for the two drives):
Code: @Echo off cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\smartmontools\bin" smartctl -i /dev/csmi0,0 smartctl -H /dev/csmi0,0 smartctl -A /dev/csmi0,0 smartctl -i /dev/csmi0,1 smartctl -H /dev/csmi0,1 smartctl -A /dev/csmi0,1 pause[/quote] That won't help with verification and rebuilding the array if that is necessary though. I think I may have to contact Highpoint about the RocketRAID software.

 

Windows 10 freezes randomly

At this point, it's either going to be one of four things... It's either a driver, a BIOS update is needed, a hardware failure (such as RAM), or a failing/faulting HDD.

The HDD is easiest to rule out and in order to do so, you'll need a Linux live CD that contains smartctl

• Once you're booted into the Linux Live CD, open a terminal and issue the following:
  1. ls /dev
     • You should see the HDD(s) listed as sda, sdb, sdc, etc.
       • For each HDD, issue:
  2. smartctl -a /dev/sda
     • Repeat for each HDD, replacing the third letter, a, with the appropriate letter for the next HDD.
       • Depending on the Live CD utilized, you may get told the command must be ran as root, and if this is the case, first issue the command su and if that doesn't work, use sudo in front of the smartctl command
     • Please copy and paste the information into a text file in the root of one of your HDDs
       • This can be accomplished two ways, either select all output in the terminal and right click, and paste into a new text file; OR
       • Use the cat command; however, you will have to know the mount point of the HDD you want to save it to, which can be discovered via the mount command, which will list all mount points.
  3. cat smartctl -a /dev/sda > /mnt/sda1/smart-sda.log
     • Where 1 represents the appropriate partition #
       • Repeat for each HDD, then please paste the output into a new document on pastebin.com, ensuring you remove the serial #'s for each drive, and provide the link pastebin.com provides

I'll do some research on my end about your specific PC model when I have some time later on today, to try and determine if there's other reported issues with Windows 10 for your model. I doubt this will show up with any concrete reasons, but there is the chance it falls into the minute percentage category of PC's with motherboards that require a BIOS update for Windows 10 to function properly.

I don't recall if you mentioned this or not, but if you haven't already ran DOS hardware diagnostics, I would recommend to run the full test, which will take 2+ hours to complete and before bed is a great time to run it. Your PC should have come pre-installed with diagnostics, and there should be a few different ways to access it. Your OEM may have a specific key you hold down prior to turning on the power to the PC (for example, on Dell PCs/Laptops, holding down the function, FN, key will auto boot the PC into DOS diagnostics if held down while the PC is turned on), there may be a specific F key you can press during POST, or you should be able to access Diagnostics via the boot menu (hold down F12 throughout POST, and at the bottom of the boot menu, there should be an option named "diagnostics").

• If your PC didn't come with diagnostics pre-installed, this complicates things a bit and I'll need to do some research on either how to install them onto your PC, or if they can be booted from a live CD (Hiren's Boot CD comes to mind).

Generally, the types of freezes/hangs you're describing, if not software attributed, are usually the cause of a failing/faulting HDD, memory, or other hardware component. Other rare cases are overclocking of the CPU, GPU, or RAM, and/or running RAM that isn't fully compatible with the motherboard (I did come across a few threads about this occurring on your PC model the other day, however if you haven't changed your RAM from the modules that your PC shipped with, this isn't the cause).

As to the wifi card, you should be fine with the Intel 7260ac... just ensure you buy the right interface format (either Mini-PCIe or M.2). The whitelisting seems to be a reference to what cards the PC could originally have shipped with, sort of like how Dell recommends Dell certified RAM. My personal experience is Intel is the best component manufacturer for WiFi cards, due not only to high quality products, but more importantly, support, as they release driver updates at least once a month. Intel also provides ways to directly contact their tech support departments and always respond in a timely manner.