who knows what a bad reallocated sector count means?

Can only boot into guest session (ubuntu 11.10) and have no use of mouse or keyboard
pretty sure i have some hdd problems. started when windows7 just wouldnt boot a few months ago. wiped it and installed ubuntu 11.10. had some weird stuff happen ended in me having to re/.install as wouldn-t boot past that ubuntu generic or ubuntu safey mode. was getting some inframs weird messages.

latest is that when it boots now i can only use touchpad - keyboard and mouse don't work. if i boot from livecd its fine. sometime try and access the hdd and it won-t let me mount it. gives me some message re> superblock. also seen stuff about I/O errors.

have done some reading and have read about some lines to put in terminal to give status - here-s some below. anyone any ideas?

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000effd2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 968388607 484193280 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 968390654 976771071 4190209 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 968390656 976771071 4190208 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="6ad2f3be-68f8-45bd-bf3c-7644413862d8" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="5aa243fc-e435-4adc-b76a-95c79969fc03" TYPE="swap"
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda1
sudo: smartctl: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo e2fsck -y -f -v /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

186226 inodes used (0.62%)
431 non-contiguous files (0.2%)
312 non-contiguous directories (0.2%)
# of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0
Extent depth histogram: 152269/169/7
9936203 blocks used (8.21%)
0 bad blocks
5 large files

119576 regular files
21455 directories
57 character device files
25 block device files
0 fifos
10 links
45102 symbolic links (33687 fast symbolic links)
2 sockets
--------
186227 files
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux 2.19.1
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
/dev/sda1: clean, 186226/30269440 files, 9936203/121048320 blocks
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -l /dev/*da*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 2011-11-13 15:23 /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 2011-11-13 15:37 /dev/sda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 2 2011-11-13 15:23 /dev/sda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 5 2011-11-13 15:23 /dev/sda5
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Checked SMART data and get two warnings. Reallocated Sector Count and Current Pending Sector Count. 649 bad sectors in total it says.

Reallocated SC Values are
Normalized 100
Worst 100
Threshold 50
Value 627 sectors

Current pending sector count values
Normalized 100
Worst 100
Threshold 0
Value 22 sectors





tried / dmesg|var
No command 'var' found, but there are 19 similar ones
var: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

and...

dmesg|log
No command 'log' found, did you mean:
Command 'klog' from package 'openafs-krb5' (universe)
Command 'klog' from package 'klog' (universe)
Command 'klog' from package 'openafs-client' (universe)
Command 'mog' from package 'mazeofgalious' (universe)
Command 'vlog' from package 'atfs' (universe)
Command 'logo' from package 'ucblogo' (universe)
Command 'rlog' from package 'rcs' (universe)
Command 'plog' from package 'ppp' (main)
Command 'xlog' from package 'xlog' (universe)
Command 'iog' from package 'iog' (universe)
Command 'eog' from package 'eog' (main)
Command 'flog' from package 'flog' (universe)
log: command not found

 

Yup, sounds like a bad HDD. Backup what you can't afford to lose then go to drive makers site and download their diagnostic software and choose the 'bring back to factory condition' option.

Oh before doing that check your RAM using memtest86, you'll have to burn it on disk and boot from it. Even if one error is found, then it's writing garbage to your HDD. If you have more than one memory module then test each separately.

 

I never did answer your original question. There's always a few bad sectors on any drive coming from the factory and they always have a hidden area on the drive to reallocate those bad sectors to, you just may have too many for the hardware to compensate for.

I read your Ubuntu error records but I'm no expert here, even though I run one 11.04 natively and the other in a virtual player. You could try Spinrite to recover your data and block those bad sectors but at $90 I don't believe you'd want to. Better to get a new drive, if that's the culprit.

It's still an excellent product(AFAIK) and has been around since the mid-80's when I was working in the field. Help me please digerati!