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Hello,

On Jan 6, 2007, at 13:42, Joel CARNAT wrote:

> I see the following errors in dmesg:
>
> wd0: (uncorrectable data error)
> wd0a: error reading fsbn 2189695 of 2189664-2189695 (wd0 bn 2189695; cn
> 2172 tn 5 sn 4), retrying
> wd0: (uncorrectable data error)
> wd0a: error reading fsbn 2189695 of 2189664-2189695 (wd0 bn 2189695; cn
> 2172 tn 5 sn 4)wd0: (uncorrectable data error)
>
> are they hardware or software error ?
> that is, must I replace the hard-drive or should I only reformat the 
> disk
> and mkfs ?
>
> is there any fsck-like command that would mark bad sectors so that 
> there
> are not used by the system (with or without reformatting) ?

If the errors always point at the same range of sector numbers your 
disk is getting bad. If the numbers change randomly it's likely the 
cable.
In the former case you can try to force a write to the bad sectors and 
hope the drive still has a few spare sectors left to remap them.

have fun
Michael
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