hard drive won't shut off

[Matt Graham]

> On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 1:11 PM, Mike Bushroe <mbushroe at gmail.com> wrote:
>> my old desktop system, which has several hardrives of various sizes
>> and ages, has int he last week or two started making on odd sound [...]
>> It is clearly not affecting the drive I am running off of, but I do
>> not know of any tool or system monitor that would help me isolate which
>> drive is going.

/usr/sbin/smartctl -a /dev/sda , repeat for all other disks connected, then
look at the output for anything that looks flaky?  It's a place to start at
the very least.  It might not give you useful output, but it should already be
installed and shouldn't take that long to run.

From: Stephen <cryptworks at gmail.com>
> usually there are diagnostic tools provided by the manufacturer of the
> drive, i would investigate those.

While this may work, it'll take longer, and they're usually
manufacturer-specific if not drive-model specific.  Also, you'll have to
reboot, which is annoying.  Try smartctl first, go for manufacturer diags if
smartctl reports stuff in failure/prefailure on a disk.

> and in a fit of paranoia make a backup of all data i care about.

Having recent backups isn't paranoia, it's a perfectly logical and valid
response to the Universe being out to stomp on all the stuff you really care
about!  :-)

-- 
Matt G / Dances With Crows
The Crow202 Blog:  http://crow202.org/wordpress/
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see