How close to death is my Linux hard drive

Question

I want to test my hard disk that is on opensuse 12.2 -

update see some results below

I have installed S.M.A.R.T.

How would you start the tests?

note: can I run a single test that runs all the drive!? See below

smartctl or smartd - Which command runs all the drive... in a single step?

linux-wyee:/home/martin # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spur, 60801 Zylinder, zusammen 976773168 Sektoren
Einheiten = Sektoren von 1 × 512 = 512 Bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb8fa3ecd

   Gerät  boot.     Anfang        Ende     Blöcke   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63     8385929     4192933+  82  Linux Swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2         8385930     8594774      104422+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3         8594775     8803619      104422+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4   *     8803620   976768064   483982222+   5  Erweiterte
/dev/sda5         8803683    12996584     2096451   83  Linux
/dev/sda6        12996648    21382514     4192933+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7        21382578    42347339    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda8        42347403    63312164    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda9        63312228    84276989    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda10       84277053    88469954     2096451   83  Linux
/dev/sda11       88470018    96855884     4192933+  83  Linux
/dev/sda12       96855948   117820709    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda13      117821440   159766527    20972544   83  Linux
/dev/sda14      159768576   976766975   408499200   83  Linux


linux-wyee:/home/martin # smartctl -H -A /dev/sda1
smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [i686-linux-3.4.33-2.24-desktop] (SUSE RPM)
Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===                                                                                                                                                        
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED                                                                                                                                        



    SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16                                                                                                                                             
    Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:                                                                                                                                               
    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE                                                                                                
      1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   100   100   062    Pre-fail  Always       -       0                                                                                                        
      2 Throughput_Performance  0x0005   100   100   040    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
      3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   144   144   033    Pre-fail  Always       -       2
      4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       731
      5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   005    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
      7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   100   100   067    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
      8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0005   100   100   040    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
      9 Power_On_Hours          0x0012   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       4221
     10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   060    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
     12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       727
    191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
    192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       11
    193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0012   060   060   000    Old_age   Always       -       404351
    194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   148   148   000    Old_age   Always       -       37 (Min/Max 6/51)
    196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
    197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
    198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0008   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
    199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
    223 Load_Retry_Count        0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

    linux-wyee:/home/martin # 
    linux-wyee:/home/martin # smartctl -H -A /dev/sda2

Well what does this say?

Answer 1

You are running smart on the whole drive. As far as I know, S.M.A.R.T. has no meaning for a specific partition, it measures the state of your entire disk. Remember that even if you have multiple partitions, they are all on the same physical disk. If one fails, they will all fail.

Having multiple partitions protects you from file system corruption. One of your partitions can loose data or become corrupted without affecting the others. S.M.A.R.T. does not look at filesystem or data errors, it is a measure of the health of your hard ware.

Anyway, running smartctl -H /dev/sda1 or smartctl -H /dev/sda2 or smartctl -H /dev/sda are all equivalent. As for interpreting the results, none of your values seem to be at or even near the error threshold, your drive seems to be in perfectly good health. Notice the main S.M.A.R.T. result:

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED