Jokes aside, HDD health is a really big concern. It’s because HDDs don’t die in just an instant. They continue to wear out gradually over time and one day, you may have just lost some of your oldest photos or your favorite movie collection or even worse, your important office document!

Before that happens, continue to keep checking your HDD status. If you’re on Linux, it’s time to get these tools right now!

Checking HDD health

For checking your HDD health, consider these tools in your arsenal. They will easily give you all the necessary info about your HDD.

• Smartmontools

All the modern storage devices have an “S.M.A.R.T.” feature. It reports a lot of info to the operating system (Windows, Linux, macOS etc.). These info helps to verify the integrity and health of the HDD.

For installing Smartmontools, run the following command(s) according to your Linux distro.

• Ubuntu

sudo apt install smartmontools

• Debian

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

• Fedora

sudo dnf install smartmontools

• OpenSUSE

sudo zypper install smartmontools

• Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S smartmontools

• Generic Linux instruction

Download the latest source code of Smartmontools.

After the download is complete, run the following commands –

tar -xvzf smartmontools-6.6.tar.gz

cd smartmontools-6.6/

./configure

make

sudo make install

Using Smartmontools

Fire up a terminal and run the following command –

lsblk

Find out your target HDD and take a note of it.

Now, run the following command –

# “X” represents your HDD’s label name

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdX

Here’s the part you need to keep your eye on.

You can also export the report using the following command line –

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdX >> ~/Desktop/drive-report.txt

• GNOME Disks

This is also another handy tool to keep at your hand. It’s a part of the GNOME Software family with a clean, nice and fluid interface. It’s the best choice for those preferring GUI more than the CLI.

Installing GNOME Disks

Run the following command(s) according to your Linux distro –

• Ubuntu

sudo apt install gnome-disk-utility

• Debian

sudo apt-get install gnome-disk-utility

• Fedora

sudo dnf install gnome-disk-utility

• OpenSUSE

sudo zypper install gnome-disk-utility

• Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S gnome-disk-utility

Using GNOME Disks for HDD health

Start GNOME Disks.

From the left panel, select your connected HDD. Then, press “Ctrl + S”.

Here, you’ll have all the S.M.A.R.T. information of the HDD.

You can find out all the explanations of all the S.M.A.R.T. info here.

Enjoy!

The post Check HDD Health on Linux appeared first on Linux Windows and android Tutorials.

What is S.M.A.R.T.?

In today’s world, most of the physical hard drives (HDD and SSD) integrates a nice feature called “S.M.A.R.T.”, meaning “Self-Monitoring Analyzing and Reporting Technology”. This tech gathers valuable information about the health of the drive. By using the tool, you’ll become concerned and mark your next steps.

For using the technology, we will be using “smartd”.

Installing smartd

For installing the software, run the codes according to your Linux distro. This tool doesn’t come up by default on your system.

• CentOS/RHEL/Fedora

Run this command in the terminal:

sudo yum install smartmontools

• Ubuntu + Ubuntu-based distros

If you’re running Ubuntu or other Ubuntu-based distros, use this command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

Verifying the S.M.A.R.T. capability

Before using the software, you have to ensure that your device is capable of it. Run this command in the terminal:

smartctl -i /dev/sda

The line “SMART support is: Available – device has SMART capability” will ensure that your device is capable of S.M.A.R.T technology. “SMART support is: Enabled” means that the tech is enabled on your device.

If you don’t have the luck, you won’t have the SMART capability. But most likely, you won’t run into this problem unless your hardware is really old.

Configuring the “smartd” for running on selective disk(s) only

There is a system that you can use to configure the tool for scanning specific devices only. You can edit the “/etc/smartd.conf” file for configuring the facility. Here, I’ll be showing the example using “/dev/hda”.

# cat /etc/smartd.conf
/dev/hda -a -m root@localhost.localdomain ...

After completing the edit, restart the daemon service.

# /sbin/service smartd restart
Shutting down smartd:                                      [  OK  ]
Starting smartd:                                           [  OK  ]

If you want to start the process at every time during the boot, run this command:

chkconfig on smartd

For RHEL/CentOS, use these commands:

systemctl enable smartd
systemctl start smartd

Using “smartd” for checking bad sectors or disk errors

There are lots of abilities that the daemon tool can perform. Run this command to check out for any disk error or bad sector. Here, the example is “/dev/sdd”.

# smartctl -H /dev/sdd

For learning the result(s) of the scan(s), use this command:

# smartctl -a /dev/sdd

There are tons of other available options for advanced users. If you want to learn more about the settings of “smartd”, run this command in the terminal:

man smartctl

Note that your hard drive is always susceptible to bad sectors and other issues, no matter how safely you use. Enjoy your healthy hard drive!

The post Monitor Disk Health with S.M.A.R.T appeared first on Linux Windows and android Tutorials.