First check for I/O errors in /var/log/messages if you found any error then there is something wrong with hard disk.
There is SMART utility for monitoring hard disks
SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology
for using this SMART utilities first we should make sure that feature is enabled in BIOS
there are some tools that need to be installed for using this feature
to check weather SMART tools are installed and SMART commands work use this command
smartctl -i /dev/sda1 or sda2 etc…
In ubuntu we can install tools by
sudo apt-get install smartmontools
for checking health use
smartctl -a /dev/hda
example output
————————————————————————————-
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Caviar SE family
Device Model: WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0
Serial Number: WD-WCAMR2493175
Firmware Version: 08.05J08
User Capacity: 320,072,933,376 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Sat Apr 17 12:39:35 2010 CDT
SMART support is: Available – device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x84) Offline data collection activity
was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (9600) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off supp ort.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
No General Purpose Logging support.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 116) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 6) minutes.
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 0x000f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 247 188 021 Pre-fail Always - 2633
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 949
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 186 186 140 Pre-fail Always - 105
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 074 074 000 Old_age Always - 19124
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012 100 100 051 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 876
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 116 103 000 Old_age Always - 34
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 180 180 000 Old_age Always - 20
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0009 200 200 051 Pre-fail Offline - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda
or
smartctl -d ata -H /dev/sdb
smartctl -t long /dev/sda
example output
-----------------
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 116 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Sat Apr 17 14:49:23 2010
Once the test is completed we can see the output by
sudo smartctl -d ata --attributes --log=selftest /dev/sda