# all commands stopped working, harddrive?

## juniper

hello,

I picked up my laptop and all of the sudden nothing was work.  I would type ls and it would say command not found, ctrl-alt-del said (on vt1) /sbin/shutdown command not found etc.  Anyways, I have rebooted and things look ok, but I found this kernel error in the logs.

```

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x24

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1.00: cmd ca/00:08:63:be:32/00:00:00:00:00/e3 tag 0 dma 4096 out

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel]          res 51/84:01:6a:be:32/00:00:00:00:00/e3 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1: soft resetting link

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1: EH complete

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00

Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x24

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1.00: cmd ca/00:08:93:82:10/00:00:00:00:00/e7 tag 0 dma 4096 out

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel]          res 51/84:01:98:80:10/00:00:00:00:00/e5 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1: soft resetting link

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] ata1: EH complete

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00

Apr 10 13:27:07 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

```

what does this mean?  is it serious?  I believe it is referring to my harddrive.

I have been experiencing a little harddrive weirdness lately.

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## furanku

I'm no expert on this, but looking up the error messages via google, some suggest in other forums that this may be cable related. So maybe checking if the cable is still plugged in correctly in the HD and the mainboard and looks good my be worth a try, although even that can be a lot of work with a laptop. So you may want to wait if someone with more hardware and kernel error messages experience shows up.

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## juniper

hmmm, i can give that a try.  any other ideas?

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## NeddySeagoon

juniper,

The drive is responding to the identify command, as the log shows,

```
Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB) 
```

I assume its an 80G drive and that message is correct?

Identify reads data from the drive that is not stored on the platters, so the interface, including the cable is operational.

Thats not to say its not the cable, just that that bit was ok.

```
Apr 10 13:13:30 [kernel] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR } 
```

is the drive reporting that its not ready.

Thats 'game over' the kernel will have a few more goes at resetting the interface before it gives up.

Can you hear the drive spin up?

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## juniper

well, a reboot works and all is well.  but i think that this drive is probably degrading fast.  I tried to use smartctl to tell me what was the state of the drive, but i couldn't interpret the output.  i posted it here

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-753983-highlight-.html

anyways, seems ok for now, don't know how much longer it will last.  do you think it is worth checking the cable.

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## juniper

happened again.  here is the log

```

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x24

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:83:e0:0d/00:00:00:00:00/e8 tag 0 dma 4096 in

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel]          res 53/86:02:8a:e2:0f/00:00:00:00:00/ea Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1: soft resetting link

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] ata1: EH complete

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off

Apr 16 20:07:45 [kernel] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

Apr 16 20:10:01 [cron] (root) CMD (test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons )

```

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## mani001

 :Confused:   I'm having the same problem with a brand new laptop (Dell XPS)...and I'm kind of worried...is my hard drive gonna die?  How is yours?   :Rolling Eyes: 

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