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I no longer can check my external HDD status by using SMART data and self-tests.

Using disks the option that was available before is just disabled as in the following screenshot: enter image description here

I guess it's related to some permissions, but I don't know what to do.

Fabby
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Hani Majebry
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  • pic – Hani Majebry Jan 17 '15 at 15:22
  • Welcome to AskUbuntu! ;-) 1/ you didn't accidentally click on a USB drive, did you? (Don't laugh: happened to me!) 2/ what happens if you install smartmontools and do a smartctl --scan? 3/ does gksudo gnome-disks change anything? – Fabby Jan 19 '15 at 00:43
  • @fappy Sorry, I don't get the first one. the output of smartctl --scan is /dev/sda -d scsi # /dev/sda, SCSI device /dev/sdb -d sat # /dev/sdb [USB Cypress], ATA device. and using gksudo does not affect any thing ... – Hani Majebry Jan 19 '15 at 14:17
  • Which of the three disks did you try in the screen shot? (and was giving SMART stuff before?) – Fabby Jan 19 '15 at 14:35
  • it's sdb. they are just two: sda is internal and sdb is external.. – Hani Majebry Jan 19 '15 at 15:21
  • and on sda it still works? – Fabby Jan 19 '15 at 15:34
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    yup, still works on sda. but for the other one i've tried a command sudo smartctl --all /dev/sdb -d sat,12 -T permissive and it told me what it means that your hdd is dying, save your data! so, ASAP i'll buy a new one. thank you @fappy. – Hani Majebry Jan 22 '15 at 16:53
  • Please, please, please make a back-up now!. Borrow, bribe, buy, do whatever it takes to get your hands on a HDD so you can back-up your data. BTW, you've been calling me Fappy for so long now that I've started assimilating myself with that, but it's Fabby! ;-) – Fabby Jan 22 '15 at 17:22
  • Oh I'm so sorry for changing your name :D, it was a mistake. I already made a back-up, thank you so much Mr. @Fabby :) – Hani Majebry Jan 23 '15 at 10:26
  • Don't worry, it looked funny anyway. And how would you know I'm a "Mr."? If you look more closely to my image, you will see I'm an Alien and have no sex at all! :D ;-) And please don't thank me: just click the grey check-mark under the "0" at the left of my answer, which means "yes, this answer is valid"! ;-) and if you really like it, press the "up-arrow" above it as well! – Fabby Jan 23 '15 at 10:30

2 Answers2

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It's never good news if a hard-disk suddenly starts not reporting on SMART data.

Therefore, please check if your drive have SMART capabilities: 

sudo hdparm -I /dev/XdY

(where X=h or s and Y=a, b, c, ... depending on your hardware) and enable it: 

sudo smartctl --smart=on /dev/sdb

and install the command-line version of the SMART monitoring:

apt-get install smartmontools

Then perform the command:

smartctl --scan

which should give you the drives you have on the system. Then perform a more in-depth scan on the troubled drive by typing:

smartctl --all /dev/XdY

If the test above doesn't give any conclusive results, run an even more in-depth testing by:

smartctl --all /dev/XdY --test=short

For more information: man smartctl

In your case, with serious errors, please make a back-up first and then go out and buy a new drive!

Community
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Fabby
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  • And as you're a reputation 6 user: Don't forget to click the grey check-mark under the "0" at the left of this text, which means "yes, this answer is valid"! ;-) – Fabby Jan 22 '15 at 17:23
  • You can always check if your drive have SMART capabilities: sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdb and enable it: sudo smartctl --smart=on /dev/sdb or sudo smartctl -s on /dev/sdb . – Pablo Bianchi Apr 09 '17 at 03:55
  • @PabloBianchi: Your comment incorporated into the answer. Thanks for the tip! – Fabby Apr 10 '17 at 07:04
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You can list all drives and check in one line command.

for i in {a..z}; do printf "\n/dev/sd$i\n"; smartctl --all /dev/sd$i | grep -i '$family\|model\|capacity\|Serial Number\|reallocated_Sector\|Uncorrectable\|Start_Stop_Count\|Power_On_Hours\|Power_Cycle_Count\|Command_Timeout\|High_Fly_Writes\|Airflow_Temperature\|Temperature_Celsius\|Load_Cycle_Count\|Current_Pending_Sector\|Retract_Count\|Reported_Uncorrect'; done
Nikolay Chuprina
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