linux-ext4 - Re: badblocks from e2fsprogs

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Date:   Mon, 1 Mar 2021 16:42:26 +0100
From:   Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@...il.com>
To:     "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>
Cc:     linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: badblocks from e2fsprogs

On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 4:34 PM Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Mar 01, 2021 at 04:12:03PM +0100, Sedat Dilek wrote:
> >
> > OK, I see.
> > So I misunderstood the -o option.
>
> It was clearly documented in the man page:
>
>        -o output_file
>               Write the list of bad blocks to the specified file.
>               Without this option, badblocks displays the list on
>               its standard output.  The format of this file is
>               suitable for use by the -l option in e2fsck(8) or
>               mke2fs(8).
>

RTFM.

> I will say that for modern disks, the usefulness of badblocks has
> decreased significantly over time.  That's because for modern-sized
> disks, it can often take more than 24 hours to do a full read on the
> entire disk surface --- and the factory testing done by HDD
> manufacturers is far more comprehensive.
>
> In addition, SMART (see the smartctl package) is a much more reliable
> and efficient way of judging disk health.
>
> The badblocks program was written over two decades ago, before the
> days of SATA, and even IDE disks, when disk controlls and HDD's were
> far more primitive.  These days, modern HDD and SSD will do their own
> bad block redirection from a built-in bad block sparing pool, and the
> usefulness of using badblocks has been significantly decreased.
>

Thanks for the clarification on badblocks usage and usefulness.

OK, I ran before badblocks:

1. smartctl -a /dev/sdc (shell)
2. gsmartcontrol (GUI)

The results showed me "this disk is healthy".
As you said: Both gave a very quick overview.

- Sedat -

[1] https://superuser.com/questions/171195/how-to-check-the-health-of-a-hard-drive