Question about Falcon 128 GB SSD and smartctl results

[Jim O]

Hello,

I hope this is not a "dumb" question. I recently acquired a Falcon 128 GB SSD and have it placed on a Linux server where it is to be used to hold a cache that serves 1.5-2 million requests per day and is growing.

I had them install it at the datacenter and I started receiving errors from smartd almost immediately:

This email was generated by the smartd daemon running on:

host name: my.domain.com
DNS domain: domain.com
NIS domain: (none)

The following warning/error was logged by the smartd daemon:

Device: /dev/sdb, 438 Offline uncorrectable sectors

For details see host's SYSLOG (default: /var/log/messages).

You can also use the smartctl utility for further investigation.
No additional email messages about this problem will be sent.

Syslog didn't have any more info than that.

Running

# smartctl -a /dev/sdb

gave the output below:



I have reformatted the drive and run fsck which reveals no errors:

[root@saturn nginx]# fsck /dev/sdb1
fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006)
e2fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006)
/dev/sdb1: clean, 11/15630336 files, 538539/31258465 blocks

but the output from smartctl is unchanged.

So I'm wondering if this is a real issue, or if it is, as my host seems to think it might be, due to the unit not being in the smartctl database. I don't want to return a working unit but I also don't want to have a failure in my cache.

Any input would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

[razerza]

I would imagine the safest route to follow would be to RMA it and get an exchange unit if for nothing else but peace of mind.

The other possibility is that Linux just does not interface with the drive correctly. If you had the time and inclination, you could drop the drive into a Windows box and run both CrystalDiskInfo and HDTune to check the same readings, like so:

[Jim O]

That's my inclination as well.

It's in a datacenter about 1800 miles from my location so dropping it into a Windows box is not a real option for me at this time.

It would be nice if someone from G.Skill would address the question before I take that action however.