I have been running linux for about a month now.  everything seems
fine until today. i got a kernel panic saying could not write to some
inode numers and couldn't read from some inodes.  then it hangs.  when
i reboot it, my bios says primary master hard drive failed.  i
couldn't even boot to dos cuz the bios was unable to detect my hd. i
could hear some loud noise from my hard drive too. it sounded like it
was hammering my hd.  i tried to boot it from a boot disk, but when it
tries to mount the root partition on hda1, it gives me whole bunch of
seekcomplete errors and an error saying could not read the superblock.
and then it hangs.

i have read some similar articles describing this very same problem in
some linux news groups.  it seems to me that this problem occurs
suddenly on systems that ran normally previously and then boom, it
destroys the hard drive. it must be a problem with linux. could it be
a virus or bug in the linux kernel?  it attacks system when certain
conditions are satisfied? i have not yet seen any solution or
suggestion to this problem, does anyone have any idea what is going
on?  i don't want linux to trash my hd in a month after i spent
hundreds for it.

TIA
Mitch
e...@ouray.cudenver.edu

Ahmad Faridzun Misron (A.Mis...@ncs.nerc.ac.uk) wrote:
: I have been running linux for about a month now.  everything seems
: fine until today. i got a kernel panic saying could not write to some
: inode numers and couldn't read from some inodes.  then it hangs.  when
: i reboot it, my bios says primary master hard drive failed.  i
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: couldn't even boot to dos cuz the bios was unable to detect my hd. i
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: could hear some loud noise from my hard drive too. it sounded like it
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: was hammering my hd.  i tried to boot it from a boot disk, but when it
: tries to mount the root partition on hda1, it gives me whole bunch of
: seekcomplete errors and an error saying could not read the superblock.
: and then it hangs.

The symptoms you describe (underlined above) are a result
of a hardware failure. If the bios can't detect the drive,
why do you think linux is to blame? Don't loud noises suggest
a hardware failure to you?

You have a bad drive. If it was bought recently, return it for a
new one. "Infant Mortality" of hardware is unfortunate, and
fairly rare, but it does happen. Sorry to give you bad news.

BTW - it is _highly_ unlikly that Linux is in any way responsible
for this failure. But if you are afraid it is Linux, don't use
Linux.

:
: i have read some similar articles describing this very same problem in
: some linux news groups.  it seems to me that this problem occurs
: suddenly on systems that ran normally previously and then boom, it
: destroys the hard drive. it must be a problem with linux. could it be
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Why? Hardrive do fail under all operating systems. Why single out
Linux?

: a virus or bug in the linux kernel?  it attacks system when certain
: conditions are satisfied? i have not yet seen any solution or
: suggestion to this problem, does anyone have any idea what is going
: on?  i don't want linux to trash my hd in a month after i spent
: hundreds for it.

Linux didn't trash your hard drive. But if you are afraid of Linux,
don't use it.

Hardware does fail. That is one of the reasons why _everyone_
recommends backups.

Joe Larkin

[I am beginning to suspect this is a Troll]