[Grml] How to use GRML to check whether a hard disk is failing

[Bob]

David Maus wrote:
> Just a short one:
> 
> At Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:56:24 +0000,
> Michael Whapples wrote:
>> Thanks, some of that would be useful (I found more to do with recovering 
>> data than checking that the hardware is working fine). Thinking about 
>> it, if the hardware isn't working properly I guess I would be unable to 
>> mount the NTFS partition (is this right).
>>
> 
> Not necessarily. Mounting may work but changing a directory or reading
> a file may fail or take ages while the kernel log fills with read
> error messages.
> 
> HTH
> 
>  -- David
> 

An easy to use tool for data recovery is photorec.  It is part of the 
testdisk tools.
" DESCRIPTION
           PhotoRec  is  file  data  recovery software designed to 
recover lost files including video, documents and archives from Hard 
Disks and CDRom and lost pictures (Photo Recovery) from digital camera 
memory.PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the  underlying 
data,  so  it’ll work  even if your media’s filesystem is severely 
damaged or formatted. PhotoRec is safe to use, it will never attempt to 
write to the drive or memory support you are about to recover lost data 
from."

-BoB