From: Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
Subject: Re: kern/14007: uncorrectable data error reading fsbn -- problems with IDE hard disk
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 21:01:27 +0200

...

> > How can I determine the answer to these questions meaningfully?  FWIW,
> > I don't particularly notice the machines getting hot.
> 
> Can you test if the drive itself gets hot ?

I do happen to periodically pull the hard drives out of these
machines, but I've never noticed them to be so hot that I can't touch
them or have trouble holding/handling them.

Perhaps touching the casing of the hard disk while it's in operation
is a better test.  This is difficult for a ThinkPad X20 due to the
design, but it should be doable for the 600E.

> Also what kind of IDE controller do you have in these machines ?

The ThinkPad X20's dmesg gives:

pciide0 at pci0 dev 7 function 1: Intel 82371AB IDE controller (PIIX4) (rev. 0x01)

The ThinkPad 600E's dmesg gives:

pciide0 at pci0 dev 7 function 1: Intel 82371AB IDE controller (PIIX4) (rev. 0x01)

So, it looks like they may be the same controller.

> > Should I disable Ultra DMA on any new disks that I use?  If so, is it
> > enough to recompile a kernel w/ the following sorts of settings?
> > 
> >   wd* at pciide? channel ? drive ? flags 0x0fac
> 
> flags 0x0f00
> would be enouth (disable Ultra-DMA, and let the driver find the rigth PIO and
> DMA modes).

Thanks!  I did a clean install on to a third hard disk yesterday and
shortly after installation, replaced the generic laptop kernel on it
with a custom-compiled one with flags 0x0fac.  So far, there haven't
been any problems.  

After reading your message, I compiled and installed another kernel
using flags 0x0f00.

BTW, both hard disks that died were IBM DARA-212000 drives.  The new
drive I'm trying is an IBM DJSA-220.

> > > It's quite possible that windows won't push it that hard.
> > 
> > That's possible.  Ah, you mean and that's why the problem may not have
> > been noticed more widely?
> 
> Yes. Really, I don't believe a driver can damage a hard disk.

You mean even the ones that could get towers of hard disks to move
across floors? ;-)