Revision as of 10:43, 16 July 2012

Hardware

Hard Drive

Predictable hard drive failure is usually caused by normal wear on the mechanical parts of the drive.

Unpredictable hard drive failure can be caused by misuse, defective parts, or immediate mechanical failure.

Gradual wear causes most mechanical failures. The most common symptoms of a failing hard drive are:

• Increased heat output
• Increased noise level
• Problems with reading or writing data

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) scans

SMART scans are a quick way to tell if a hard drive is failing, although not all failing drives fail SMART tests. There is no standard requirement for SMART support, so not all disks will test all or even most of the tests available.

You can test most hard drive formats via Ubuntu's built in SMART scan (in Disk Utility). Or try GSMARTControl.

Common SMART signs of HDD failure:

• Read error rate
• Reallocated sector counts
• Spin retry count
• Command timeout
• Reallocation event count
• Current pending sector count
• Uncorrectable sectory count
• Drive life protection status

Logic/Motherboard

Optical Drive

• Not ejecting
• Not mounting
• Not playing/reading
• Making strange noises

Other

Software

Many software issues can also be caused by hardware malfunctions.

Common Software issues:

• Long load times
• Long quit times
• Program crashes regularly

Standard Mac/Windows/Linux

how to install/reinstall

how/where to backup

how to take apart

where to find guides

program lists

what it does

when to use

how to use

where to find additional help

common problems

water spill

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