[svlug] Good way to check an IDE HD?

[Alvin Oga]

> Sam J. Juvonen wrote:
> 
> smartctl from smartmontools (at sourceforge, and in distros) will tell

checking the disk for seek/read/write/slow/fast, making "funny noises"
is NOT the same thing as "data integrity"

> On 11/16/07, John Conover <conover at rahul.net> wrote:
> >
> > Is there a good way to check the data integrity of an IDE HD?

to check the data ...
(assuming oyu do NOT have a corrupt filesystem and working disk):

a) you need a reference copy to check against 
b) run md5sum against the data and its references
c0 do it automatically with diff or md5sum or any other method
   to compare bit-by-bit

if you cannot compare x-data vs y-data, than you can't be
100% certain that the data is intact and correct

c ya
alvin