On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 10:43:01AM +0200, Lorenzo Quatrini wrote:
So again my question is: can I use dd to "test" the disk? what about
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sda bs=512
Is this safe on a full running system? Has to be done at runlevel 1 or with a live cd?
Do not do this on a mounted filesystem; you risk corruption. I'd be leary of this command, though.
A better way is use the "badblocks" command; if you want to keep data then "badblocks -n"; if you don't care about data then "badblocks -w". Again, you can't do this on a mounted filesystem.