Disk Recovery suggestions welcomed...

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Don Levey <lug at the-leveys.us> wrote:
> it looks like the rest of the drive
> should be OK, right?  Or should I just replace the whole thing?

Get two and mirror them using RAID1.  Plug one drive into the primary IDE
controller and the other into the secondary.  Use mdadm to configure the
drives to mirror each other.  The drives don't have to be the same size or
vintage but you'll need to set up a partition (type 'fd') the same size on
each.

Disk failures of this type will become a thing of the past.  You can search
the BLU mailing-list archives at www.blu.org for more info on this topic. 
There is a howto on this topic as well; it's a straightforward procedure and
you'll be happy once you've done it.  (Two other comments--you should set up a
script to run mdadm --monitor at system startup so it will email you whenever
a failure occurs, and you should set up some sort of automated method of
making backups to take or transmit offsite at least once a month.  I use tape
on the simple premise that one can't overestimate the bandwidth of a station
wagon full of inexpensive magtapes driving down the Interstate at 70mph.  But
there are other ways to make sure your critical files get backed up as often
as your personal habits require.)

-rich