Or was the drive setup a non-fault tolerant striping?
Was it mirrored vs striped? If it was striped and not mirrored; you == treading on thin ice
knoppix should have: smartmontools - control and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T.
[greg@king:~]$ apt-cache show smartmontools\nPackage: smartmontools\nPriority: optional\nSection: utils\nInstalled-Size: 588\nMaintainer: Guido Guenther <agx@debian.org>\nArchitecture: i386\nVersion: 5.33-1\nDepends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4)\nRecommends: mailx | mailutils\nConflicts: smartsuite, ucsc-smartsuite\nFilename: pool/main/s/smartmontools/smartmontools_5.33-1_i386.deb\nSize: 242510\nMD5sum: 175d763c200d7655350dd3359775a3b0\nDescription: control and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T.\n The smartmontools package contains two utility programs (smartctl and smartd)\n to control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and\n Reporting Technology System (S.M.A.R.T.) built into most modern ATA and SCSI\n hard disks. It is derived from the smartsuite package, and includes support\n for ATA/ATAPI-5 disks. It should run on any modern Linux system.
the key here is the proggy: smartctl
smartctl will give you all the info
MY drive in my machine gives this:
king:~# smartctl -P show /dev/hde\nsmartctl version 5.33 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen\nHome page is [link|http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/|http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/]\n\nDrive found in smartmontools Database. Drive identity strings:\nMODEL: ST380021A\nFIRMWARE: 3.19\nmatch smartmontools Drive Database entry:\nMODEL REGEXP: ^ST3(20011|40016|60021|80021)A$\nFIRMWARE REGEXP: .*\nATTRIBUTE OPTIONS: None preset; no -v options are required.\n\nking:~# smartctl -a /dev/hde\nsmartctl version 5.33 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen\nHome page is [link|http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/|http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/]\n\n=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===\nDevice Model: ST380021A\nSerial Number: 3HV3H6L0\nFirmware Version: 3.19\nUser Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes\nDevice is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]\nATA Version is: 5\nATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated\nLocal Time is: Mon Feb 28 11:44:47 2005 EST\nSMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.\nSMART support is: Enabled\n\n=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===\nSMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED\n\nGeneral SMART Values:\nOffline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity\n was completed without error.\n Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.\nSelf-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed\n without error or no self-test has ever\n been run.\nTotal time to complete Offline\ndata collection: ( 422) seconds.\nOffline data collection\ncapabilities: (0x1b) SMART execute Offline immediate.\n Auto Offline data collection on/off support.\n Suspend Offline collection upon new\n command.\n Offline surface scan supported.\n Self-test supported.\n No Conveyance Self-test supported.\n No Selective Self-test supported.\nSMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering\n power-saving mode.\n Supports SMART auto save timer.\nError logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.\n No General Purpose Logging support.\nShort self-test routine\nrecommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.\nExtended self-test routine\nrecommended polling time: ( 57) minutes.\n\nSMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10\nVendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:\nID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE\n 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 074 071 034 Pre-fail Always - 143806779\n 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 070 070 000 Pre-fail Always - 0\n 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 17\n 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 31\n 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 082 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 200139718\n 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 082 082 000 Old_age Always - 16632\n 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0\n 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 83\n194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 037 049 000 Old_age Always - 37\n195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 074 069 000 Old_age Always - 143806779\n197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0\n198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0\n199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0\n200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0\n202 TA_Increase_Count 0x0032 093 246 000 Old_age Always - 7\n\nSMART Error Log Version: 1\nNo Errors Logged\n\nSMART Self-test log structure revision number 1\nNum Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error\n# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 7966 -\n\nDevice does not support Selective Self Tests/Logging
That should tell you everything that is going on with the drive.