How to check disk health status in Linux

S.M.A.R.T., which stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, is a system used to monitor the health of hard drives. It is built into both traditional HDDs and modern SSDs. The main purpose of S.M.A.R.T. is to help detect potential drive failures by analyzing certain parameters and providing early warnings.

In Linux, you can access and interpret S.M.A.R.T. data using the smartctl tool, part of the smartmontools package. This tool is widely available in most Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi. By using smartctl, you can easily check the health status of your disk drives, which is crucial for maintaining data integrity and preventing unexpected data loss.

It is important to note that while S.M.A.R.T. is effective in predicting hardware failures, it does not cover issues like bad sectors or corrupted filesystems. You may need additional tools to address these problems. Therefore, monitoring disk health with smartctl should be part of a broader strategy for maintaining disk reliability in a Linux environment.

1. Open the terminal in your Linux system.
2. Install the smartmontools package from your distribution's repository.

   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install --assume-yes smartmontools # Ubuntu and Debian

   This command works for Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu. For other distributions, use the corresponding package manager.

3. Identify the disk you want to check.

   $ lsblk | grep disk
   sda      8:0    0   20G  0 disk
   sdb      8:16   0    5G  0 disk

   This command lists all the block devices, filtering only disks.

4. Run the smartctl command to initiate a disk self-test.

   $ sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda
   smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-47-generic] (local build)
   Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
   
   
   === START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
   Sending command: "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
   Drive command "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
   Testing has begun.
   Please wait 2 minutes for test to complete.
   Test will complete after Wed Jul 17 15:58:30 2019
   
   Use smartctl -X to abort test.

   Replace /dev/sda with your target disk. The test will take a few minutes.

5. Use smartctl to view the health status of the disk after the test is complete.

   $ sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda
   smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-47-generic] (local build)
   Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
   
   === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
   SMART Health Status: OK