I remember having this problem with a Hitachi drive, which, apparently, was quite common. However, if your drive is starting to make an unusual noise, be prepared to replace it, imho.

Time to buy a new drive and ghost it. Continued use of that drive is gambling.

if your IDE controller goes your drive will vanish and never return, although your data is still on the platters unharmed you'd have to replace the board to gain access to it again.

Just for the heck of it what does your SMART data say?

>>Smart data

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: SAMSUNG SpinPoint P120 series
Device Model: SAMSUNG SP2014N
Serial Number: S088J1RYA07505
Firmware Version: VC100-33
User Capacity: 200,049,647,616 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 7
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 4a
Local Time is: Thu Jun 17 00:07:45 2010 BST

==> WARNING: May need -F samsung3 enabled; see manual for details.

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82)Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0)The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (4809) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003)Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01)Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 80) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 100 100 025 Pre-fail Always - 5888
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 4232
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 098 098 010 Pre-fail Always - 20
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 253 253 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0025 253 253 015 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 16307
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0033 253 253 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012 253 002 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 2498
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 145 103 000 Old_age Always - 31
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 145 103 000 Old_age Always - 31
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 691997
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 20
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 253 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 253 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x000a 253 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
201 Soft_Read_Error_Rate 0x000a 253 100 000 Old_age Always - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 6 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 6 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 16295 hours (678 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
01 51 08 47 02 41 e3 Error: AMNF 8 sectors at LBA = 0x03410247 = 54592071

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 08 47 02 41 e3 00 00:01:24.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 57 76 c1 e0 00 00:01:24.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 5f 76 c1 e0 00 00:01:24.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 67 76 c1 e0 00 00:01:24.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 3f 67 c1 e0 00 00:01:24.000 READ DMA

Error 5 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 16295 hours (678 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
01 51 08 4f 02 40 e3 Error: AMNF 8 sectors at LBA = 0x0340024f = 54526543

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 08 4f 02 40 e3 00 00:19:39.625 READ DMA
c8 00 08 17 73 01 e3 00 00:19:39.625 READ DMA
c8 00 08 0f 73 01 e3 00 00:19:39.625 READ DMA
c8 00 08 07 73 01 e3 00 00:19:39.625 READ DMA
c8 00 08 df 72 01 e3 00 00:19:39.625 READ DMA

Error 4 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 16295 hours (678 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
01 51 08 8f 3d 41 e3 Error: AMNF 8 sectors at LBA = 0x03413d8f = 54607247

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 08 8f 3d 41 e3 00 00:19:26.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 cf 73 01 e3 00 00:19:26.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 c7 73 01 e3 00 00:19:26.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 77 70 01 e3 00 00:19:26.000 READ DMA
c8 00 08 2f 70 01 e3 00 00:19:26.000 READ DMA

Error 3 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 16295 hours (678 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
01 51 08 7f 0b 40 e3 Error: AMNF 8 sectors at LBA = 0x03400b7f = 54528895

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 08 7f 0b 40 e3 00 00:19:05.500 READ DMA
c8 00 08 9f db c7 e3 00 00:19:05.500 READ DMA
c8 00 08 a7 6e 01 e3 00 00:19:05.500 READ DMA
c8 00 e0 67 2a 00 e3 00 00:19:05.500 READ DMA
c8 00 08 97 db c7 e3 00 00:19:05.500 READ DMA

Error 2 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 16294 hours (678 days + 22 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
01 51 08 3f 21 40 e3 Error: AMNF 8 sectors at LBA = 0x0340213f = 54534463

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 08 3f 21 40 e3 00 00:01:50.563 READ DMA
c8 00 08 3f 69 c1 e0 00 00:01:50.563 READ DMA
c8 00 08 e7 09 c1 e2 00 00:01:50.563 READ DMA
c8 00 08 4f 51 c0 e2 00 00:01:50.563 READ DMA
c8 00 08 3f 51 c0 e2 00 00:01:50.563 READ DMA

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 16307 -

SMART Selective Self-Test Log Data Structure Revision Number (0) should be 1
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
Warning: ATA Specification requires selective self-test log data structure revision number = 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

-------------------------------------

I have never been great at understanding smart diagnostic messages.

Mack.

The current run-time of the disk is 16307 hours with some errors happening at 16295 hours, which are probably the recent problems you have seen. Looking at your power cycle count of 2498 it seems that you switch of your disk at least a few times a day. That, combined with the 16307 hours runtime would suggest that this disk has been running some years now and replacement is the best thing you can do.

As long as the disk is working you can use a partition copy program to move the contents of the entire disk to a new disk within less then an hour. Once your disk fried completely, be prepared for some days work before your system is in its original state again. Many disk partition copy programs allow you to resize partitions during the process.

Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 098 098 010 Pre-fail Always - 20

I'm replacing a disk that currently has a relocation count of 26.

stats aside, you replace a clicking disk regardless of what the SMART data says. I was just curious to see if it actually picked up the errors.

I see you are using ubuntu, if you were using windows vista or windows 7 windows will read the smart data off the disk and if it sees things going south it will prompt you to back up your data and replace the disk before it crashes.

I thought that was pretty slick.

I've still found good ole norton ghost to be the best disk cloning software

ALSO... SAMSUNG SP2014N ? is that an old ATA133 IDE drive? yea time to upgrade to some SATA buddy! :-P

Now running duel Sata. I didn't need to do much to get everything back up and running. All I had to do was backup and recover my home folder and opt/lampp after a clean Ubuntu install moved the backed up folders to the live system. Back to where I was.

Alls well that ends well.

Mack.

and with some much needed sata speeeeeed!