mp3, disk utility, second hdd, wanda

rj98942

are there any effective ways to get Rythmbox to like mp3 or to convert and mp3 file into something that it does like? i got my hands on a second hdd for free (it's a cute 75Gb one...lol) and i'm running a disk utility on it to make sure it's ok. i would like to know the best way to install another hard drive and have fedora realize that it's there and possibly use it for space. i am assuming that the Self Test option under the disk utility does at least a half way decent job. When i try to run the self test on my main hard drive it states "FAILED (Read)" and the only thing that is red is a warning for Current Pending Sector Count. So would that tell you that you have to do a checkdisk and defrag kind of thing? and last but not least, wth is wanda? all she has said to me is just jibberish. thanks for your time guys.

mfillpot

Re: MP3
You can install lame or twolame from your distro repo which will allow you to read mp3 files.

Re: Hard Disk
The hard disk could have failed the tests for a number of issues. Since it is a new drive you could just fund fdisk, cfdisk or gparted to partition it out and start using it for a test. If it is unusable you will not be able to properly format it.

woboyle

As mfillpot said, install the mp3 codecs and rythmbox will work with them just fine. Alternatively, use VLC. It has mp3 codecs built in.

Since your main HDD is probably not from the same manufacturer as the "new" one, it is likely that the test application isn't working on it properly. Use either the manufacturer's tools, or the Linux tools to check the drive. To check for bad blocks on a drive that has no file systems, and the drive hasn't been mounted, then run the command "badblocks /dev/sdX" where 'X' is the drive id of the hdd you are checking. Don't do this on your main drive unless you first boot from a live CD/DVD or rescue disc so it isn't mounted.

If you have created a file system on the drive, or want to check a file system for bad blocks, then boot from the live/rescue disc and run "fsck -f -c /dev/sdXN" where 'X' is the drive designator, and 'N' is the partition to check. That will not only check/fix the file system, but map out any bad blocks found.

If you are using Seagate drives, there is a service called SMART that will monitor your drives for incipient failures. There is a Linux service/daemon that runs in the background and periodically checks with the drive controller to see if anything is going wonky, reporting it to the 'root' account in an email. That has worked well for me since I have about 10 Seagate drives on my workstation/server. It has found a failing drive and I was able to replace it under warranty without data loss. When I ran badblocks on the drive, it found that some sectors were starting to fail.