I'm getting a similar warning on my Dell Vostro 1310 with a Samsung Drive. Palimpsest reports something about drive failing and drive has many corrupt sectors. What it doesn't like is the number of the current pending sector. smartctl does not indicate any problem: ojo@hermes:~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda smartctl version 5.38 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Device Model: SAMSUNG HM160HI Serial Number: S14QJF0Q613911 Firmware Version: HH100-11 User Capacity: 160.041.885.696 bytes Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: 7 ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 0 Local Time is: Sun Dec 27 01:11:45 2009 CET ==> WARNING: May need -F samsung or -F samsung2 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: (0x80) Offline data collection activity was never started. Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled. Self-test execution status: ( 32) The self-test routine was interrupted by the host with a hard or soft reset. Total time to complete Offline data collection: ( 61) 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: ( 2) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 61) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x003f) SCT Status supported. SCT Feature Control supported. SCT Data Table supported. 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 - 1 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 252 252 025 Pre-fail Always - 2062 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 082 082 000 Old_age Always - 184167 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 252 252 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 2662 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1179 191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 646 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 41 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 121 085 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 5/51) 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 132552 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 826 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 2876 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0036 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x000a 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged 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% 2651 - # 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 1 - # 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 - # 4 Short offline Aborted by host 150% 0 - 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 Interrupted [00% left] (0-65535) 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.