I have a small server (Zotac Zbox) running Ubuntu 24.04. Twice now it's had an entire series of corrupted files on the HDD. (This time it's affected apt such that apt --fix-broken install fails; I think a reinstall will be required regardless.) It'll hang at boot complaining that a manual fsck is needed, then give errors like "inode <inode id> seems to contain garbage". The SMART diagnostics aren't finding anything wrong.
How can I tell if there's a hard drive problem doing this? What other troubleshooting can I do to try to narrow it down?
What can I do to prevent it in the future?
SMART data is below. I'm currently running an extended test; the short test at 15677 hours was this evening, and I believe the two tests at the 86xx mark were last time this happened. (No telling how long it had inode errors between these two. It is very rarely rebooted.)
Model Family: Toshiba L200 (SMR)
Device Model: TOSHIBA HDWL120
Serial Number: 44BBPKQVT
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000039 cf2680683
Firmware Version: JT001A
User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Zoned Device: Device managed zones
Device is: In smartctl database 7.3/5528
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is: SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sat Jul 18 20:26:24 2026 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
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 0x000b 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 050 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 100 100 001 Pre-fail Always - 1623
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 15
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0005 100 100 050 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 061 061 000 Old_age Always - 15679
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0033 100 100 030 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 14
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 1195817
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 46 (Min/Max 19/50)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
220 Disk_Shift 0x0002 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
222 Loaded_Hours 0x0032 076 076 000 Old_age Always - 9859
223 Load_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
224 Load_Friction 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
226 Load-in_Time 0x0026 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 271
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0001 100 100 001 Pre-fail Offline - 0
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% 15677 -
# 2 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 8640 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 8634 -