I get a "status=0x51 / error=0x04" error during bootup. (see part of dmesg below) I found a lot of topics on the web, but I still don't know what's up. However, I don't think it's related to hardware damage. A lot of people posting this issue seem to have Maxtor (Diamond Plus 9??) However, I don't know if this is significant. - I get the error only for my Maxtor 6Y080P0. - I don't get this error for my IBM TLA-307030 - I get this error for journaled ReiserFS and journaled XFS - I get this error as master, slave, or single drive. - I use udma5-mode (ATA100) - I get that error on an ASUS P4PE (Intel 82801) and P4P800 (Intel ICH5) - I saw the same error on another Maxtor 80G at work (AFAIR a 6Y080 and 82801, don't remember the MoBo) - the IBM tells (hdparm) : rive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-5 T13 1321D revision 1: - the Maxtor tells: Drive conforms to: (null): - SMART is enabled for both drives in the BIOS. I run SuSE 9.0, kernel 2.4.21 ---- MY QUESTIONS: ? Can someone expain what this error really means? ? Does this affect data integrity, i.e. is there a change of data corruption under certain cirsumstances due to faulty cache flushing, etc. ? ? Does anybody observe this error with a NEW drive but NO Maxtor 6YxxxP0? ? Is this a (known) specific Maxtor problem? ? Is this a (known) specific driver problem? ? Is this a (known) specific chip-set problem? ? How can I avoid this error? (I won't switch off DMA or journal) ? What means "PIIX-4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later" (dmesg)? ? Should I ignore the error OR should I be worried and replace the disk? ------------------------------------------------------------- /begin dmesg ... PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00) PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 00:1f.1 Transparent bridge - Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB/EB PCI Bridge ... PIIX-4: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:1f.1 PIIX-4: chipset revision 2 PIIX-4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio ... hda: IBM-DTLA-307030, ATA DISK drive hdb: Maxtor 6Y080P0, ATA DISK drive blk: queue c03bc8e0, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff) blk: queue c03bca3c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff) hdc: SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-348B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 ... hdb: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdb: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError } hdb: cache flushing failed. disable write back cacheing for journalled file systems hdb: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdb: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError } hdb: cache flushing failed. disable write back cacheing for journalled file systems /end dmesg ===============================================================