My First HDD Failure (I Think)

Last week I observed something in the GNU/Linux kernel
logs that I have never ever seen before.

My main drive, which contains my OS and other important
stuff, was reporting a reduction in speed from the usual
SATA 6 mbs/sec to 3 mbs/sec and then to 1.5 mbs/sec.

I first noticed this when some MP3 files I was playing
suddenly stalled and then restarted.

WTF!

I have NEVER experienced such behavior.  NEVER.

But then I recalled the phenomenon of the hard drive
crash.

Immediately, I shut down my system and then replaced
the main drive with a backup drive and then rebooted.
All was fine.

Because the backup drive was of a lower quality I
immediately ordered another drive from Western Digital
that was shipped next day air.

Then I copied everything over to the new drive and all
is fine.

What I want to know is what are the symptoms of an HDD
failure?

The problem drive, after a shutdown and subsequent power
up and reboot, behaves normally -- for a while.  After
about 24 hours of operation it will once again begin
to shift from 6 mbs/sec to 3 mbs/sec and then to 1.5 mbs/sec.

Is this this the behavior of a dying HDD?

The drive is relatively new and I would never have
expected a failure from this drive.

C'mon lackeys, cough up some advice.

Or does your distro do it all for you including wiping
your shit besotted ass?

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!


--
Systemd: solving all the problems that you never knew you had.