Can't login to KDE; READ DMA and I/O errors

[Zeikcied]

I don't know if this is a hardware or software issue.

My mom has used Kubuntu Lucid for over a year now. Monday night she had a couple issues, including KDE freezing, and she had to shut down the computer using the power button. After that, she couldn't get into KDE.

I tried to figure it out yesterday, to no avail. I was able to login via the tty1 terminal, but the KDE login process always hangs at the hard drive icon for 30 to 60 seconds, and then goes back to the login prompt.

I managed to get some error messages to pop up on the terminal. I can't copy/paste, but I got a photo of the screen. It's a little blurry, but hopefully someone can make sense out of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...d20/errors.jpg

There's some "failed command: READ DMA" as well as the final line "end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 34127047".

I don't get how it could be a hard drive issue. While logged in to the tty1 terminal, I could copy and move files and folders without any issue. I could move through the folders, as well. Only KDE seems to be having problems.

Is there anything I can do? Is the hard drive dying? My mom needs her computer, so I really need help with this.

[dequire]

If KDE is freezing up, my first thought would be a failing hard drive or failing memory. The "failed command: READ DMA" as well as the final line "end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 34127047" would point to a corrupt hard drive sector, and possibly to a failing hard drive. The first thing would be to scan the hard drive for errors.

[Zeikcied]

How would I go about doing that, though?

[dequire]

I use this method: scan disk for errors but I'm sure there are many other methods as well.

[Zeikcied]

It checked the drives, didn't prompt to fix any errors, and sent me to the KDE login screen. I tried logging in, and I got as far as I did yesterday. The hard drive logo, a long wait, and then kicked back to the login screen. I switched to tty1 while the hard drive icon was up and it dumped the same error messages.

This is an old hard drive. I think she got it in 2003. Luckily she doesn't need much HD space, so it should be pretty cheap to replace it. I just kind of hoped we could salvage this.

[Snowhog]

When you have booted into the 'recover (single user)' mode (console), type:

df -h

What is reported as Use% for the root ( / ) partition?

[Zeikcied]

Well, I guess the issue is technically solved. I took out the hard drive and put a new one in. I tried to copy the partitions using gparted (Lucid doesn't seem to have kparted), and I eventually ran into an I/O error when copying the root partition. So I did a fresh install of 10.04 on the "new" hard drive and just copied the files from the /home partition. I ran into an I/O error while it was copying one file, but otherwise it seemed okay.

The "new" hard drive is only a year or two younger than the one that was replaced. So I don't know how long it will last. My mom doesn't use a lot of hard drive space, and trying to find a new 30 Gig drive seems impossible. I was hoping for a really cheap (in terms of cost, not quality) replacement.

[dequire]

Glad the issue was able to be sorted out.