HDD Problem - Freezes for a while during linux init

Question

I've got a problem with my HDD. My Arch usually boots like thunderbolt, but since 3-4 days it freezes for a while before login screen. So I checked dmesg and this is what I found:
[ 53.360021] ata1: lost interrupt (Status 0x50)
[ 53.360041] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[ 53.360045] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
[ 53.360053] ata1.00: cmd 35/00:18:e0:d9:46/00:00:12:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 12288 out
res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 53.360056] ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
[ 53.360075] ata1: soft resetting link
[ 53.562494] ata1: nv_mode_filter: 0x3f39f&0x3f39f->0x3f39f, BIOS=0x3f000 (0xc6000000) ACPI=0x3f01f (20:900:0x11)
[ 53.628863] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 53.628868] ata1.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[ 53.628883] ata1: EH complete
[ 76.701622] fuse init (API version 7.21)
This is output from smartctl:
smartctl 6.1 2013-03-16 r3800 [i686-linux-3.9.4-1-ARCH] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
Device Model: ST3500630A
Serial Number: 5QG1X3G1
Firmware Version: 3.AAE
User Capacity: 500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA/ATAPI-7 (minor revision not indicated)
Local Time is: Fri Jun 7 11:41:09 2013 CEST
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: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 430) 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: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 163) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
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 112 095 006 Pre-fail Always - 43863857
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 094 092 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 098 098 020 Old_age Always - 2833
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 047 036 030 Pre-fail Always - 32856947045143
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 082 082 000 Old_age Always - 16160
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 097 097 020 Old_age Always - 3563
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 016 016 000 Old_age Always - 84
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 057 047 045 Old_age Always - 43 (Min/Max 23/43)
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 043 053 000 Old_age Always - 43 (0 16 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 063 054 000 Old_age Always - 32213260
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 4294967295
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 001 001 000 Old_age Offline - 4294967295
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
202 Data_Address_Mark_Errs 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 118 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 118 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 15759 hours (656 days + 15 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
84 51 00 00 00 00 e0 Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
25 20 01 00 00 00 e0 00 00:00:17.357 READ DMA EXT
c6 20 10 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:17.357 SET MULTIPLE MODE
91 20 3f 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:17.357 INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS [OBS-6]
10 20 01 01 00 00 e1 00 00:00:17.350 RECALIBRATE [OBS-4]
00 00 01 00 00 00 00 04 00:00:18.309 NOP [Abort queued commands]
Error 117 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 15759 hours (656 days + 15 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
84 51 00 00 00 00 e0 Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
25 20 01 00 00 00 e0 00 00:00:17.357 READ DMA EXT
c6 20 10 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:17.357 SET MULTIPLE MODE
91 20 3f 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:17.357 INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS [OBS-6]
10 20 01 01 00 00 e1 00 00:00:17.350 RECALIBRATE [OBS-4]
00 00 01 00 00 00 00 04 00:00:16.873 NOP [Abort queued commands]
Error 116 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 15759 hours (656 days + 15 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
84 51 00 00 00 00 e0 Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
25 20 01 00 00 00 e0 00 00:00:17.357 READ DMA EXT
c6 20 10 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:17.357 SET MULTIPLE MODE
91 20 3f 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:17.357 INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS [OBS-6]
10 20 01 01 00 00 e1 00 00:00:17.350 RECALIBRATE [OBS-4]
00 00 01 00 00 00 00 04 00:00:16.873 NOP [Abort queued commands]
Error 115 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 15759 hours (656 days + 15 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
84 51 00 00 00 00 e0 Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
25 20 01 00 00 00 e0 00 00:00:13.895 READ DMA EXT
c6 20 10 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:13.895 SET MULTIPLE MODE
91 20 3f 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:13.887 INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS [OBS-6]
10 20 01 01 00 00 e1 00 00:00:13.419 RECALIBRATE [OBS-4]
00 00 10 00 00 00 00 04 00:00:16.873 NOP [Abort queued commands]
Error 114 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 15759 hours (656 days + 15 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
84 51 00 00 00 00 e0 Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
25 20 01 00 00 00 e0 00 00:00:13.895 READ DMA EXT
c6 20 10 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:13.895 SET MULTIPLE MODE
91 20 3f 01 00 00 ef 00 00:00:13.887 INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS [OBS-6]
10 20 01 01 00 00 e1 00 00:00:13.419 RECALIBRATE [OBS-4]
00 00 01 00 00 00 00 04 00:00:13.419 NOP [Abort queued commands]
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% 16160 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 15759 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
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.
It would be great if someone could help me a little to prevent some major incident and point out what's happening. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

@pok0j
You best bet at getting the most uncorrupted data out of that disk, is to stop using it until you get a new disk that is at least twice as big as that one. The reason is that when you get a new disk, you want to try to do a full disk image in one go and get as much data out as possible before more data corruption occurs or the disk stops working at all.
The twice as large requirement is because you can then take your time to extract the files you want from the image and have enough free space to store them. After that make a backup strategy if you don't have one yet.
@drhill1
Has far as I know, both Current_Pending_Sector and Offline_Uncorrectable attributes start out at zero and 1) increase when there is a problem with a sector, 2) decrease when the problem is solved either by overwriting the affected sectors or when the sectors get reallocated thus decreasing the count, which should return to zero when there are no more sectors with problems. This implies that the count should never exceed the total number of user addressable sectors. Like I said, I have never seen any disk where those attributes didn't make sense, if those attributes weren't defined they wouldn't be reported I suppose.