[SOLVED] Hard disk fails internally, works externally

RandomTroll · 12-20-2019, 06:16 AM

The internal hard disk (a 2.5-inch SATA laptop drive) failed yesterday, even on repeated reboots running e2fsck. I installed a different disk internally and installed the 'bad' disk externally (with a USB adaptor). It works perfectly this way, passes 'e2fsck -f'; I copied everything to the newly-internal disk without a problem.

Is there a way this makes sense?

berndbausch · 12-20-2019, 07:16 AM

Bad connection? Corroded contacts, fixed by reseating?

mrmazda · 12-20-2019, 10:57 PM

Is there a firmware update available for the old drive?

If you make an innocuous change to the old drive's MBR sector, will it boot then (e.g. read it with dd, then write it back; or add/remove/move a boot flag, then restore)?

Have you run smartctl -t long on it, then checked its status?

RandomTroll · 12-21-2019, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

Bad connection? Corroded contacts, fixed by reseating?

This seemed far-fetched, considering that the disk is inside a laptop computer, but swapping it back in it worked, so that's consistent with bad contacts. I've gutted the kitchen and bathroom, there's a lot of dust and moisture in the air; perhaps that did it. Thanks.