Maxtor Usb harddrive. Buffer I/O error on device sda.

sfumato · 12-09-2005, 05:41 PM

I just got a new computer, with my old one I had been using my Maxtor usb hard drive for about 2 years until it just stopped working, both windows and the eLearnix LiveCD detect it, but give me no way of accessing it. When i changed my BIOS so that it would boot from CD i noticed it listed. Window completely ignored it so i figure if theres any way to fix it it is through linux. When i plug it in dmesg gives me this:

Code:

scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
       Vendor: Maxtor A Model: RES C64k Rev: 00
       Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
SCSI Device sda: 80295529 512-byte hdwr sectors (41111 mb)
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
       sda: (7) ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP 1991A
scsi0: ERROR on channel 0, id 0, lun 0, CDB: 0x28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00
Current sda: sense = 70 3
ASC = 11 ASCQ = 0
Raw sense data: 0x70 0x00 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x11 0x00 0x00 0x00
end request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0

unable to read partition table
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

Parts of it repeat with only a coupla digits changing. The disk has a lot of important things on it but i now have other places to put it if neccesary, i just need to be able to access it to get the info off, though i would like to continue using it if possible. Thank you for your help.

bigrigdriver · 12-10-2005, 11:26 PM

Take a look in /var/log. Look for a file, such as hotplug.log. It might give more information in re the problem.

Electro · 12-11-2005, 12:10 AM

If all you need to do is get data off the drive, just get a new hard drive bigger than it. Next format the new hard drive. Then use dd to do a sector by sector copy from the USB Maxtor drive to a file on the new drive. Use the following dd command and assuming the new drive is /dev/hdd1 and it is mounted on /mnt/newdisk:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/newdisk bs=512 conv=noerrors,sync

It will take a while. After it is done, you can then try to set it up as loop device, make a partition, and run fsck on it.

sfumato · 12-26-2005, 11:38 AM

thanks for the replys, sorry i took so long to get back. I pehaps should have said i was a newbie. That said : i have a second usb harddrive as sdb1 mounted on /mnt/sdb1 will that work? if so should i format it in any specific fs? And will dd work the same with a live cd? also if some one could maybe explain what may have 'broken' to cause this problem id really appreciate it. thanks again