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Old 10-04-2009, 12:02 AM   #1
technik733
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Unreadable USB External Disk


Well, I bought a 1TB external drive a few months back because I thought I'd be able to use it with my next PC; like it'd be a good investment.

I've since almost filled it up, and it has died on me today. It's been tempermental for a while, but now it's really not working at all. When I plug it in dmesg gives me this:

Code:
usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=13fd, idProduct=1340
usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-3: Product: External        
usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Generic 
usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 57442D574341553435333737
usb-storage: device found at 5
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  External         2.10 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] 1953525168 512-byte hardware sectors (1000205 MB)
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 21 00 00 00
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] 1953525168 512-byte hardware sectors (1000205 MB)
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 21 00 00 00
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sda:<3>end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
__ratelimit: 4 callbacks suppressed
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
 unable to read partition table
sd 5:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 1
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 2
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 3
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
I do not have a drive large enough to copy all 750GiBs sector by sector with dd right now, so I need to fix it or store it safely until I do. I use Slackware 12.2 and it's a 1TB WD Green drive in a Cavalry enclosure. I'll be trying it with SATA in my brother's PC soon, but that's not something I can try now.

Anyone have suggestions besides dd and SATA port/internal testing it?
 
Old 10-04-2009, 12:09 AM   #2
wfh
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If this is an IDE drive, pull the connector from your disk (inside the housing), then re-insert the connector. Sometimes you have to scrape the contacts on a drive to get a good connection. Try that, first.

Last edited by wfh; 10-04-2009 at 12:11 AM.
 
Old 10-04-2009, 12:19 AM   #3
technik733
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Yeah, I already tried that. No difference. =/

Also, I mean it's a Cavalry external drive (came with the hdd) that's really a WD Green... thing. Technically the warranty's gone. =P

Oh, and it's actually a SATA drive, but I tried the connection anyway. I'll be trying it in a pc with SATA later.

Last edited by technik733; 10-04-2009 at 09:21 PM.
 
Old 10-04-2009, 07:13 PM   #4
technik733
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Mmbump
 
Old 10-23-2009, 07:37 PM   #5
technik733
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I haven't made any progress and it's really starting to get on my nerves.
 
Old 10-24-2009, 09:55 AM   #6
wfh
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What happened when you plugged it into another host? Do you get the same 'sector 0' error?
 
Old 10-24-2009, 04:13 PM   #7
technik733
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Yep. I've also tried it on various windows machines and it'll appear in device manager but it says that there is no volume information, so it won't show up in disk management. It's actually formatted NFTS if it matters at all.
 
Old 10-25-2009, 02:05 AM   #8
wfh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by technik733 View Post
tried it on various windows machines and it'll appear in device manager but it says that there is no volume information, so it won't show up in disk management. It's actually formatted NFTS if it matters at all.
I'm not sure I understand, but it appears that you are having failure both from windows machines and from Linux. If that's the case, then you are hosed and should be prepared to wipe the disk and start fresh (sorry).

But assuming I'm not interpreting you correctly, that you might actually be able to read this disk from Windoze, you might want to check your NTFS drivers and configuration on the Linux box and try to mount it that way.

Add to /etc/fstab something like:

Code:
 
 /dev/sd??  /mnt/ntfs  ntfs    ro   1 3
...where ?? completes the drive info (i.e. /dev/sda1)

Last edited by wfh; 10-25-2009 at 02:06 AM.
 
Old 10-25-2009, 11:17 AM   #9
technik733
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I was hoping that it might be some kind of issue with the filesystem, but it's actually not even showing up in windows' disk management, so I can't format it (from there), and I haven't tried cfdisk on it from linux, but I'd expect the same result.

I'd sooner send it off to a data recovery place than format it though; I've got everything I've felt like saving for like 4 years on that thing. Heh, unfortunately my desktop also went out recently, so it's my only viable copy right now. :C

I'll try that with the fstab, but I'm not optimistic. It would be sda1; there's only one partition.

Last edited by technik733; 10-25-2009 at 11:18 AM.
 
  


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