Failed to read extended partition table (offset=xxx): Invalid argument

cyber.scientist · 08-31-2020, 05:29 AM

Hi,
I am trying to mount an old hard drive, the HDD is connected via USB.
Usually they mount automatically however, with this one it refuses to mount.
This is the output for fdisk.
Any help will be appreciated.

Code:

sudo fdisk -l -u /dev/sdb 
Failed to read extended partition table (offset=539080702): Invalid argument
Disk /dev/sdb: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 122096646 sectors
Disk model: 00BPVT-22HXZT3  
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xda81b32c

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1            2048  29277975  29275928 111.7G 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sdb2  *     37750784  37955583    204800   800M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb3        37955584 539078655 501123072   1.9T  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb4       539080702 976771071 437690370   1.6T  5 Extended

berndbausch · 08-31-2020, 05:38 AM

fdisk says it's a 465GiB disk, but partitions 3 and 4 are each in the terabyte ranges. I conclude that the partition table is heavily damaged.

Perhaps plugging it into a Windows PC and attempting to repair it there is a solution.

cyber.scientist · 08-31-2020, 05:52 AM

I don't have a windows PC, any way to fix it with Linux?

syg00 · 08-31-2020, 06:00 AM

Have a look at testdisk - just use it to scan for lost partitions. Go to the site, read the doco carefully; the hands-on tutorials are handy.

You could rescue that third partition which is likely the major Windows system pretty simply by redefining the partition to cover the rest of the disk (after deleting part4) and work on the size of the filesystem to guess the true partition size. Then redefine the extended and go looking for logicals. Fiddly, and should be unnecessary as testdisk is very good usually.

pan64 · 08-31-2020, 12:01 PM

You might try to copy the disk image into your hdd.
sdb2 is probably irrelevant (just a small boot partition). sdb1 [probably] can be mounted, but you may need to specify the filesystem type. Obviously in readonly mode.
sdb3 and sdb4 are most probably useless (especially an extended partition itself contains no filesystem at all). If this partition table contains valid information at all.
The other way could be post #4, testdisk.