Strange harddisk problem, NTFS

Grife · 03-24-2007, 08:15 AM

I have hooked my old IDE harddisk, 120Gb, on my external harddisk cabinet and attached it to my computer via firewire. now it reads all the files on the NTFS and I managed to copy them all to safety. Then I attempted to format it with gparted then parted, but it only shows 30Gb of unused space (old linux partition) and rest 90Gb is not visible at all!
I tried to plain remove files with sudo rm -rf from ntfs but gives errors:

Code:

rm: cannot remove `<files>': Read-only file system
rm: cannot lstat `<other files>': Input/output error

Strange that I can access & copy files but partition tools don't notice the ntfs at all!
You might find this be interesting:

Code:

(parted) print free                                                       

Disk /dev/sdb: 33.8GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  33.8GB  33.8GB  primary                    

(parted)

Oh yeah:

EDIT: one more thing, OS X didn't notice/mount filesystem at all.

Junior Hacker · 03-25-2007, 03:39 AM

My boot manager which has all hard disk utilities also does that on rare occasions, if I remember correctly, this happens with Seagate drives for me. But if you removed all data you want and want to clean her up, you should wipe it with zeros which will remove all format info and MBR. Basically bring it to similar shape to a new hard drive on the shelf at the store. Using dd from a Linux machine or live CD.
If it is the only USB or Firewire device plugged in it would probably be /dev/sda if your internal drive is ATA, or sdb if you have a sata drive in the box. So the dd command for /dev/sda (/dev/sda1 & /dev/sda2 would be partitions) would be:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc

Then partition it and the MBR will be created at this point, then format the partition. Or, if you intend on installing a operating system, let the OS take care of the partitioning etc. If it is a Maxtor disc you can download and use Maxblast 3 to use in dos or windows to make the partition and format if it will be a NTFS or Fat32 drive. If it is a Western Digital, download Data Lifeguard which is the same as Maxblast but for WD drives. Those are basically Ontrac disk management specialized for whatever HDD company. I think all HDD manufacturers use Ontrac and give it their own name. Or maybe gparted will see the whole drive after dd wipes it out. Also, doing the dd thing takes a while on a large drive like that depending on the muscle behind it, could be an overnight thing, or 3 to 4 hours, wait till the prompt comes back. But I highly recommend wiping drives as data will leach from one installation to the other, especially when using the same OS as they tend to put files in the same spot.