is this hdd dead?

spendabuk · 03-24-2021, 03:54 AM

I have a WD Elements USB hard drive. The light goes on, the disk is spinning, but I think it's dead. Is it a goner? Do you have any other ideas?

Positive signs

lsscsi:

Code:

lsscsi -l 
[2:0:0:0]    disk    WD       Elements 10A8    1042  /dev/sda 
  state=running queue_depth=1 scsi_level=7 type=0 device_blocked=0 timeout=30
[N:0:2:1]    disk    SAMSUNG MZVLW512HMJP-000L2__1              /dev/nvme0n1
  capability=50  ext_range=256  hidden=0  nsid=1  range=0  removable=0

lsusb gives

Code:

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 1058:10a8 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Elements Portable (WDBUZG)

Negative signs

in /dev/ only bsg and sg0 appear when I plug the device in
does not appear in lsblk
lshw -C disk hangs
testdisk hangs

Gad · 03-24-2021, 06:51 AM

It you try the hard drive on another machine and it replicates the same error most likely the HDD is failing or failed. There are various software tools that can be used to test the hard drive. If the drive is SMART enabled you can also run that test also.

Here are some links:
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/07/19/ho...h-in-gnulinux/
https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-check...using-smartctl

Bare in mind these tests are to be used as a guideline and don't necessary indicate hard evidence

Gad · 03-24-2021, 06:52 AM

Welcome to LQ by the way!

pan64 · 03-24-2021, 06:55 AM

need to check additional logs (for example in /var/log), fsck, but first of all smartctl as it was mentioned.

business_kid · 03-24-2021, 10:17 AM

In addition to the other comments, a more present question in "Will you trust that drive anymore?"
I presume the answer to that one is no, so you're turning to data rescue (if necessary) and transfer to as replacement.

Personally I back up to a usb drive. But as the traffic on that usb drive increases, I have bought a backup of the backup drive to be minimally used.

Reziac · 03-25-2021, 12:21 PM

Might not be the drive. The motherboard's USB circuit is, in my experience, one of the bits most likely to fail. Also it's possible that the enclosure is failing, or even the cable. Plugs and ports break internally, or come loose. Anyway you can't really know without testing the drive hooked to a different PC, and if it still chokes, you'll need to extract the drive from the enclosure and hook it up directly, and test the drive without any uncertain connections

Regardless, this is when you run, do not walk, to do an immediate backup.

spendabuk · 04-02-2021, 06:01 PM

Thanks for your replies. Sorry for not being clearer - yes, the idea was data recovery and then toss it. I'm scared to fiddle around with any of the hardware for fear of making it worse.

Reziac · 04-02-2021, 06:48 PM

I would set the drive aside for later testing by itself, rather than toss it. As I note above, it's about 50-50 that the problem is not the drive, but somewhere in the USB subsystem (including the enclosure). You can't know unless you hook up the drive directly to the SATA port and see how it behaves then.

Beryllos · 04-03-2021, 12:19 PM

If this WD Elements drive is the desktop model, there is a good chance the drive inside has a standard SATA connector.

If this is the portable model, there may be no accessible SATA connector. See this video for an example (It's a long video, but I link to the segment about the controller/interface board):

https://youtu.be/41nWU5gyyak?t=290

There are some extra pins next to the USB connector. I don't know if these could be for SATA, or just some other functionality (factory test/setup?).