WD Passport drive is not readable by Linux anymore

snap5539 · 04-17-2022, 02:37 AM

I was regularly using this drive for backups. Yesterday, I tried to plug this device in and it made a few (5-7) beeping sounds before going quiet. I wasn't able to detect the device using lsblk anymore. I can see that the device can read that there is a WD My Passport drive plugged in via USB using the lsusb command.

This is the contents of dmesg after I plug in the device:

Code:

[ 2323.648238] usb 2-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[ 2323.669394] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=2626, bcdDevice=10.31
[ 2323.669406] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3           
[ 2323.669411] usb 2-1: Product: My Passport 2626                                          
[ 2323.669415] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: Western Digital      
[ 2323.669418] usb 2-1: SerialNumber: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
[ 2323.671699] usb-storage 2-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 2323.671961] scsi host1: usb-storage 2-1:1.0                                                 
[ 2324.692886] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Passport 2626 1031 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6                                                                                                   
[ 2324.693411] scsi 1:0:0:1: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1031 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 2324.695153] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 2324.695218] ses 1:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device
[ 2324.695290] ses 1:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 13                                                                                                                                 
[ 2324.696254] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Spinning up disk...                                                                                                                                          
[ 2336.699485] ses 1:0:0:1: Failed to get diagnostic page 0x1                                                                                                                                 
[ 2336.699500] ses 1:0:0:1: Failed to bind enclosure -19                                                                                                                                      
[ 2337.715742] ......                                                                          
[ 2343.859478] .                                                                                                                                                                              
[ 2344.887455] ..                                                                                                                                                                             
[ 2346.931455] ...not responding...

Is the hard drive totally toast? Is there any way I can recover the drive's functionality?

michaelk · 04-17-2022, 09:30 AM

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

Question 1, Probably, question 2, probably not. Just posting the drive made some beeping sounds is not good. Possibly a drive motor problem or worst case a head crash. WD does not have any diagnostics software for linux but here is the link for Windows.

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en&p=279

jailbait · 04-17-2022, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snap5539

Code:

[ 2323.648238[ 2324.696254] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Spinning up disk...                                                                                                                                          
[ 2336.699485] ses 1:0:0:1: Failed to get diagnostic page 0x1                                                                                                                                 
[ 2336.699500] ses 1:0:0:1: Failed to bind enclosure -19                                                                                                                                      
[ 2337.715742] ......                                                                          
[ 2343.859478] .                                                                                                                                                                              
[ 2344.887455] ..                                                                                                                                                                             
[ 2346.931455] ...not responding...

Is the hard drive totally toast? Is there any way I can recover the drive's functionality?

Things were going OK until the drive began spinning up. Spinning up requires a lot of power. A USB port does not supply a lot of power and external drives that take their power from the USB port instead of a separate power cable are always dealing with a marginal power source. So it is possible that the problem is that the USB power has decreased to where the hard drive can't get the power peak necessary to spin up.

Try your WD My Passport on another computer with a USB 3 port. Whether it works there or not I suggest that you replace your WD My Passport with a WD MyBook or a Seagate GoFlex both of which have both a USB cable and a power cable.

Soadyheid · 04-17-2022, 07:45 PM

If jailbait's solution doesn't work the disk may be being prevented from spinning up because of sticktion; The heads are acting like brake pads on a disk brake preventing the disk spinning. There's usually a special "landing place" for the heads when you spin the disk down but if it's getting old... (Not sure if technology in the intervening years since my retiral have solved this! Platters tend to be made of glass rather than aluminium now.)

As it's an external USB drive it makes it easier... Hold the disk in the horizontal plane and flick your wrist so you're actually twisting the enclosure back and forward. The inertia of the platter(s) inside the casing means the platters won't move but you should free the heads. We used to know this method as "The bean shake" after a Nescafe advert on UK television waaaay back. Some people like to actually hit the disk a few times to free stuck heads which is probably a good idea if you really want to cause a head crash!

If the disk is freed up after this and spins up giving access to the data a backup is the best next step.

Just my

Play Bonny!

snap5539 · 08-07-2022, 12:38 PM

Quick update. I tried different USB ports as well as different computers and the flicking method recommended by Soadyheid. None of them worked. Fortunately, I had a warranty on the device so I got my money back. I have a feeling that there was a certain device which I plugged this hard drive into which caused some internal failure since before plugging it into that device, the SSD was working fine and afterwards, not so much.