USB flash disk partition disappeared as well as partition table

openmind · 02-17-2011, 03:13 PM

Hi all
USB flash disk partition disappeared as well as partition table I'm not sure about the cause

Code:

root@u#  less /var/log/syslog
usb 5-1: New USB device found, idVendor=058f, idProduct=1234
usb 5-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 5-1: Product: Mass Storage Device
usb 5-1: Manufacturer: Alcor Micro
usb-storage: device found at 3
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usb-storage: device scan complete
scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  USB Flash Disk   7.76 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk


root@u#  fdisk  /dev/sdb
Unable to open /dev/sdb


root@u# sfdisk -l /dev/sdb
/dev/sdb: No medium found
sfdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb for reading

Where did the partition table go? The device had one ext3 partition something around 4GB(size of USB storage device). I need to restore few files from this device, better get back everything as it was So, my dear friends, what can I do? If you have any ideas, please post them here
Thank You

hughetorrance · 02-17-2011, 03:34 PM

Use Testdisk found on the Parted Magic live CD to find your lost partition.

Note: ext3 is a file system type...today I just found that one of my USB flash drives had failed totally and is now useless... ! perhaps your has joined it. LOL

openmind · 02-17-2011, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hughetorrance

Note: ext3 is a file system type...

I know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hughetorrance

Use Testdisk found on the Parted Magic live CD to find your lost partition.

It didn't helped

Quote:

Originally Posted by hughetorrance

today I just found that one of my USB flash drives had failed totally and is now useless... ! perhaps your has joined it. LOL

But device is still recognized as mass storage, so I think there is still hope. In critical situation I may recover byte by byte but I want to try other solutions first

jlinkels · 02-17-2011, 05:20 PM

As it seems the USB controller is still working, but the disk controller which has to talk to the disk and send this information thru the USB controller to the host, is not available. Defective.

Since this is a USB stick I am afraid you are out of luck.

As a last resort you could try this: (as root)
dd if=/dev/sdb count=1 bs=512
If it tells again that /dev/sdb is unaccessible then the hardware is defective.

jlinkels