Hard Drive Invalid Superblock

Ra'Jiska · 10-11-2014, 02:05 PM

Hello,

I got an issue, my HDD superblock is over destroyed and so I cannot do anything.
Here are the outputs I get:

Code:

# e2fsck -f /dev/sdc1
e2fsck 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
e2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdc1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
 or
    e2fsck -b 32768 <device>

So I tried trying to 'recover' it with backup blocks with the command displaying backups, none of them worked.

What I'd like to do: make this hard drive work again, I don't mind about the datas that were on it, it's even better if it's all wiped. How could I make it work again ? Thanks.

TxLonghorn · 10-11-2014, 03:06 PM

Can you delete the partition and create a new one in the same location?

You could boot a live linux DVD that has gparted, or the gparted live CD ( http://gparted.org/livecd.php )
and delete that partition, or all the partitions, and then create the new partitions you want.

The last resort is to wipe the partition (or drive) clean with the dd command:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc1 bs=4096
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=4096
You are writing zeros to every sector, so with a big partition or hard drive it could take, like, forever to complete - hours and hours.

Ra'Jiska · 10-11-2014, 04:08 PM

Thank you for your answer.
I prefered to do the 'dd' command.
The system is on a server, fortunately with SSD of 120GB.

Both commands were performed:

Code:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc1 bs=4096
dd: error writing ‘/dev/sdc1’: No space left on device
29304951+0 records in
29304950+0 records out
120033075200 bytes (120 GB) copied, 871.969 s, 138 MB/s

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=4096
dd: error writing ‘/dev/sdc’: No space left on device
29305207+0 records in
29305206+0 records out
120034123776 bytes (120 GB) copied, 870.753 s, 138 MB/s

However, the issue is persisting, it's still not working.
Here is what I get with with the demsg command:

Code:

# dmesg | tail
EXT4-fs (sdc1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem

Is there any way to fix that ?

jlinkels · 10-11-2014, 05:27 PM

It seems that the drive is not partitioned and not formatted. If you are working command line, use cfdisk for partitioning, then mkfs -t ext4 for formatting.

Note: I see that somehow the system refers to /dev/sdc1. Altough you cleaned the partition table with the dd command. If cfdisk complains, start with cfdisk -z /dev/sdc. This ignores any remnants of partition information.

I assume /dev/sdc is your disk. Double check.

jlinkels

Ra'Jiska · 10-16-2014, 09:06 AM

Hello,

Sorry for the late answer, when I wished to reply, I got an 'Internet Server Error'.
Thank you a lot for your answer: mkfs -t ext4 did the trick !