1. Home
  2. Electronics Design
  3. Formatting Corrupted WD HDD

Formatting Corrupted WD HDD

Please excuse me for restarting this thread, but the other was quite long and there has been a slight delay from my side due to personal circumstances.

I have done as Jan suggested, which is to connect the HDD to my Linux machine and enter DMESG. This is what shows:

[ 66.672060] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci [ 67.100075] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci [ 67.233229] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=07a8 [ 67.233233] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [ 67.233236] usb 1-1: Product: My Passport 07A8 [ 67.233239] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Western Digital [ 67.233241] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 575845314134333137303433 [ 67.284711] usb-storage 1-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected [ 67.284800] scsi4 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0 [ 67.284878] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage [ 68.284758] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD My Passport 07A8 1042 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 [ 68.285250] scsi 4:0:0:1: Enclosure WD SES Device 1042 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 [ 68.285495] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0 [ 68.285643] scsi 4:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13 [ 68.289487] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Spinning up disk... [ 69.292047] .ready [ 69.311994] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 1953458176 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB) [ 69.314000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off [ 69.314004] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 53 00 10 08 [ 69.315366] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found [ 69.315369] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [ 69.320747] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found [ 69.320750] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [ 69.321144] ses 4:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device [ 69.332119] sdc: sdc1 [ 69.335236] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found [ 69.335240] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [ 69.335243] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk

Assuning the drive ID is 07A8, I then entered fdisk /dev/07a8 but it was not found.

The HDD shows in My Comp, but cannot be mounted of formatted. The following message appears:

Error mounting /dev/sdc1 at /media/username/Western HDD- WORKING: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/sdc1" "/media/username/Western HDD- WORKING"' exited with non-zero exit status 13: The disk contains an unclean file system (0,

0). The file system wasn't safely closed on Windows. Fixing. ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error Failed to calculate free MFT records: Input/output error NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for more details.

At this stage, I would be happy just to be able to format the drive back to NTSC.

Any advice on how to do so from here would be most appreciated.

David King

Reply to
David King
Loading thread data ...

You have bad sectors in window fat area: Might be usable with Linux, probably not for window.

Reply to
edward.ming.lee

Why don't you just try formatting it under Linux (pick any filesystem type -- UFS, EXT2, etc.) and verify that Linux is "comfortable" with the disk. At the very least, get it to a consistent state.

*Then*, try to NTFS format it (under Linux). And, finally, see if Windows will play nice...

(You'll have to build a partition table, first)

Reply to
Don Y

Is that actually a hardware failure, or as result of a corrputed file structure?

If the former, could it have been caused by the problem described in my original post, eg. switching the drive back and forth incorrectly between Linux and Windows machines?

David King

Reply to
David King

I would like to but Linux will not mount the HDD.

Is there a way to format or re-partition without mounting?

David King

Reply to
David King

Seem like a hard failure.

No, but pulling out (or powering down) the drive while read/write would do it.

Reply to
edward.ming.lee

Have you try fdisk /dev/sdb? Be sure not to do it to you main drive.

Reply to
edward.ming.lee

I don't run Linux :>

Under NetBSD, you would build a partition table using fdisk(8) then create a filesystem using newfs(8). Neither requires the disk to be mounted (as it doesn't yet have a file system *or* partition table -- nothing to "mount"!!)

Reply to
Don Y

...

Try something like this

formatting link

And

formatting link

Reply to
appler

On a sunny day (Wed, 20 Aug 2014 12:49:09 +1000) it happened David King wrote in :

So, the hardware is OK, drive IS recognized, it is just some sectors messed up by Microsoft windows.

Your drive is /dev/sdc

By the look of it windows (you mentioned it was an ext2 fielsystem), modified that to one of its own....

***** If you do not care about the data [1], type: ***** fdisk /dev/sdc

To delete partition 1 type: d

To make a new primary partition type: n

1 accept defaults for start and end.

To set the partition ID type: t For linux: use ID 83.

To write the new configuration to disk type: w

To make a filesystem ext2 on /dev/sdc1 type [2]: mke2fs /dev/sdc1

Mount it: mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/sdc1

To see if you have the 1 GB space back type: df

That should be it (you lost your data though). ***********

[1] There are tricks to try to recover or better make the MS windows 'modification' undone. [2] You can make any other filesystem you like in Linux on /dev/sdc1

if you use fdisk to remove and make partitions MAKE SURE YOU USE THE RIGHT DISK, typing dmesg just before you use fdisk helps to make sure. This because you could have plugged in some USB stick or SDcard in the meantime, and disk numbering would be different.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

the device is: /dev/sdc it has one partition: /dev/sdc1

do you mean NTFS ?

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc count=4000

then unplug it and reformat.

--
umop apisdn 


--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---
Reply to
Jasen Betts

Maybe hes not using Ubuntu. NTFS is not nativaly supported under most Linux flavors, as least in the past.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Thanks for your detailed reply. I will try this first thing tomorrow since the PC is at another location.

I am now hopeful of at least getting my drive back. Next time I will buy the one with the reset button ;-)

Davd King

Reply to
David King

On a sunny day (Fri, 22 Aug 2014 12:35:39 +1000) it happened David King wrote in :

It is OK to experiment with fdisk, nothing will really happen until you type 'w'. Control C or 'q' will quit anytime. If you did not type 'w' then restarting fdisk will show the old configuration. Read the help menu (type 'm') and experiment. Once you are sure how it works and made a new primary partition, then use 'w' to write it to disk.

If you have some old small size SDcard or USB stick you can practice on that too. For example I have some 128 MB USB sticks, something really antique... Great for tests. Do not forget to check what disk it is with 'dmesg' EVERY TIME before starting fdisk.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

Not with reset, but with power down. I have seen too many bad drives with corrupted FAT area (beginning of the disk). Probably with people pulling the plug while updating the FAT. You have to be very careful with any removable media.

Reply to
edward.ming.lee

A reset button on any device with complex firmware is probably a good idea. (this applies to the PC as well). Apparently, there is a very high percentage of disks that are claimed to be defective (even by their own diagnostics) that, in fact, are not -- on subsequent examination.

I suspect they just "get confused" at some point and persistently misbehave.

The bigger the disk, the bigger the problem (because there is more data at risk/to be restored/recovered) -- think: "large data centers" (i.e., "technically savvy" users!)

Reply to
Don Y

WARNING! it was /dev/sdc in the original posting, check CHECK check which drive you are killing there :)

See what [sdX] it shows up at when you connect next time. It may not be [sdc], it could move on to [sdd] ...

--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------ 
Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk  |    http://www.signal11.org.uk 

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---
Reply to
Mike

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.