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I recently bought a new Western Digital 1TB HDD and have used it one month ago - just copied some back up pictures.

  • I plugged it in again yesterday [after 1 month] and saw that I was unable to create a new folder. That option was disabled.
  • I clicked onto the folder I had created one month back and inside that I was able to create new folders.
  • So I created one here. [i.e inside the folder I had created one month back]
  • I copied some data into this new folder
  • As the copy was inprogress, I started to see why I wasn't able to create a new folder in HDD's main directory
  • At one point, while the copy was in progress, I forcely removed the HDD from the USB port [My mistake]
  • From then on the HDD is not mounted by Ubuntu
:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1058:25e1 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

:~$ ls /dev/ | grep sdc
sdc
sdc1

:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdc

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdc'! The util 
fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000170586112 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121122 cylinders, total 1953458176     
sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x16f2a91f

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT

root@Krishna:~# dmesg | tail -n20
[  110.163583] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  110.163585] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc]  
[  110.163586] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  110.163589] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc]  
[  110.163591] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  110.163592] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: 
[  110.163593] Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 40 00 00 08 00
[  110.163599] end_request: critical medium error, dev sdc, sector     
2112
[  110.163603] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 8
[  113.011433] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc]  
[  113.011439] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  113.011441] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc]  
[  113.011443] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  113.011447] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc]  
[  113.011449] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  113.011452] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: 
[  113.011453] Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 40 00 00 08 00
[  113.011462] end_request: critical medium error, dev sdc, sector 
2112
[  113.011466] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 8

But I really couldn't proceed after this - since I don't understand much from these logs.

  • I connected it to WINDOWS.
  • Troubleshooted it -which showed "no problems"
  • I tried opening the drive - it asked me to format it to make usable again
  • I did try to format it, but it just threw an error that "Windows
    couldn't format it" - I'm not much of a windows guy.

The HDD is still under warranty - just 3 months since I bought it. I can contact WD support as well.

But I'd like to know if I can try to fix this by myself.

Thanks in advance for helping me out

You'reAGitForNotUsingGit
  • 14,809
Krishnakumar
  • 141
  • Hmm, you could try zeroing the first few MB with dd and then using Gparted to create a new partition table and such. – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit May 28 '18 at 17:27
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    The drive is dead. It is a former drive. Have WD replace it. (Hint: critical medium error.) – AlexP May 28 '18 at 17:29
  • @AndroidDev I'm not sure how to do that.. But I did see that suggestion somewhere.. Is it a solution for sure? – Krishnakumar May 28 '18 at 17:38
  • @AlexP It's new.. I'm surprised how it could be dead – Krishnakumar May 28 '18 at 17:39
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    Most stuff either breaks when new, or else works for a long time. In reliability engineering this is called "infant mortality"; see the bathtub curve. – AlexP May 28 '18 at 17:44
  • If you have fdisk that does not support gpt, then you have an older Ubuntu, newer versions support gpt. Or use gdisk or parted which older versions support gpt. If you forceably remove a drive, you almost always cause corruption. If NTFS, you have to run chkdsk from Windows (until no errors), if ext4 run fsck from Linux. Also if mounted from Windows 8 or 10 make sure fast start up is off. Windows updates turn it back on and it locks up all NTFS partitions, even external. – oldfred May 28 '18 at 18:03
  • @DavidFoerster Thanks for the link.. I did two tests from it... The "dd" command worked well.. no errors.. But the badblocks [read only] check.. gave me errors...The count reached 200+ before I forced killed it.. Does it mean, the better option is to replace the disk ? – Krishnakumar May 29 '18 at 06:40
  • @AndroidDev I did - following the link given in the 5th comment above - and the write worked well without any errors.. – Krishnakumar May 29 '18 at 06:41
  • @Krishnakumar: If badblocks discovers that many read errors the drive is toast. You can try to recover as much data from it as possible (which is an entirely different question) but you'll never be able use it productively again. – David Foerster May 29 '18 at 08:47
  • @DavidFoerster Thanks for the info.. Anyway I raised a ticket on WD platform and they just reply 'WD My Passport' is not tested for Linux Platform and hence they cannot help!! I need to deal with them now.. – Krishnakumar May 29 '18 at 09:39
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    @Krishnakumar - lol, you just gotta love it when the "tech support" people are idiots....... – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit May 29 '18 at 15:35

0 Answers0