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After windows failed to format my external raw drive, I gave a shot to Gparted in linux. Gparted says "ërror input/output error during read on /dev/sdb" Clicking ignore I can see my drive labeled "unallocated" trying creating a new partition table it says "libparted bug found, ërror input/output error during read on /dev/sdb " I have looked on many answers and cant seem to help. I have also tried cfdisk, fdisk without success.

Ruhl
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I highly recommend making a backup of your data before proceeding further.

A message such as libparted bug found, error input/output error during read on /dev/sdb indicates that a hardware issue was encountered. The problem could be as simple as a loose cable, or as serious as a failing hard drive.

When the error occurs, you can try entering the dmesg command in a terminal window and see if the tail of the output contains any indications of problems with drive /dev/sdb.

You might also try downloading hard drive testing software from the HDD manufacturer web site and running it on the drive. Be forewarned that sometimes this testing software might overwrite your drive so be sure to have a backup first.

Curtis Gedak
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  • Thanks for responding with a good advice. I do not think there's a hardware issue I checked with SMART technology and it displays Good health. I only need a powerful formatting technique to format this drive because I have tried many ways. – Ruhl Sep 14 '16 at 08:29
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    If you have a backup of your data, or there is no useful data on the drive, then you might try overwriting the entire drive with zeros. With the following command Be Sure to use the correct drive identifier or you may overwrite important data! sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdz where ./dev/sdz is the drive path to overwrite. – Curtis Gedak Sep 27 '16 at 22:59
  • @CurtisGedak: dd is a little crude for the job. There are much more suitable tools like badblocks. See the answers to the linked question. – David Foerster Oct 01 '16 at 02:55