# fdisk -l and parted -l hangs until drive is unplugged



## rebeltaz (Jan 31, 2008)

I have been having issues with a Seagate Expansion USB drive - http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/1108917-hope-prayer-seagate-exansion-drive.html

I was able to get it back up by running fsck using an alternative superblock. From there I began the LONG (over three weeks) of copying data to a new drive (almost 1.5tb) using rsync.

During this copy process, the drive failed three or four times and I resuscitated it using fsck -f and continued to rsync copy.

Last night, it failed again, so I rebooted the computer to try the fsck trick again (I always have to reboot first or it doesn't see the drive after it fails) and this time instead of just failing to mount the drive (which is listed in fstab) it hung on the boot up screen until I unplugged the USB drive.

After it booted, I plugged the drive back in to try and fix it again. Now, when I run either fdisk -l or parted -l, it hangs until I unplug the drive, at which point it will spit out the drive info minus the filesystem.

Model: Seagate Desktop (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdh: 1500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 1500GB 1500GB primary

I tried fsck /dev/sdh1 -fy which responded with:
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
fsck.ext2: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sdh1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
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>

I have tried mke2fs -n /dev/sdh1 which does respond with the superblock locations, but when I try fsck using one of the other superblocks, I get the same error. fsck -f by itself hang just like parted -l does.

Is there ANYthing else that I can try so I can finish copying the remaining data or is this drive toast?

Thanks..


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## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

It might be the drive but the actual controller on the external enclosure.

I would try removing the hard drive and connecting it directly to a computer if you can.


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## rebeltaz (Jan 31, 2008)

I will try that. Thank you.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

When a drive starts to go the safest way is to spin it only when necessary if the data is to be salvaged.

The best way is to clone the disk using command dd. The clone will have most of the data. Only the corrupted files and/or their parts are absent. dd has option to continue in the event of read failures.

In cloning the disk as internal drive say a Sata II can be cloned at between 50 to 80MB/s. That is much faster than 3 weeks extracting file by file.


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## rebeltaz (Jan 31, 2008)

saikee said:


> When a drive starts to go the safest way is to spin it only when necessary if the data is to be salvaged.
> 
> The best way is to clone the disk using command dd. The clone will have most of the data. Only the corrupted files and/or their parts are absent. dd has option to continue in the event of read failures.
> 
> In cloning the disk as internal drive say a Sata II can be cloned at between 50 to 80MB/s. That is much faster than 3 weeks extracting file by file.


Sadly, these are both external USB. The one that has failed is out of warranty, so I have no problem taking it apart to try and access the drive internally, but I don't want to void the warranty on the second drive. I am pretty sure that rsync would have been MUCH faster had both been internal drives, but c'est la vie...  Thanks...


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## rebeltaz (Jan 31, 2008)

Well... I tried the drive connected as an internal drive and, as expected, still no go... ;(


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Personally I don't think connecting the drive internally can get over a hard drive having defects. The internal connection can permit the drive to pass data at the maximum throughput thus less spinning time is required.

One can clone the drive using a USB2 or USB3 connection in either read or write mode but that is normally 20 to 30MB/s transfer rate. USB3 can increase it to around 45 MB/s depending on the performance of the CPU/Mobo. 

In cloning only the binary bit pattens are read and written so no useful filing system is needed. A specified number of sector is specified by the user to be read and written as one record. dd default to one sector of 512 bytes is the record size is not specified. I normally use one full track of 32256 bytes equivalent to 63 sectors x 512 bytes.


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## rebeltaz (Jan 31, 2008)

Oh, no... I tried connecting it internally to try and rule out a controller failure...


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