Is there hope for this drive?
I recently got a couple of used IBM Ultrastar drives. They worked at first, but one of them suddenly stopped responding to read/write requests.
"scsiinfo -i /dev/sdc" still provides info about it, but "scsiinfo -a /dev/sdc" provides no more information because every operation except the basic inquiry fails:
"Unable to read Rigid Disk Geometry Page 04h" and so on.
Partitioning and low-level formatting with scsiformat is impossible.
I wonder if there is anything more I could try before throwing away the drive. It is strange to be able to "contact" the drive but not use it. It spins up at boot as it should. Any ideas?
Helge Hafting
Quoted 10 lines · Helge Hafting
I recently got a couple of used IBM Ultrastar drives. They worked at first, but one of them suddenly stopped responding to read/write requests.
"scsiinfo -i
/dev/sdc" still provides info about it, but "scsiinfo -a/dev/sdc" provides no more information because every operation except the basic inquiry fails:
"Unable to read Rigid Disk Geometry Page 04h" and so on.Partitioning and low-level formatting with scsiformat is impossible.
Some drives bootstrap (parts of) their firmware and settings from the disk (and don't low-level format that area, for obvious reasons).
You could still try schily's "sformat" but if that doesn't help either, ditch the drive. I wouldn't use it for anything but /tmp or /var/cache or perhaps as 3rd or 4th drive in a RAID1 (1:1 mirror).
HD Drives don't last eternally.
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Matthias Andree Encrypted mail welcome: my GnuPG key ID is 0x052E7D95 (PGP/MIME preferred)