[Shenlug] Unable to mount external hard drive - Addendum

[Ricky Nelson]

Get a windows CD out and wave it around it threatening to attach it back
to a windows box if it doesn't cooperate...failing that maybe try
knocking it about with a hammer!

Seriously though, I don't recall what you said on the initial thread,
but does it work on any other machine?  Is it just this one that is
giving you grief?

-Ricky

-----Original Message-----
From: shenlug-bounces at calypso.tux.org
[mailto:shenlug-bounces at calypso.tux.org] On Behalf Of Harvey Ussery
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 8:36 AM
To: Alvin Smith; shenlug at calypso.tux.org
Subject: Re: [Shenlug] Unable to mount external hard drive - Addendum



Harvey Ussery wrote:
>
>
> Alvin Smith wrote:
>> On 11/20/06, Harvey Ussery <huboxwood at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>> I have an external hard drive recycled from a previous computer
(iMac)
>>> that died. I want to use it to back up my data, but I'm having
trouble
>>> mounting it.
>>>
>>> Here's the end of output of dmesg after turning on the hard drive:
>>>
>>> [17378480.308000] scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage
devices
>>> [17378480.308000] usb-storage: device found at 14
>>> [17378480.308000] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before 
>>> scanning
>>> [17378485.324000]   Vendor: Maxtor 4  Model: D080H4            Rev:

>>> 0 0
>>> [17378485.324000]   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI 
>>> SCSI
>>> revision: 00
>>> [17378485.336000] SCSI device sdb: 156301488 512-byte hdwr sectors
>>> (80026 MB)
>>> [17378485.336000] sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
>>> [17378485.344000] SCSI device sdb: 156301488 512-byte hdwr sectors
>>> (80026 MB)
>>> [17378485.344000] sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
>>> [17378485.344000]  sdb: sdb1 < >
>>> [17378485.400000] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdb
>>> [17378485.400000] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
>>> [17378485.400000] usb-storage: device scan complete
>>> harvey at ubuntu:~$
>>>
>>> The "Maxtor" is clearly referring to the 80-gig external hard drive,

>>> and
>>> it seems to be assigned to sdb. Yet fdisk can't read it:
>>>
>>> > harvey at ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
>>> >
>>> > Unable to read /dev/sdb
>>> > harvey at ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb1
>>> >
>>> > Unable to read /dev/sdb1
>>> > harvey at ubuntu:~$
>>> Why can't fdisk read /sdb or /sdb1 when dmesg indicates that is the 
>>> /dev
>>> assigned to the Maxtor hard drive?
>>>
>>> Thanks for helping me figure this out.
>>>
>>> ~Harvey
>>>
>>
>> What filesystem is on the HD?  You may need to format the drive as
>> vfat, ext3, or reiser in order for you to read it.
>>
>> -- 
>> Alvin
> How do you query a device for its filesystem? As you can see from the 
> above, I was unable to get fdisk to read /dev/sdb.
>
> Anyway, I'm attempting to format a filesystem (ext3) on the external 
> hard drive. So far it's not looking good:
>
> harvey at ubuntu:~$ sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb
> mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
> /dev/sdb is entire device, not just one partition!
> Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
> Warning: could not erase sector 2: Attempt to write block from 
> filesystem resulted in short write
> Filesystem label=
> OS type: Linux
> Block size=4096 (log=2)
> Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
> 8732672 inodes, 17440534 blocks
> 872026 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
> First data block=0
> 533 block groups
> 32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
> 16384 inodes per group
> Superblock backups stored on blocks:
>        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 
> 2654208,
>        4096000, 7962624, 11239424
>
> Warning: could not read block 0: Attempt to read block from filesystem

> resulted in short read
> Warning: could not erase sector 0: Attempt to write block from 
> filesystem resulted in short write
> Writing inode tables: 181/533
>
> I'm letting the process run, but it looks like it is stuck at this 
> point. In some of my diagnostics earlier, I remember something about 
> bad block or superblock on block 0. If there's a bad block, how do I 
> fix it?
>
> Thanks,
>
> ~Harvey
It's been an hour and there is no further progress. Any ideas how to get

a foothold on this external drive? Thanks.

~Harvey
>
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