Need some help with hard drive issues

naskie18 · February 14, 2011, 5:43pm

I’ve recently developed a whole bunch of hard drive trouble, or at least it originally looked like hard drive trouble, now I’m not so sure.

I’ve been running SUSE 11.3 for a while, with mostly no issues. During the upgrade process (upgraded from 11.2 or 11.1, can’t remember now) my boot loader apparently got messed up, in order to boot, I needed the install cd in the drive. Without the install disc, I got an error saying the computer couldn’t find a boot disk. With the install disc in the drive, it autoloaded that, then at the menu there I could pick boot from hard disk and everything worked fine. Not terribly convenient, but I only reboot after the power goes out anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.

However, when I woke up Saturday morning and turned on the music, Amarok was just skipping through songs like the files weren’t there. Went looking for the hard drive all my music is on and it was gone, the computer simply didn’t see it anymore. Rebooted the computer, and it wouldn’t even boot up.

Started playing with it last night, and now I’ve no idea what’s going on here.

I’ve got 4 hard drives in here, three IDE and one SATA. The SATA drive is the largest and the one I keep most of my files on, and, naturally, is the one that’s disappeared.

I tried reinstalling windows on one of the IDE drives and got the blue screen of death twice, so I gave up on that drive.

I reinstalled SUSE 11.1 on one of the other IDE drives and that’s what I’m currently running off (KDE4.1.3), and I’m still having the same boot leader problem I had before where the computer won’t boot without the install disc in the drive.

However, my more pressing problem is that when I connect the SATA drive, the computer won’t boot at all. I get stuck at the SUSE splash screen, and when I hit escape to see what its up to, I get recurrences of the following four messages:


ATA4.00 qc timeout (cmd 0xef)
ATA4 Link is slow to respond, please be patient
ATA4.00 Failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS FAILED, err_mask=0x80)
ATA4 SRST Failed (errno=-16)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I’d really like to at least be able to get the data off this drive before replacing it. The drive itself is a WD Caviar 320GB from 2008, its the newest drive in this computer by a couple years.

On what may or may not be a related issue, I’ve also got a WD USB drive that the computer no longer sees, either. Its a usb powered drive, and I’ve used it in the past on this computer with no issues at all. I plug it in, and the power light on the drive comes on, but the computer doesn’t notice that a new device is attached.

If I could get one of these two drives working, that’d be enough, as most of the files I need are on both drives…but right now I can’t do anything with either of them except use them as paperweights

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick

naskie18 · February 14, 2011, 6:10pm

A bit more info on the USB drive:


naskie18@localhost:~> lsusb                                                                                 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub                                              
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub                                              
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub                                              
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub                                              
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1058:1010 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.                                         
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

and the WD related section of lsusb-v


Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1058:1010 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. 
Device Descriptor:                                                  
  bLength                18                                         
  bDescriptorType         1                                         
  bcdUSB               2.00                                         
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)            
  bDeviceSubClass         0                                         
  bDeviceProtocol         0                                         
  bMaxPacketSize0        64                                         
  idVendor           0x1058 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.      
  idProduct          0x1010                                         
  bcdDevice            1.75                                         
  iManufacturer           1                                         
  iProduct                2                                         
  iSerial                 3                                         
  bNumConfigurations      1                                         
  Configuration Descriptor:                                         
    bLength                 9                                       
    bDescriptorType         2                                       
    wTotalLength           32                                       
    bNumInterfaces          1                                       
    bConfigurationValue     1                                       
    iConfiguration          0                                       
    bmAttributes         0xc0                                       
      Self Powered                                                  
    MaxPower                2mA                                     
    Interface Descriptor:                                           
      bLength                 9                                     
      bDescriptorType         4                                     
      bInterfaceNumber        0                                     
      bAlternateSetting       0                                     
      bNumEndpoints           2                                     
      bInterfaceClass         8 Mass Storage                        
      bInterfaceSubClass      6 SCSI                                
      bInterfaceProtocol     80 Bulk (Zip)                          
      iInterface              0                                     
      Endpoint Descriptor:                                          
        bLength                 7                                   
        bDescriptorType         5                                   
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN                          
        bmAttributes            2                                   
          Transfer Type            Bulk                             
          Synch Type               None                             
          Usage Type               Data                             
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes                     
        bInterval               0                                   
      Endpoint Descriptor:                                          
        bLength                 7                                   
        bDescriptorType         5                                   
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT                         
        bmAttributes            2                                   
          Transfer Type            Bulk                             
          Synch Type               None                             
          Usage Type               Data                             
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes                     
        bInterval               0                                   
can't get device qualifier: Operation not permitted                 
can't get debug descriptor: Operation not permitted                 
cannot read device status, Operation not permitted (1)

And an attempt at a forced mount:


naskie18@localhost:~> mount /dev/bus/usb/001/002
mount: can't find /dev/bus/usb/001/002 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

djh-novell · February 14, 2011, 6:12pm

As a start I would suggest get into a running system and post the output
from

dmesg
fdisk -l
smartctl -a /dev/whichever-disks-fdisk-can-see

That will help to determine what is dead or not.
Also any disk-related output on screen from the BIOS at boot time would
be useful

naskie18 · February 14, 2011, 7:03pm

Here you go:

This is just the ATA4 portion of the return from dmesg, let me know if you want the whole thing and I can post it.


 ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xc800 ctl 0xcc00 bmdma 0xd008 irq 18                                       
input: ImExPS/2 Logitech Explorer Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input1                  
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, err_mask=0x80)                                     
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, err_mask=0x80)                                     
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, err_mask=0x80)                                     
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)

fdisk output:


Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa5aba5ab

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2611    20971520   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            2612        7297    37640295    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            2612        2804     1550241   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            2805        4636    14715508+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7            4637        7297    21374451   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3fcb3fca

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        9729    78148161    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

The above output from the fdisk command shows the two IDE drives that are currently connected (I have the remaining IDE drive disconnected still). The SATA drive isn’t showing up on there at all, though.

smartctl -a /dev/sda results:


localhost:/home/naskie18 # smartctl -a /dev/sda                        
smartctl 5.39 2008-10-24 22:33 [i686-suse-linux-gnu] (openSUSE RPM)    
Copyright (C) 2002-8 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar family
Device Model:     WDC WD600BB-00CAA1           
Serial Number:    WD-WMA8F1341340              
Firmware Version: 17.07W17                     
User Capacity:    60,022,480,896 bytes         
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   5                                              
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Mon Feb 14 13:09:31 2011 EST                       
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.           
SMART support is: Enabled                                            

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84) Offline data collection activity
                                        was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.             
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed           
                                        without error or no self-test has ever             
                                        been run.                                          
Total time to complete Offline                                                             
data collection:                 (2340) seconds.                                           
Offline data collection                                                                    
capabilities:                    (0x3b) SMART execute Offline immediate.                   
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.       
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new                
                                        command.                                           
                                        Offline surface scan supported.                    
                                        Self-test supported.                               
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.                    
                                        No Selective Self-test supported.                  
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering                   
                                        power-saving mode.                                 
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.                    
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.                           
                                        No General Purpose Logging support.                
Short self-test routine                                                                    
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.                                           
Extended self-test routine                                                                 
recommended polling time:        (  43) minutes.                                           
Conveyance self-test routine                                                               
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.                                           

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:  
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   200   197   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   103   095   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       3908
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   040    Old_age   Always       -       856
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   191   191   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       140
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   007   007   000    Old_age   Always       -       68326
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       644
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   182   182   000    Old_age   Always       -       18
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       176
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0009   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


Device does not support Selective Self Tests/Logging

smartctl -a /dev/sdb results:


localhost:/home/naskie18 # smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 5.39 2008-10-24 22:33 [i686-suse-linux-gnu] (openSUSE RPM)
Copyright (C) 2002-8 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar SE family
Device Model:     WDC WD800JB-00ETA0              
Serial Number:    WD-WCAHL5983554                 
Firmware Version: 77.07W77                        
User Capacity:    80,026,361,856 bytes            
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   6                                              
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Mon Feb 14 13:10:36 2011 EST                       
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.           
SMART support is: Enabled                                            

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.    
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever  
                                        been run.                               
Total time to complete Offline                                                  
data collection:                 (2472) seconds.                                
Offline data collection                                                         
capabilities:                    (0x79) SMART execute Offline immediate.        
                                        No Auto Offline data collection support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new     
                                        command.                                
                                        Offline surface scan supported.         
                                        Self-test supported.                    
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.         
                                        Selective Self-test supported.          
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering        
                                        power-saving mode.                      
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.         
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.                
                                        No General Purpose Logging support.     
Short self-test routine                                                         
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.                                
Extended self-test routine                                                      
recommended polling time:        (  38) minutes.                                
Conveyance self-test routine                                                    
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.                                

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:  
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   092   088   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       1908     
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   099   099   040    Old_age   Always       -       1092     
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   020   020   000    Old_age   Always       -       58778    
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       632      
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   112   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       31       
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0        
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0009   200   085   051    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

djh-novell · February 15, 2011, 12:22pm

naskie18 wrote:
> djh-novell;2289939 Wrote:
>> As a start I would suggest get into a running system and post the
>> output
>> from
>>
>> dmesg
>> fdisk -l
>> smartctl -a /dev/whichever-disks-fdisk-can-see

> When I try fdisk, I get a response saying “command not found”

Reading the man page would explain that. The command is in /sbin and
needs to be run by root.

FWIW, there’s a bug report here about something that looks similar:
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/595448>
I don’t know whether it is relevant because I don’t know exactly how the
opensuse kernels are configured.

naskie18 · February 15, 2011, 1:16pm

Yeah, I thought of that a couple minutes after I posted that. I changed to root and ran the commands, the output is in my post above.

djh-novell · February 15, 2011, 2:51pm

naskie18 wrote:
> djh-novell;2290239 Wrote:
>> Reading the man page would explain that. The command is in /sbin and
>> needs to be run by root.
>>
> Yeah, I thought of that a couple minutes after I posted that. I
> changed to root and ran the commands, the output is in my post above.

Well I use NNTP and I run my MUA with increasing date at the top, so if
I read that literally it would imply you haven’t sent that post yet

But I don’t see fdisk output in any post in this thread (or smartctl
output for that matter).

naskie18 · February 16, 2011, 12:58am

Here you go:

This is just the ATA4 portion of the return from dmesg, let me know if you want the whole thing and I can post it.


 ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xc800 ctl 0xcc00 bmdma 0xd008 irq 18                                       
input: ImExPS/2 Logitech Explorer Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input1                  
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, err_mask=0x80)                                     
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, err_mask=0x80)                                     
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, err_mask=0x80)                                     
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)                                              
ata4: SRST failed (errno=-16)                                                                           
ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)

fdisk output:


Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa5aba5ab

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2611    20971520   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            2612        7297    37640295    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            2612        2804     1550241   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            2805        4636    14715508+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7            4637        7297    21374451   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3fcb3fca

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        9729    78148161    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

The above output from the fdisk command shows the two IDE drives that are currently connected (I have the remaining IDE drive disconnected still). The SATA drive isn’t showing up on there at all, though.

smartctl -a /dev/sda results:


localhost:/home/naskie18 # smartctl -a /dev/sda                        
smartctl 5.39 2008-10-24 22:33 [i686-suse-linux-gnu] (openSUSE RPM)    
Copyright (C) 2002-8 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar family
Device Model:     WDC WD600BB-00CAA1           
Serial Number:    WD-WMA8F1341340              
Firmware Version: 17.07W17                     
User Capacity:    60,022,480,896 bytes         
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   5                                              
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Mon Feb 14 13:09:31 2011 EST                       
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.           
SMART support is: Enabled                                            

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84) Offline data collection activity
                                        was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.             
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed           
                                        without error or no self-test has ever             
                                        been run.                                          
Total time to complete Offline                                                             
data collection:                 (2340) seconds.                                           
Offline data collection                                                                    
capabilities:                    (0x3b) SMART execute Offline immediate.                   
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.       
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new                
                                        command.                                           
                                        Offline surface scan supported.                    
                                        Self-test supported.                               
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.                    
                                        No Selective Self-test supported.                  
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering                   
                                        power-saving mode.                                 
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.                    
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.                           
                                        No General Purpose Logging support.                
Short self-test routine                                                                    
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.                                           
Extended self-test routine                                                                 
recommended polling time:        (  43) minutes.                                           
Conveyance self-test routine                                                               
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.                                           

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:  
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   200   197   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   103   095   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       3908
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   040    Old_age   Always       -       856
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   191   191   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       140
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   007   007   000    Old_age   Always       -       68326
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       644
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   182   182   000    Old_age   Always       -       18
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       176
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0009   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


Device does not support Selective Self Tests/Logging

smartctl -a /dev/sdb results:


localhost:/home/naskie18 # smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 5.39 2008-10-24 22:33 [i686-suse-linux-gnu] (openSUSE RPM)
Copyright (C) 2002-8 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar SE family
Device Model:     WDC WD800JB-00ETA0              
Serial Number:    WD-WCAHL5983554                 
Firmware Version: 77.07W77                        
User Capacity:    80,026,361,856 bytes            
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   6                                              
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Mon Feb 14 13:10:36 2011 EST                       
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.           
SMART support is: Enabled                                            

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.    
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever  
                                        been run.                               
Total time to complete Offline                                                  
data collection:                 (2472) seconds.                                
Offline data collection                                                         
capabilities:                    (0x79) SMART execute Offline immediate.        
                                        No Auto Offline data collection support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new     
                                        command.                                
                                        Offline surface scan supported.         
                                        Self-test supported.                    
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.         
                                        Selective Self-test supported.          
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering        
                                        power-saving mode.                      
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.         
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.                
                                        No General Purpose Logging support.     
Short self-test routine                                                         
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.                                
Extended self-test routine                                                      
recommended polling time:        (  38) minutes.                                
Conveyance self-test routine                                                    
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.                                

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:  
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   092   088   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       1908     
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   099   099   040    Old_age   Always       -       1092     
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   020   020   000    Old_age   Always       -       58778    
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0        
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       632      
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   112   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       31       
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0        
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0009   200   085   051    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

djh-novell · February 16, 2011, 12:58pm

naskie18 wrote:
> Here you go:

Thanks. That does make it look like it’s probably a hardware problem of
some kind. I don’t think you’ve said what hardware this is (mobo, add-in
sata controller? etc). The easiest way to isolate the problem is to swap
parts around if you can. If you have access to another computer with
SATA ports, try plugging the ‘dodgy’ disk in there. If it works, your
problem is with the controller, if not then the disk is likely dead.
Equally, if you have access to another SATA disk, try plugging that into
your controller and see what happens. It’s also worth trying different
power and data cables and making sure they’re plugged in straight.

With regard to the USB drive, does that work on another computer? If so,
at least your data is safe! The lsusb output makes it look like the
hardware is working. Does anything show up in /media? If you want to
manually mount it, you’ll need to use the full comand-line with explicit
device, filesystem type and mount point.

PS Neither of your drives were set up for SMART monitoring. IMHO, that’s
worth doing because you’ll often get some warning of an impending
failure. Not always, sadly.

A-D4M · February 18, 2011, 4:57pm

This could be a power related issue, your PSU is dying and therfore struggling to provide power to your hard drives and the PC in general.

Or perhaps your motherboard is failing. Inspect the board for bulging capacitors.

Does the WD USB drive work on a different system?

Can you test the drives in a different system?

AdmiralFubar · February 19, 2011, 5:19am

Lets try one simple thing first. Try clearing the bios setting just in case something got an odd setting during the power outage. No telling what kind of power spikes, surges may have flipped a bit here and there.
Either short the pins on the jumper to reset, or better yet check the battery itself to make sure it is working. Then make sure the bios settings are set to the default or back the way you had them if there was any custom settings you may have invoked.

and if you can… get a usb external drive case, (sata & ide if you can find a dual internal bus) and try the wonky drive from that on another system, makes moving it around from system to system for testing and data recover, (use photorec for recovering missing files if the disk was damaged.