I found myself in a weird situation with my system's disk. It's Linux system with 3 partitions, boot, swap and filesystem (ext4). A few days ago i used knoppix from a pendrive (I made the bootable usb drive from a knoppix image myself) because i wanted to check an unreadable disk…and i found myself with 2 unreadable disks!
When i rebooted the system i started getting on my screen errors like this:
error: failure reading sector ... from 'hd0'.
and then i got the grub shell after a few attempts.
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I created another bootable stick with Linux Mint and i tried to see what went wrong.
When checking the disk using the "disks" tool it said the disk was ok but has 8 bad sectors (i'm not sure they were there before), the filesystem partition was there but the type for the data partition was unkown. -
I tried running testdisk. It found the partitions, and once i checked the superblocks and set the Filesystem type (ext4) i could see the data from testdisk itself but still could not mount the partition.
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Testdisk suggested to run e2fsck -p -b and i tried with all the superblocks testdisk gave me but every time fsck tried to fix something it ended with a disk write error.
At this point it was late, so i gave up for the night, but kinda reassured that the data was still readable -
The day after with my suprise the data was not there anymore, probably some run of fsck made things worse because testdisk would not give me any superblock number anymore (and i couldn't see the files from testdisk anymore no matter what i tried), and if i tried running fsck with the numbers i got previously (i had saved them) i got
Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda3no matter the number -
At this point i made an image with safecopy (which i admit, i shouldve done as first thing but I was a bit panicked so i didn't think about that) and duplicated it so that i could test different solutions, making a new copy from the starting image every time i reached a point i didn't like
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All the things i tried did not help tho. I found a suggestion to use mkfs with the -S option so that it would only rebuild the superblocks, but when i tried that and ran fsck on it afterwards (as suggested by the tool) it would give me access to the partition again, but the partition would be completely empty. So empty that not even photorec could find data anymore (it would find data on the image before running mkfs + fsck).
I ran R-Linux on one of the images but it couldn't recover anything, all i had are "files" named $Inode…, but no discernable file or directory structure.
This is the result of smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-58-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Toshiba 2.5" HDD MQ01ABD...
Device Model: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100
Serial Number: 95CEC91QT
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000039 683983c2b
Firmware Version: AX0R2J
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Tue Jun 1 22:30:50 2021 CEST
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: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
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: ( 120) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No 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.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 246) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x003d) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
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 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 050 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 100 100 001 Pre-fail Always - 1815
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1377
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 8
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0005 100 100 050 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 053 053 000 Old_age Always - 19115
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0033 127 100 030 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1368
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 275
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 50
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 4455
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 30 (Min/Max 13/49)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1
220 Disk_Shift 0x0002 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
222 Loaded_Hours 0x0032 053 053 000 Old_age Always - 18889
223 Load_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
224 Load_Friction 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
226 Load-in_Time 0x0026 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 265
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0001 100 100 001 Pre-fail Offline - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2032 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2032 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 19112 hours (796 days + 8 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 38 00 d8 16 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0016d800 = 1497088
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 08 38 00 d8 16 40 00 1d+05:06:46.679 READ FPDMA QUEUED
ef 10 03 00 00 00 a0 00 1d+05:06:46.678 SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00 1d+05:06:46.678 SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 00 1d+05:06:46.678 READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]
ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00 1d+05:06:46.677 IDENTIFY DEVICE
Error 2031 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 19112 hours (796 days + 8 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 68 00 d8 16 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0016d800 = 1497088
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 08 68 00 d8 16 40 00 1d+05:06:45.909 READ FPDMA QUEUED
e5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1d+05:06:45.669 CHECK POWER MODE
e5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1d+05:06:40.669 CHECK POWER MODE
e5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1d+05:06:35.670 CHECK POWER MODE
e5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1d+05:06:30.669 CHECK POWER MODE
Error 2030 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 19110 hours (796 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 30 00 d8 16 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0016d800 = 1497088
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 00 e8 fd de 40 00 1d+02:46:45.118 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 f8 e8 fc de 40 00 1d+02:46:45.117 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 b8 e8 fb de 40 00 1d+02:46:45.116 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 b0 e8 fa de 40 00 1d+02:46:45.116 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 a8 e8 f9 de 40 00 1d+02:46:45.115 READ FPDMA QUEUED
Error 2029 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 19110 hours (796 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 a0 00 d8 16 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0016d800 = 1497088
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 08 e8 f8 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.968 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 00 e8 f7 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.968 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 f0 e8 f6 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.966 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 e8 e8 f5 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.965 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 e0 e8 f4 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.964 READ FPDMA QUEUED
Error 2028 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 19110 hours (796 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 88 00 d8 16 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0016d800 = 1497088
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 a0 e8 e8 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.792 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 98 e8 e7 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.791 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 90 e8 e6 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.788 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 78 e8 e5 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.787 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 70 e8 e4 de 40 00 1d+02:46:44.786 READ FPDMA QUEUED
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.
Best Answer
ALWAYS but ALWAYS read the documentation before just doing something blindly.
man mkfs.ext4and search for the-Sflag, where it will tell you that you must rune2fsckafterwards.I suspect if you've written to your saved copy of the disk then this is now also dead. Rule 1 of disk recovery is to take a copy as soon as possible. Rule 2 is NEVER to write to your saved copy.
One thing I have noticed is that you're confusing the disk (
/dev/sda) with the partition (/dev/sda3). Where you are sure you ranmkfs -S /dev/sdayou've tried to recreate a filesystem on the disk rather than the partition. If you can restore the partition table you might be able to runmkfs -S /dev/sda3successfully. Or equivalents via the loop device.NOTE: Please do not try writing to both your dying disk and your only saved copy anymore. Take a fresh copy of the copy and work on that.