Help Troubleshoot failed HDD?

[JesusLinux]

I would run

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sudo  smartctl -a /dev/sdb

and post those results.

You could try a to run fsck on it, but it looks like your HD has indeed failed. Smartctl results may show us for sure

The drive is sda:

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jesuslinux@A-9410:~
$ sudo lsblk
NAME       MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0        7:0    0  10,1G  1 loop /live/linux
sda          8:0    0 465,8G  0 disk 
sdb          8:16   0 223,6G  0 disk 
├─sdb1       8:17   0 144,7G  0 part 
├─sdb2       8:18   0   767M  0 part 
├─sdb3       8:19   0     1K  0 part 
├─sdb5       8:21   0   200M  0 part 
├─sdb6       8:22   0  69,3G  0 part 
└─sdb7       8:23   0   8,6G  0 part [SWAP]
sdc          8:32   1  58,6G  0 disk 
├─sdc1       8:33   1  58,6G  0 part 
│ ├─ventoy 254:0    0  10,2G  1 dm   /live/boot-dev
│ └─sdc1   254:1    0  58,6G  0 dm   
└─sdc2       8:34   1    32M  0 part 

I'm on a live USB MX Linux snapshot I made last month

[JesusLinux]

You could try a to run fsck on it, but it looks like your HD has indeed failed. Smartctl results may show us for sure

This is what it looks like to me as well.

System info from live USB snapshot, sdb is not mounting. Does not show on gparted

If sdb is not mounting, your course of action is to:

1. Verify the partition table is correct with "fdisk -l /dev/sdb " and "parted /dev/sdb p"
2. Prove that all partitions are visible with "lsblk -f"
3. Run a fsck on the errant partition if possible
4. Start reading up on ddrescue and prepare to transition from repair to recovery.

This presumes that Windows still does boot as expected and not that safe-mode, takes 10 minutes to get to a login screen, failover kind of boot, either. If the drive is 12 years old its best days are behind it and you should set your expectations realistically based on that fact.

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jesuslinux@A-9410:~
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Input/output error

jesuslinux@A-9410:~
$ sudo parted /dev/sda p
[sudo] password for jesuslinux:     
Error: /dev/sda: unrecognised disk label
Model: ATA Hitachi HTS54505 (scsi)                                        
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags: 

jesuslinux@A-9410:~
$ sudo lsblk -f
NAME       FSTYPE   FSVER LABEL      UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0      squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /live/linux
sda                                                                                      
sdb                                                                                      
├─sdb1     ntfs                      2BF63B2333C30FC9                                    
├─sdb2     ntfs                      3634877B34873CBD                                    
├─sdb3                                                                                   
├─sdb5     vfat     FAT32 EFI-SYSTEM D356-17F5                                           
├─sdb6     ext4     1.0   rootMX23   163f3d75-4f37-4872-a39e-ae673eda6d74                
└─sdb7     swap     1     swapMX     ec23a03e-b833-4ef4-a229-121b6175593d                [SWAP]
sdc                                                                                      
├─sdc1     exfat    1.0   Ventoy     4E21-0000                                           
│ ├─ventoy                                                                      0   100% /live/boot-dev
│ └─sdc1                                                                                 
└─sdc2     vfat     FAT16 VTOYEFI    626B-4255    

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jesuslinux@A-9410:~
$ sudo umount /dev/sda
umount: /dev/sda: not mounted.
jesuslinux@A-9410:~
$ sudo fsck /dev/sda
fsck from util-linux 2.38.1
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
fsck.ext2: Input/output error while trying to open /dev/sda

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
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>
 or
    e2fsck -b 32768 <device>
[/CDOE]

[DukeComposed]

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$ sudo fsck /dev/sda
fsck from util-linux 2.38.1
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
fsck.ext2: Input/output error while trying to open /dev/sda

sda is a device, not a partition. fsck only works on file systems, so "fsck /dev/sda" won't do anything. In this case, it looks like that drive doesn't have a partition table anymore. Not a readable one, at least. Time to look into recovery.

[JesusLinux]

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$ sudo fsck /dev/sda
fsck from util-linux 2.38.1
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
fsck.ext2: Input/output error while trying to open /dev/sda

sda is a device, not a partition. fsck only works on file systems, so "fsck /dev/sda" won't do anything. In this case, it looks like that drive doesn't have a partition table anymore. Not a readable one, at least. Time to look into recovery.

Yes it's 500GB Hitachi hdd.
I had the MX Linux /home partition on it and a data partition for Win11/MX.
They are not mounted anymore that's why I can't boot to MX because home is on it.
SDB has Win11, boot,EFI/, MX root/ and swap/...

How should I proceed in trying to recover the /home partition and relocate to a sdb partition next to /root?
Or is it better to make a clean install of MX in the sdb SSD?

[Eadwine Rose]

i/o errors..

Ehhh.. I'd say buy a new SSD.

[figueroa]

Don't give up too quickly. Your 500 GB drive SDA has no partitions. Recreate you partitions on that drive, if you are able, then restore the contents from your backups, in particular /home. If you don't have backups, your data is likely toast. What is the state of your data backups?

Note: The drive may be bad if it has suddenly lost its partition table. Of course, the loss of the partition table may have been because of a fat finger error. But, if the drive is bad, it can be replaced.

The alternative is to become an expert in drive recovery tools. It doesn't sound like you are that person. Proceed with caution. Reinstalling MX linux again isn't going to solve the problem which appears to be loss of your /home partition.

[JesusLinux]

Don't give up too quickly. Your 500 GB drive SDA has no partitions. Recreate you partitions on that drive, if you are able, then restore the contents from your backups, in particular /home. If you don't have backups, your data is likely toast. What is the state of your data backups?

Note: The drive may be bad if it has suddenly lost its partition table. Of course, the loss of the partition table may have been because of a fat finger error. But, if the drive is bad, it can be replaced.

The alternative is to become an expert in drive recovery tools. It doesn't sound like you are that person. Proceed with caution. Reinstalling MX linux again isn't going to solve the problem which appears to be loss of your /home partition.

I have a month old snapshot backup. This is a secondary laptop. I don't have important files.
It's just I never had a HDD fail.
This HDD had partitions a /home of Mx Linux and a W11/MX linux data partition.
Now those partitions are not recognized.
I just want to make sure that I can't salvage anything...
This drive was rarely in use. it was used as a data when I had W10 installed.
I upgraded to W11 and installed MX on dual boot. Several weeks later this happened

[DukeComposed]

I have a month old snapshot backup. This is a secondary laptop. I don't have important files.
It's just I never had a HDD fail.

First time for everything. Now you know what a bad disk looks like. One day it works, the next it's toast. You have a backup. That's great. It means you can stop wasting your time trying to fix something you don't need.

[JesusLinux]

Ok,
I ended up reinstalling MX from a one month old laptop on the 240GB SSD. This drive now has W11, mx boot-efi/, root/, home/ and /swap.
On the place I had the HDD CD-ROM caddy I put the DVD-RW back in the original one it came with.
On Win11 the DVDRW drive shows up in file explorer but on MX it does not show on devices...

[Eadwine Rose]

We need a new QSI now.