Uncooperative Harddrive

[jglen490]

This one has me completely lost. I bought an 80gb hard drive that had been wiped. I put it into my USB enclosure to format, partition, etc.

dmesg shows:

465692.489271] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  Void Disk        9.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[465692.499864] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[465698.865081] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[465698.865102] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[465698.870076] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[465698.870094] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[465698.901082] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[465698.901103] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[465698.901117] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

fdisk shows:

john@john-laptop:/dev$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders, total 117210240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2222056e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63    24579449    12289693+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2        24579450   115716194    45568372+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3       115716195   117210239      747022+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Meaning the drive is not being "seen". I've tried cfdisk and sfdisk but ach complains that the disk is either non-existent or is of zero length. In desparation, I plugged the enclosure into a Windows machine, which did not register the drive either.

So I don't know what to do next. I know the enclosure works, I use it to backup my home partition and plugging in the enclosure with the backup drive immediately mounts and displays the drive in Dolphin as well as a device in /media. This is the second drive I've tried from two different sources - both acted the same. Perhaps it's the enclosure, except for the fact that my backup drive was originally setup using the enclosure.

Any thoughts?

[Robtygart]

Is this an older drive with jumpers on the back? If so is set to cable select?

[jglen490]

It is an IDE drive and no jumpers are set, which normally means it's treated as a "master".

[Qqmike]

Very confusing. The "drive is not being seen." Yet, fdisk sees it along with a Linux OS installed in a standard way (starting at 63, etc.). The drive was "wiped"?

You might next try running GParted Live CD on it. See what it sees. And even repartiton the drive (in Gparted). Or use dd to wipe it (even one pass of zeros, for example).

[jglen490]

Sorry Qqmike! All the fdisk shows is my primary (/dev/sda) drive which works very well. The /dev/sdb disk is in a USB enclosure and fdisk is not "seeing" sdb, although dmesg shows something like sdb being attached.

[Robtygart]

As I recall on the IDE drives your first drive you boot from is master, and the second should be slave, Why not add a jumper and set it to cable select.

[Snowhog]

Where did you buy the drive from? New, or used. I'm curious about this dmesg entry:

465692.489271] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic Void Disk 9.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2

"Void Disk" ?

[jglen490]

It is a used disk that was "wiped". Usually that means something like DBAN (Derick's Boot and Nuke), but the seller did not specify. The previous one I had bought also showed up with a similar dmesg entry and was also not visible to Linux fdisk or on a Windows machine. I've never had any other problems with a disk in that particular enclosure, but I suppose anything could be wrong with it, also.

The seller has a 30 day return on the disk, so I'll probably just do that and look for a replacement at Newegg, or the like.

[Snowhog]

Read through this Gentoo Forums thread, [solved] 3.5" IDE drive in USB enclosure is not accessible

The OP solved it in the last post.

[jglen490]

This drive has always been set to "master" (no jumper at all - confirmed at WD), which would makes sense as it is the only drive on that circuit (USB connection). All the other drives I've ever used in that enclosure have been set as "master". I've tried it on the laptop's built-in USB 1.1 connection. Everything else that has been connected to that port ALWAYS works. I've tried it on a USB 2.0 Cardbus card with the same error resulting. I don't use that card much anymore as my wifi card uses part of that slot and between the two they generate WAY too much heat.

There are only two possibilities that I can think of 1) the enclosure's circuit has limitations or 2) I somehow got "lucky" and two drives in a row are bad.

I've been doing some research to make sure there is not a hard drive size problem with the BIOS on this T20. Everything points to no problem with an 80GB. So I think I'll go the Newegg or Amazon route and find a "new" drive. Hoping this problem goes away soon!

[jglen490]

O.K., the drive now cooperates. I went to the Western Digital forums, and was given some suggestions, which sort of worked. While working on this problem, I received another enclosure ordered for a SATA disk I had bought some time ago. The new enclosure/SATA drive was most cooperative. On a whim, I swapped the cable to the other enclosure, plugged it in, the drive now registered. I looked at in fdisk and found four partitions with various filesystems (including QNX - totally inconsequential, just weird). A quick trip through gparted and I now have a very useful 80GB Linux disk.

It sort of makes sense, because at times the enclosure would work with a disk full of Linux stuff, but not always. I don't really know what was wrong with the cable, but after a few more swaps and inconsistencies - it's earned trip to the trash.

I appreciate your inputs and suggestions. And once more, the lesson is true that simple solutions are usually the best.