[SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

djsigmann · 2022-09-04 03:41:05

Evening Chaps, I've got a USB pen-drive that does show up in lsblk as /dev/sdc, but for some odd reason seems to have 0 bytes free (output cropped to relevant line):

$ lsblk
NAME            MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sdc               8:32   1     0B  0 disk

Furthermore, upon trying to mount it, I receive this error:

# mount /dev/sdc /mnt
mount: /mnt: no medium found on /dev/sdc.

Trying to overwrite the disk with dd also gave a similar error message:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc status=progress
dd: failed to open '/dev/sdc': No medium found

fdisk, parted, and other tools also give a similar error message and don't seem able to read this device. Is the drive dead or is there something I'm missing here? I used it only a few months ago as an arch install medium.

Last edited by djsigmann (2022-09-08 01:00:33)

seth · 2022-09-04 07:19:34

Run "dmesg -w" and then plug the key and post the tail this triggers.
Also post the output of

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc

and check "lsmod | grep -i storage"

djsigmann · 2022-09-04 08:14:21

seth wrote:

Run "dmesg -w" and then plug the key and post the tail this triggers.
Also post the output of
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc
and check "lsmod | grep -i storage"

# dmesg -w
[29859.288397] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 22 using xhci_hcd
[29859.435897] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=090c, idProduct=3000, bcdDevice= 1.00
[29859.435902] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[29859.435904] usb 2-1: Product: SM3255AA MEMORY BAR
[29859.435906] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: Silicon Motion,Inc.
[29859.437938] usb-storage 2-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[29859.438058] scsi host5: usb-storage 2-1:1.0
[29860.452548] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access              USB MEMORY BAR   1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[29860.452798] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[29860.453054] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Media removed, stopped polling
[29860.453291] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

# fdisk -l /dev/sdc 
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdc: No medium found

$ lsmod | grep -i storage
usb_storage            81920  1 uas

seth · 2022-09-04 08:28:29

[29860.453054] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Media removed, stopped polling

…

[29859.435904] usb 2-1: Product: SM3255AA MEMORY BAR

Is it?

You can try the device on a different system (other HW/OS) but it looks like the controller chip died

djsigmann · 2022-09-04 19:03:43

seth wrote:

[29860.453054] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Media removed, stopped polling
…
[29859.435904] usb 2-1: Product: SM3255AA MEMORY BAR
Is it?
You can try the device on a different system (other HW/OS) but it looks like the controller chip died

Hmm, well that's too bad, windows also can't read it.
If the chip died, I'm guessing there's no way to resurrect this short of soldering in a new chip and praying that it works ?

seth · 2022-09-04 19:22:40

If you've an identical key, replacing the chip can work, yes.
Otherwise typically not.
And you can fuse the entire thing.
If there's super-valuable data on the chip (you should have a backup and) I'd rather hand that to some pro who's done that more than once…

Did you try it on some different HW or at least USB port, though?

djsigmann · 2022-09-08 00:59:22

seth wrote:

If you've an identical key, replacing the chip can work, yes.
Otherwise typically not.
And you can fuse the entire thing.
If there's super-valuable data on the chip (you should have a backup and) I'd rather hand that to some pro who's done that more than once…
Did you try it on some different HW or at least USB port, though?

Yes, I've tried it on every USB port I have, both on an Arch machine and a Windows machine, no dice. I think I'll just mark this as solved, since there isn't really anywhere to go from here. IIRC, the drive just had an arch install ISO flashed onto it, nothing more, so I didn't really lose anything important.

Last edited by djsigmann (2022-09-08 01:02:20)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-09-04 03:41:05

[SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

#2 2022-09-04 07:19:34

Re: [SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

#3 2022-09-04 08:14:21

Re: [SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

#4 2022-09-04 08:28:29

Re: [SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

#5 2022-09-04 19:03:43

Re: [SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

#6 2022-09-04 19:22:40

Re: [SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

#7 2022-09-08 00:59:22

Re: [SOLVED] USB Pendrive unable to be read or mounted.

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