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peets

Member

From: Montreal

Registered: 2007-01-11

Posts: 936

Website

Is my harddrive a brick?

I just bought a hard drive and it's been behaving strangely. I'm looking for help to figure out whether I did something wrong or if I should return it to the seller. Here's what happened:

Try 1:

# cfdisk /dev/sdc   # I made one big 1TB partition
# mkfs.xfs /dev/sdc1
# mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/big
# cp -rv music /mnt/big

It started happily copying away. About 2/3 of the way through, cp stopped doing its job and printed "cannot stat /mnt/big/<filename>: Input/output error" for the remaining files. So then

# umount /mnt/big
# mount -t xfs /dev/sdc1 /mnt/big   # nope, doesn't want to mount
# cfdisk /dev/sdc  # nope, can't read /dev/sdc or some such
# poweroff

Try 2:
I rebooted and tried doing the same thing. I noticed that there was a long pause in between leaving grub and booting the kernel, but I can't remember what was printed on the screen. While the kernel was loading there were some long pauses when loading ata modules or something: it retried thrice for the same thing (can't remember output message except that it started with ata7).

Anyway once it had booted I was able to do the same steps as in try 1. Only this time, when cp failed in the middle of its task, /dev/sdc got renamed to /dev/sdd and I was able to access it.

Try 3:
I tried using an ext4 filesystem instead, but got the same results as in Try 2. Oh, except this time the error message was "cannot create regular file /mnt/big/<filename>: read-only filesystem".

Try 4:
I checked the physical connections & wires. They seemed fine, I replugged everything properly. I then did exactly the same thing as in try 3 and got the same results.

Does anyone know what's going on? Extra detail: before "crashing" (or just after?), cp -v will stall on this one file for 15-30 seconds, after which it will give up (writing <filename>: read-only filesystem). Then it quickly prints all its error messages (cannot create regular file <filename>: read-only filesystem)

More info (I'm ignorant about kernel/hardware so everything is pretty much defaults):

# from /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
MODULES="pata_jmicron ata_generic ahci ata_piix"
BINARIES=""
FILES=""
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usb usbinput keymap filesystems"

# from /etc/rc.conf
MODULES=(!snd_pcsp !pcspkr acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_ondemand nvidia)

# from /boot/grub/menu.lst
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda7 ro

halp!

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: Is my harddrive a brick?

Any dmesg output?

peets

Member

From: Montreal

Registered: 2007-01-11

Posts: 936

Website

Re: Is my harddrive a brick?

yeah, I was coming back to edit my post for it!

EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 0: 4106 blocks in bitmap, 23513 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 1: 11205 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 3: 9989 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 5: 5719 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 7: 6474 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 9: 3796 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 16: 8261 blocks in bitmap, 24544 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 25: 6430 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 27: 12322 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 32: 7440 blocks in bitmap, 24544 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 48: 9403 blocks in bitmap, 24544 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 49: 9154 blocks in bitmap, 31743 in gd
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy: EXT4-fs: group 64: 21319 blocks in bitmap, 24544 in gd
ata7.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
ata7.00: cmd 35/00:00:3f:14:42/00:04:01:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out
         res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
ata7.00: status: { DRDY }
ata7: hard resetting link
ata7: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata7: SRST failed (errno=-16)
ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata7.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
ata7.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
ata7.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
ata7: hard resetting link
ata7: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata7: SRST failed (errno=-16)
ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata7.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
ata7.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
ata7.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
ata7: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
ata7: hard resetting link
ata7: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata7: SRST failed (errno=-16)
ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
ata7.00: both IDENTIFYs aborted, assuming NODEV
ata7.00: revalidation failed (errno=-2)
ata7.00: disabled
ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4050002 action 0xf t4
ata7: SError: { RecovComm PHYRdyChg CommWake DevExch }
ata7: hard resetting link
ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata7.00: ATA-8: WDC WD10EADS-65L5B1, 01.01A01, max UDMA/133
ata7.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense Key : 0xb [current] [descriptor]
Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
        72 0b 00 00 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00 
        00 00 00 00 
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] ASC=0x0 ASCQ=0x0
end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 21107775
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638464
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638465
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638466
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638467
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638468
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638469
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638470
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638471
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638472
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 2638473
lost page write due to I/O error on sdc1
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
(ed: snipped out 115 more copies of this line)
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=0x01 driverbyte=0x00
end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 21108799
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
JBD2: Detected IO errors while flushing file data on sdc1:8
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
Aborting journal on device sdc1:8.
sd 6:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
JBD2: I/O error detected when updating journal superblock for sdc1:8.
journal commit I/O error
ext4_abort called.
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
Remounting filesystem read-only
ext4_da_writepages: jbd2_start: 259 pages, ino 423; err -30
Pid: 4479, comm: cp Tainted: P           2.6.29-ARCH #1
Call Trace:
 [<f842a620>] ext4_da_writepages+0x480/0x4c0 [ext4]
 [<f843e888>] __ext4_handle_dirty_metadata+0x28/0xf0 [ext4]
 [<f842ba20>] ext4_da_get_block_write+0x0/0x280 [ext4]
 [<c018215e>] do_writepages+0x1e/0x40
 [<c01c2450>] __writeback_single_inode+0x90/0x470
 [<c0227083>] prop_fraction_single+0x53/0x90
 [<c01c2b88>] generic_sync_sb_inodes+0x138/0x460
 [<c01c3044>] writeback_inodes+0x44/0xd0
 [<c0182b61>] balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr+0x221/0x3a0
 [<f8428aae>] ext4_da_write_end+0x12e/0x310 [ext4]
 [<c017c216>] generic_file_buffered_write+0x1b6/0x350
 [<c017c88b>] __generic_file_aio_write_nolock+0x22b/0x570
 [<c0151c57>] debug_mutex_add_waiter+0x27/0x80
 [<c0133806>] current_fs_time+0x16/0x20
 [<c017cf82>] generic_file_aio_write+0x62/0xe0
 [<f842422e>] ext4_file_write+0x4e/0x190 [ext4]
 [<c01a6722>] do_sync_write+0xd2/0x110
 [<c0143680>] autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x40
 [<c020574c>] security_file_permission+0xc/0x10
 [<c01a68d3>] rw_verify_area+0x63/0xd0
 [<c01a719c>] vfs_write+0x9c/0x170
 [<c01a6650>] do_sync_write+0x0/0x110
 [<c01a7331>] sys_write+0x41/0x70
 [<c0103da3>] sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x2f
 [<c0340000>] cpu_callback+0x2b/0x38
ata7: EH complete
ata7.00: detaching (SCSI 6:0:0:0)
journal commit I/O error
ext4_da_writepages: jbd2_start: 1024 pages, ino 424; err -30
Pid: 20, comm: pdflush Tainted: P           2.6.29-ARCH #1
Call Trace:
 [<f842a620>] ext4_da_writepages+0x480/0x4c0 [ext4]
 [<f842ba20>] ext4_da_get_block_write+0x0/0x280 [ext4]
 [<c018215e>] do_writepages+0x1e/0x40
 [<c01c2450>] __writeback_single_inode+0x90/0x470
 [<c011e555>] default_spin_lock_flags+0x5/0x10
 [<c034b3c8>] schedule_timeout+0x88/0xf0
 [<c01c2b88>] generic_sync_sb_inodes+0x138/0x460
 [<c01c3044>] writeback_inodes+0x44/0xd0
 [<c0182294>] wb_kupdate+0x84/0x100
 [<c0183224>] pdflush+0x124/0x200
 [<c0182210>] wb_kupdate+0x0/0x100
 [<c0183100>] pdflush+0x0/0x200
 [<c01432e9>] kthread+0x39/0x70
 [<c01432b0>] kthread+0x0/0x70
 [<c0104693>] kernel_thread_helper+0x7/0x14
journal commit I/O error
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Stopping disk
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_find_entry: reading directory #12 offset 0
(ed: snipped out 50 copies of this line)
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_find_entry: reading directory #12 offset 0
scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD10EADS-65L 01.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] 1953525168 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] 1953525168 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
 sdd:<2>EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_find_entry: reading directory #12 offset 0
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_find_entry: reading directory #12 offset 0
(ed: snipped out 74 copies of this line)
EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_find_entry: reading directory #12 offset 0
 sdd1
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk
sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0

phew

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: Is my harddrive a brick?

Looks really bad for your disk...

nowahn

Member

From: elsewhere

Registered: 2008-12-05

Posts: 75

Re: Is my harddrive a brick?

Western Digital provides a tool that checks your hard drive. I have tried it a couple of month ago when my new drive was preventing from installing arch. It detected some errors, I sent the drive back to the seller, and they sent me another one immediately.
With this, you should know what to do.

PS: not sure it can distinguish between drive issues and wire/connection issues, I have checked my drive twice, with different wires and on different SATA ports to be sure.

---

take time to daydream, inspiration comes ...

peets

Member

From: Montreal

Registered: 2007-01-11

Posts: 936

Website

Re: Is my harddrive a brick?

Yeah I decided to return it to the vendor. At one point in my multiple tests I booted to get a message soewhat like "S.M.A.R.T.: Bad disk. Backup and replace." That sounded pretty conclusive. Thanks for your input.