help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

jigsawman · 2012-01-14 14:27:28

I have a cheap buffalo 500gb external that works just fine on windows but when I mount it in arch and try to copy something I get all sorts of logical block errors that crashes my filemanager etc.

When I first got it I used it with fat32, worked fine for about half a year until one day I was gonna cp something from a win machine, that worked fine until next time I mounted it on arch, all hell broke loose.. It even caused a kernel panic, and froze the system a couple of times .. I've tried to use it with ext4 and ext2 and neither worked, I pretty much assumed it was a hardware failure, and quite naturally I blamed it all on that one time I mounted it in XP. I've started to doubt this cause today I decided to gave it another go, first ext4 with no luck and then ntfs. And look at that, it works just fine _on windows_, no problems what's so ever, it copy's/reads/mounts withouth any strange behaviour.. So I tried it on linux with ntfs-3g and get the same errors as before. http://pastebin.com/h5kdwHfn

Linux burken 3.1.8-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jan 7 08:59:43 CET 2012 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

any ideas?

Last edited by jigsawman (2012-01-14 14:38:55)

lagagnon · 2012-01-14 16:22:06

Well it has an invalid ext4 filesystem on it at present with superblock and I/O errors. If I were you I would wipe the partition and simply redo a VFAT32 filesystem on it - especially if you are going to share amongst Linux and Windows boxes. I have never had a problem with that fs as a backup drive only.

See if that works first, if you still get errors post your dmesg with the newly reformatted drive. It could be a bad drive but I do not see the sort of kernel "sense" errors that usually exist with bad drives.

jigsawman · 2012-01-14 17:02:45

I'll try that, it's just at occasionally I get files bigger than 4gb, that's also one of the reasons I switched from fat when that first failed.. I also just tried to reformat the thing in XP, it's the same thing. Works in win, but in linux I get this

[26515.691065] usb 1-4: USB disconnect, device number 20
[26629.207379] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device number 21 using ehci_hcd
[26629.333099] scsi26 : usb-storage 1-4:1.0
[26630.333190] scsi 26:0:0:0: Direct-Access     BUFFALO  HD-PETU2         1.04 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[26630.335387] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[26630.336030] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[26630.336037] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[26630.337009] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[26630.337018] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[26630.341013] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[26630.341026] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[26630.409693]  sdc: sdc1
[26630.414008] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[26630.414050] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[26630.414058] sd 26:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[26631.132753] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 5
[26631.133489] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 5
[26633.348689] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 5
[26633.349229] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 5

jigsawman · 2012-01-14 17:35:33

lagagnon wrote:

Well it has an invalid ext4 filesystem on it at present with superblock and I/O errors. If I were you I would wipe the partition and simply redo a VFAT32 filesystem on it - especially if you are going to share amongst Linux and Windows boxes. I have never had a problem with that fs as a backup drive only.
See if that works first, if you still get errors post your dmesg with the newly reformatted drive. It could be a bad drive but I do not see the sort of kernel "sense" errors that usually exist with bad drives.

No luck I'm afraid

here's dmesg http://pastebin.com/Lc5f3t2f

And it still works fine in windows, I'm gonna boot into a live cd and see what happens there..

jigsawman · 2012-01-14 18:39:47

nope, same in fedore16 live

some bits of dmesg,

[  494.886210] FAT-fs (sdc1): error, fat_bmap_cluster: request beyond EOF (i_pos 34693645) <-- alot of those came.
[  494.886222] FAT-fs (sdc1): error, fat_bmap_cluster: request beyond EOF (i_pos 34693645)
[  494.886232] FAT-fs (sdc1): error, fat_bmap_cluster: request beyond EOF (i_pos 34693645)

[  630.385610] usb 1-4: USB disconnect, device number 11
[  630.421063] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code
[  630.421074] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  630.421084] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Write(10): 2a 00 00 31 b0 4f 00 00 f0 00
[  630.421105] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 3256399
[  630.425990] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code
[  630.425997] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  630.426016] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Write(10): 2a 00 00 31 b1 3f 00 00 f0 00
[  630.426034] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 3256639
[  630.426774] FAT-fs (sdb1): FAT read failed (blocknr 719)
[  630.426842] FAT-fs (sdb1): FAT read failed (blocknr 716)
[  630.435298] FAT-fs (sdb1): unable to read inode block for updating (i_pos 51208723)
[  630.443103] FAT-fs (sdb1): bread failed in fat_clusters_flush
[  630.839421] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device number 12 using ehci_hcd
[  630.954546] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0411, idProduct=01a0
[  630.954551] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  630.954553] usb 1-4: Product: HD-PETU2        
[  630.954556] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: BUFFALO 
[  630.954557] usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 365645453554504A20202020
[  630.956911] scsi17 : usb-storage 1-4:1.0
[  632.013624] scsi 17:0:0:0: Direct-Access     BUFFALO  HD-PETU2         1.04 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[  632.017841] sd 17:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[  632.020345] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[  632.021738] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[  632.021748] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[  632.022698] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  632.022706] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  632.025708] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  632.025719] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  632.036487]  sdb: sdb1
[  632.040711] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  632.040723] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  632.040732] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[  632.732109] SELinux: initialized (dev sdb1, type vfat), uses genfs_contexts
[  716.588228] FAT-fs (sdb1): error, fat_free_clusters: deleting FAT entry beyond EOF
[  716.588240] FAT-fs (sdb1): Filesystem has been set read-only
[  743.994786] SELinux: initialized (dev sdb1, type vfat), uses genfs_contexts
[  744.048090] FAT-fs (sdb1): error, fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0)
[  744.048101] FAT-fs (sdb1): Filesystem has been set read-only
[  744.048620] FAT-fs (sdb1): error, fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0)

jigsawman · 2012-01-14 19:25:11

it has started to mount as read-only now too..

EDIT: I ran testdisk on it couple of times, deleted and rewrote every bit of boot sector and whatnot I could find... and strangely it actually seems like it's working(early assumption). I've copied 8Gb's of stuff on it withouth errors..

Last edited by jigsawman (2012-01-14 19:41:03)

stqn · 2012-01-15 15:16:42

Run badblocks on it...

jigsawman · 2012-01-15 19:48:10

stqn wrote:

Run badblocks on it...

wouldn't checking all blocks on a 500gb usb drive be a rather lengthy process?

thisoldman · 2012-01-15 20:10:59

Errors might show up using 'smartctl' from smartmontools. There's a gui interface, 'gsmartctl' for the smartctl tools. SMART will show if there's been a lot of reallocation errors, which can be used to sort-of predict drive failure.

Last edited by thisoldman (2012-01-15 20:11:23)

stqn · 2012-01-15 20:39:29

jigsawman wrote:

wouldn't checking all blocks on a 500gb usb drive be a rather lengthy process?

It took a bit more than 20 hours on mine, I think. (With the '-n' option: non-destructive read-write mode.)

(Edit: not 6 but 20 hours .)

Last edited by stqn (2012-01-15 20:41:20)

jigsawman · 2012-01-15 21:02:33

I see.. Well, it still seems to function since I ran testdisk on it, sort of(no I/O erros at least).. copying large files os hidiously slow! I do remember it being like this before too, I've had this issue with an mp3 player but that's a very long time ago.. It starts out just fine, but after a couple of seconds, the transfer completely halts.. top reports that value 'wa' spikes right up to a steady 97% during the time the transfer halts, the blue transfer indicator on the disk also flashes frantically.. any ideas what this could be?

thisoldman · 2012-01-15 21:28:30

jigsawman wrote:

...copying large files os hidiously slow! ... It starts out just fine, but after a couple of seconds, the transfer completely halts.. top reports that value 'wa' spikes right up to a steady 97% during the time the transfer halts, the blue transfer indicator on the disk also flashes frantically.. any ideas what this could be?

A promising, possible solution is given here, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 5#p1022955.
And another thread, where some more testing results are being reported: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p1033186

jigsawman · 2012-01-15 22:21:24

thisoldman wrote:

jigsawman wrote:
...copying large files os hidiously slow! ... It starts out just fine, but after a couple of seconds, the transfer completely halts.. top reports that value 'wa' spikes right up to a steady 97% during the time the transfer halts, the blue transfer indicator on the disk also flashes frantically.. any ideas what this could be?
A promising, possible solution is given here, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 5#p1022955.
And another thread, where some more testing results are being reported: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p1033186

thanks!

why isn't this default? could there perhaps be 'unforeseen consequences' ?

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-14 14:27:28

help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#2 2012-01-14 16:22:06

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#3 2012-01-14 17:02:45

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#4 2012-01-14 17:35:33

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#5 2012-01-14 18:39:47

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#6 2012-01-14 19:25:11

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#7 2012-01-15 15:16:42

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#8 2012-01-15 19:48:10

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#9 2012-01-15 20:10:59

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#10 2012-01-15 20:39:29

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#11 2012-01-15 21:02:33

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#12 2012-01-15 21:28:30

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

#13 2012-01-15 22:21:24

Re: help! archlinux is screwing over my external harddrive

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