Arch Linux

analca3

Member

From: Granada, Spain

Registered: 2009-04-23

Posts: 46

[SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

Hi all! I have a problem but I can't solve it . I'm sorry if the post aren't in the correct place. I wrote long ago an Arch ISO using dd and, after that, I followed these instructions, run dd and create a new partition table with gparted. BUT after that (without creating new filesystems) I get this

[antonio@Antonio-Arch ~]$ ls /run/media/antonio/ARCH_201310/
arch  EFI  isolinux  loader

And this

[antonio@Antonio-Arch ~]$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 465,7 GiB, 500074283008 bytes, 976707584 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
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000819f2

There are no filesystem, but mi laptop with Arch (obviously ) and mi Raspberry Pi with Raspbmc detect a filesystem and can mount it! It seems like the ISO files are there but I can't remove them . What can I do?

Thank you so much!

Regards!

Last edited by analca3 (2014-07-25 10:40:44)

dif

Member

From: Stalowa Wola, Poland

Registered: 2009-12-22

Posts: 137

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

Hi.
What does

lsblk

show after you connect your external drive?
I tinkered with my pendrive and instead of removing the iso written with dd I created an additional partition. I can't remember which tool I used--either fdisk or gparted (or maybe even gdisk). Here's what lsblk /dev/sdb shows about the pendrive:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb      8:16   1  1,9G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   1  539M  0 part /run/media/wm/ARCH_201405
├─sdb2   8:18   1   31M  0 part 
└─sdb3   8:19   1  1,3G  0 part /run/media/wm/KLUCZ

And here's the output of sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 1.9 GiB, 2004877312 bytes, 3915776 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
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1535e446

Device    Boot     Start       End  Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1 *            0   1103871  551936   0 Empty
/dev/sdb2            248     63735   31744  ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdb3        1103872   3915775 1405952   b W95 FAT32

Interestingly, partition sdb2 lies inside partition sdb1, and partition sdb3 starts right after sdb1.
I don't know the answer to your question, but start with lsblk, because your hard drive seems to be mounted as your command ls /run/media/antonio/ARCH_201310/ suggests.
I would unmount it, and just used fdisk or any other tool to delete that mounted partition (if it does exist) and then create (a) new partition(s).

Last edited by dif (2014-07-23 10:05:15)

analca3

Member

From: Granada, Spain

Registered: 2009-04-23

Posts: 46

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

Hi! Thanks for your reply .

lsblk throws this

$ lsblk /dev/sdc
NAME MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc    8:32   0 465,7G  0 disk /run/media/antonio/ARCH_201310

My Raspberry Pi detects this "partition" always, but my laptop with Arch/KDE only show it if there are no more partitions. If I create a new partition, KDE don't suggest me to mount ARCH_201310. Really strange... System mount the disk, not the partition!

Any more advices? Thanks!

dif

Member

From: Stalowa Wola, Poland

Registered: 2009-12-22

Posts: 137

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

Simply unmount /run/media/antonio/ARCH_201310 and create new partitions.

sudo umount /run/media/antonio/ARCH_201310
#create new partition(s)
sudo fdisk /dev/sdX    # It was /dev/sdc in your last post
#create file system on the partition(s)
mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1    # Or whichever partition and file system you want to create

In fact, I used gdisk on my pen drive, but that should make no difference which tool you use.

Last edited by dif (2014-07-23 14:25:31)

dif

Member

From: Stalowa Wola, Poland

Registered: 2009-12-22

Posts: 137

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

Just for your information.
I have just dd'ed the latest Arch iso to my pen drive and here are some outputs.

$ lsblk

sdb               8:16   1   1,9G  0 disk 
├─sdb1            8:17   1   558M  0 part 
└─sdb2            8:18   1    31M  0 part 

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 1.9 GiB, 2004877312 bytes, 3915776 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
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x6039e1c4

Device    Boot     Start       End  Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1 *            0   1142783  571392   0 Empty
/dev/sdb2            252     63739   31744  ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 3915776 sectors, 1.9 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 8019975B-C633-4A83-9245-42CEAB0EFB98
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 3915742
Partitions will be aligned on 4-sector boundaries
Total free space is 3852221 sectors (1.8 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   2             252           63739   31.0 MiB    EF00  EFI System

Then I creaded and additional partition 3.
I'll edit this post later to let you know how this all has worked out.

EDIT: Yes, it all has worked as planned. I can save to partition 3 and I can boot in BIOS mode from the pen drive. I did not try EFI.

Last edited by dif (2014-07-23 15:31:17)

analca3

Member

From: Granada, Spain

Registered: 2009-04-23

Posts: 46

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

Ok, thanks! But one more question, what happens if you erase all partitions and create a new partition table (only if you don't need the data obviously)? I'll try simply ignoring these data but I need to delete them totally .

Thank you so much!

Regards!

dif

Member

From: Stalowa Wola, Poland

Registered: 2009-12-22

Posts: 137

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

I'm not sure I have understood your question, so I'll give you two answers.

(1)  When I removed all partitions, i.e. the two that came with Arch iso and the one I created for data, and then when I created a new partition just for data, sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb showed just one partition, the one I created last.
However, sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdb showed the EFI partition created with/by Arch iso. I'm not sure whether it is because I used gdisk on this pendrive before, or because of Arch iso. Anyway, you can remove this information by zeroing more than just one 512-byte sector on your external drive. I'd suggest

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb iflag=nocache oflag=direct count=256 bs=4096

Then create your partitions with fdisk/gdisk.

(2)  If you want to erase everything on your external disk have a look at secure wiping:
for example

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX iflag=nocache oflag=direct bs=4096

As alwas with dd, be careful. It is for a reason, dd is called a disk destroyer.

analca3

Member

From: Granada, Spain

Registered: 2009-04-23

Posts: 46

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

Thanks! Solution (2) seems perfect for me! After 13 hours aprox I'll post results XD.

Thanks again

Regards!

analca3

Member

From: Granada, Spain

Registered: 2009-04-23

Posts: 46

Re: [SOLVED] I can't restore USB HDD correctly after ISO write...

I'm sorry for the double post, but I need it: My HDD is fixed . Thank you very much, dif! It's perfect now .

This topic is SOLVED.

Regards!