Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

archutang · 2017-09-01 07:56:47

Hello All,

I have an MSI GE62 6QD laptop with 512GB SSD + 2TB HDD drives.
I've received the machine with Windows 10 installed on the SSD and installed Arch to the HDD.

For a few months I've switched between the systems through the manual boot menu (with F11) and choosing the relevant drive.
I wanted to have a Linux system on my SSD, so I tried to shrink the Windows partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard etc., but failed a few times.
Still, I could boot to both systems from the boot menu.

Not sure what exactly have I done, but for the last days I can't boot from the SSD.
The device is recognized by the BIOS and I can mount it manually or through a GUI file manager (Dolphin detects it well).
but it is not a recognized boot option and and when I try to repartition it with different tools, I've got a mix of false "Success" messages and errors that I've failed to solve through digging in forums.

I think this is the most confusing point I have -

I get an error for `parted /dev/sda print` :

[root@archlinux ~]# parted /dev/sda print
Error: /dev/sda: unrecognised disk label
Model: ATA SanDisk SD8SN8U5 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:

But if I do it from parted interactively, it looks ok:

[root@archlinux ~]# parted /dev/sda
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print
Model: ATA SanDisk SD8SN8U5 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 316MB 315MB fat32 EFI system partition boot, esp
2 316MB 450MB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
3 450MB 511GB 511GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata
4 511GB 512GB 944MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag

Another point probably worth mentioning is that GParted throws "/dev/sda/: unrecognised disk label" errors for any partition I try to Check or Format a partition.
When I try to create a new GPT I get a Libparted Warning popup saying Error fsyncing/closing /dev/sda: Input/output error.

Any assistance would be appreciated,
Many thanks in advance, this forum pages have already helped me a lot many times.

dviktor · 2017-09-01 13:52:03

are you trying to do that under working Linux system with all partitions mounted?

archutang · 2017-09-01 15:42:49

dviktor wrote:

are you trying to do that under working Linux system with all partitions mounted?

The output is from a running Arch installation on a separate HDD.
I got pretty much same results from live ISOs of Kubuntu and Antergos.

Last edited by archutang (2017-09-01 15:43:32)

V1del · 2017-09-01 15:58:23

How are you passing the root partition to your kernel line? You will want to use stable identifiers (/dev/sdX aren't stable): https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … ice_naming

This would be the most harmless, if that wasn't it (or regardless even) run a SMART test to verify that your disk isn't on its way out.

R00KIE · 2017-09-01 19:07:49

If you are up to repartitioning and reformatting your ssd, which means reinstalling windows if you still want to have it on the ssd, then backup everything on the ssd, next double check that you have backed up everything and that you can access the backup.

Then you can do 'blkdiscard -v /dev/sda', the ssd should now be squeaky clean. If that doesn't work, which it should, you can try to zap all partition tables with 'sgdisk -Z /dev/sda'.

You may also want to check your bios/firmware if there is any option to protect the mbr from virus and disable that option.

archutang · 2017-09-02 20:09:50

V1del wrote:

How are you passing the root partition to your kernel line? You will want to use stable identifiers (/dev/sdX aren't stable): https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … ice_naming

I'm not sure what did you mean, but I think I just edited /etc/fstab when I've installed arch.
The SSD (/dev/sda for that matter) is not mounted by default.

V1del wrote:

This would be the most harmless, if that wasn't it (or regardless even) run a SMART test to verify that your disk isn't on its way out.

I've ran the short SMART test using Disks utility and it completed successfully with no issues.

R00KIE wrote:

If you are up to repartitioning and reformatting your ssd, which means reinstalling windows if you still want to have it on the ssd, then backup everything on the ssd, next double check that you have backed up everything and that you can access the backup.
Then you can do 'blkdiscard -v /dev/sda', the ssd should now be squeaky clean. If that doesn't work, which it should, you can try to zap all partition tables with 'sgdisk -Z /dev/sda'.
You may also want to check your bios/firmware if there is any option to protect the mbr from virus and disable that option.

I've backed up my data, and considered using something like dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda but heard that isn't healthy for an SSD,
I'm not familiar with blkdiscard and sqdisk, are they doing something similar to the dd usage above?

I have a hunch that the partition table was damaged when I've tried to shrink the windows installation partition, but I've failed to come with proves for that hunch..
Any recommendation on how I can inspect the partition table and compare that to the data on the disk?

archutang · 2017-09-05 19:52:40

Update:

I've tried testdisk, quick search and deep search reported they are unable to recover the partitions,
moved to "zap all partition tables" with `sgdisk --zap /dev/sda`, then tried to repartition with parted and gparted.
I get the same issues as above.

Can anyone suggest how to further explore the issue?

R00KIE · 2017-09-06 10:02:11

archutang wrote:

Can anyone suggest how to further explore the issue?

R00KIE wrote:

You may also want to check your bios/firmware if there is any option to protect the mbr from virus and disable that option.

archutang wrote:

I'm not familiar with blkdiscard and sqdisk, are they doing something similar to the dd usage above?

Blkdiscard will trim the whole SSD, it should leave it completely blank. It is not the same as using dd to blank the SSD, blkdiscard will just erase the flash cells while dd will require an erase plus a write. An alternative to blkdiscard is doing a security erase, if nothing works I'd say your SSD is not working properly. Obviously you should not have mounted partitions on the SSD when you try to do this, the best way is to use the boot/install media to make sure nothing else is trying to use the SSD.

archutang · 2017-09-06 12:17:32

Thank you, I will try blksid as soon as I'll have chance for a reboot..
Is there anything I can do to verify nothing is trying to access my SSD from Arch?

R00KIE · 2017-09-06 20:37:25

If you don't have any of the partitions on the SSD mounted then nothing should be accessing the SSD. Even if there is something accessing the SSD I'm not sure blkdiscard does any "safety" checks so anything accessing the ssd will complain soon enough after your trim the whole device.

archutang · 2017-09-10 09:50:04

I've tried `blkdiscard -v /dev/sda` and got an error:

$ sudo blkdiscard -v /dev/sda
blkdiscard: /dev/sda: BLKDISCARD ioctl failed: Input/output error

dmesg output:

$ dmesg
<--truncated-->
[122465.945450] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#14 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[122465.945452] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#14 CDB: opcode=0x85 85 06 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e5 00
[123065.877669] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#16 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123065.877671] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#16 CDB: opcode=0x85 85 06 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e5 00
[123208.822648] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#18 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822656] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#18 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3f ff c0 00 00
[123208.822660] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
[123208.822689] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#19 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822692] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#19 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 00 3f ff c0 00 3f ff c0 00 00
[123208.822695] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4194240
[123208.822710] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#20 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822713] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#20 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 00 7f ff 80 00 00 00 7f 00 00
[123208.822715] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 8388480
[123208.822729] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#21 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822732] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#21 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 00 7f ff ff 00 3f ff c0 00 00
[123208.822734] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 8388607
[123208.822746] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#22 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822749] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#22 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 00 bf ff bf 00 3f ff c0 00 00
[123208.822751] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 12582847
[123208.822764] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#23 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822767] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#23 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 00 ff ff 7f 00 00 00 7f 00 00
[123208.822769] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 16777087
[123208.822782] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#24 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822785] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#24 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 00 ff ff fe 00 3f ff c0 00 00
[123208.822787] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 16777214
[123208.822799] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#25 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822803] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#25 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 01 3f ff be 00 3f ff c0 00 00
[123208.822804] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 20971454
[123208.822817] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#26 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822820] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#26 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 01 7f ff 7e 00 00 00 7f 00 00
[123208.822822] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 25165694
[123208.822835] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#27 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.822838] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#27 CDB: opcode=0x93 93 08 00 00 00 00 01 7f ff fd 00 3f ff c0 00 00
[123208.822840] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 25165821
[123208.829796] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(16) failed: Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.829800] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense not available.
[123208.829931] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123208.829936] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense not available.
[123208.830055] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
[123208.830568] sda: detected capacity change from 512110190592 to 0

tried again, this time I got no output at all, and the return value is 0.
I was hoping this is a good sign but now GParted doesn't recognize the SSD at
I checked dmesg and found only these 4 new lines:

$ sudo blkdiscard -v /dev/sda
$ echo $?
0
$ dmesg
[123413.601991] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(16) failed: Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123413.601993] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense not available.
[123413.602034] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
[123413.602036] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense not available.

Further attempts to use `blkdiscard` result the same as the last attempt above (with similar 4 lines appended to dmesg).

This was all done from an installed Arch system that doesn't use or mount the SSD.
I would appreciate any tips about what I can learn from the dmesg output and/or where else to look for other clues.

Thank You,
archutang

V1del · 2017-09-10 10:13:56

Do a SMART test this really doesn't read well. I suspect that SSD is on its way out.

archutang · 2017-09-10 11:41:29

V1del wrote:

Do a SMART test this really doesn't read well. I suspect that SSD is on its way out.

I've just ran an extented SMART test from using the Disks utility, all results are "OK" ("Assessment" column) and test results are "Last self-test completed successfully".

Anything else I can do to exclude the possibility of hardware fault?

R00KIE · 2017-09-10 12:11:44

That dmesg output doesn't look good. You should post the full output of smartctl so others can have a look as you may have overlooked something.

Try with the latest 4.12.12 kernel, try with the LTS kernel and maybe with the latest git kernel as you may be stumbling upon some driver bug.

Also make sure you have the latest available firmware on your ssd because that may fix or alleviate the problem you are experiencing.

The last thing to try would be to take the ssd out an try it in a known good machine, that would at least confirm if the ssd is working properly or not.

fsckd · 2017-09-10 15:43:35

Please use code tags instead of quote tags for terminal output. Thanks.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-09-01 07:56:47

Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#2 2017-09-01 13:52:03

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#3 2017-09-01 15:42:49

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#4 2017-09-01 15:58:23

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#5 2017-09-01 19:07:49

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#6 2017-09-02 20:09:50

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#7 2017-09-05 19:52:40

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#8 2017-09-06 10:02:11

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#9 2017-09-06 12:17:32

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#10 2017-09-06 20:37:25

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#11 2017-09-10 09:50:04

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#12 2017-09-10 10:13:56

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#13 2017-09-10 11:41:29

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#14 2017-09-10 12:11:44

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

#15 2017-09-10 15:43:35

Re: Unable to Boot or Repartition Laptop's SSD Drive

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