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horrormaster

Member

Registered: 2009-04-12

Posts: 23

HDD locked or what?

I seem to have a problem accessing my second internal HDD that contains my Windows install. I can mount it in GNU/Linux and access it just fine but I can't boot to it. I also can't format it using gparted or the Windows install disc. If I run fdisk -l it shows that there is a HDD and NTFS partition. If I try and delete the partition using fdisk, it gives me an "error closing file" message. The HDD shows up in the BIOS. I've tried to run a check on the drive from within gparted, but it just errors out.

Any clue what's going on?

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: HDD locked or what?

So your problem is you can't boot Windows? If yes, what bootloader are you using. If grub, show us your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and also show us the output to "fdisk -l".

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Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

horrormaster

Member

Registered: 2009-04-12

Posts: 23

Re: HDD locked or what?

It just isn't that. It's that I can't delete the partition or reformat it to anything. I can mount it in GNU/Linux and access the files to back everything up, but trying to boot to Windows, reformat the drive, or check the drive for errors yields nothing except errors.

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: HDD locked or what?

please post what errors you get, so people can actually help you out

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horrormaster

Member

Registered: 2009-04-12

Posts: 23

Re: HDD locked or what?

using gparted livecd and trying to format or delete a partition on the HDD gives me this error message: "input/output error during write on /dev/sdb" "error fsyncing/closing /dev/sdb: input/output"

using gparted livecd to check the drive gives me this error message: "error(2): failed to check '/dev/sdb' mount state: no such file or directory

If I use fdisk to delete the partition and then write it out, it simply outputs "the partition table has been altered! calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Error closing file."

trying to boot to the windows hdd simply gives me "a disk read error occured, press ctrl+alt+del to restart"

trying to load Windows O.S. disc to use their tools simply doesn't work at all since they stop right after loading windows files and then it stays at a black screen.

tavianator

Member

From: Waterloo, ON, Canada

Registered: 2007-08-21

Posts: 858

Website

Re: HDD locked or what?

The output of dmesg will provide more details, but it looks like the drive itself is failing.

Kirurgs

Member

Registered: 2008-10-20

Posts: 144

Re: HDD locked or what?

Please install smartmontools and do

smartctl -a /dev/sdb

(or whichever is the drive you get problems with)... That would give smart info about drive, maybe, as some already suggested, drive is failing itself...

Last edited by Kirurgs (2011-02-15 06:48:56)