I have an old external harddisk, Toshiba 320 Gb, with a USB connector that I wanted to check for contents. It did not start up when connected and I could not hear the motor spinning. After leaving it in the freezer overnight the motor spins but it is not recognized by my computer. I disassembled it and could see that the head assembly rests outside the disk but when it is powered on, the head first moves to the center of the disk, then to the periphery and finally back to the resting position. This happens every few seconds and leaving it connected overnight changed nothing. I installed smartmontools but the disk is not even recognized by my system as a /dev/sd* device and therefore not accessible to smartd (at least as far as I know it.) Any suggestions for what I could try? I am running CentOS 7. Thank you.
> I have an old external harddisk, Toshiba 320 Gb, with a USB connector that > I wanted to check for contents. It did not start up when connected and I > could not hear the motor spinning. After leaving it in the freezer > overnight the motor spins but it is not recognized by my computer. I > disassembled it and could see that the head assembly rests outside the > disk but when it is powered on, the head first moves to the center of the > disk, then to the periphery and finally back to the resting position. This > happens every few seconds and leaving it connected overnight changed > nothing. > > I installed smartmontools but the disk is not even recognized by my system > as a /dev/sd* device and therefore not accessible to smartd (at least as > far as I know it.)Usually such devices had an ide or sata port and the USB connection was made with an interface module. Maybe you can connect the device directly with an ide or sata adapter and see if it shows up there. It's also quite normal that a drive doesn't spin up after being powered of for a long time. Moving the drive around in your hand so that the disks can turn inside can help to make them going. Regards, Simon
On Tue, Sep 29, 2020, 8:33 AM H <agents at meddatainc.com> wrote:> I have an old external harddisk, Toshiba 320 Gb, with a USB connector that > I wanted to check for contents. It did not start up when connected and I > could not hear the motor spinning. After leaving it in the freezer > overnight the motor spins but it is not recognized by my computer. I > disassembled it and could see that the head assembly rests outside the disk > but when it is powered on, the head first moves to the center of the disk, > then to the periphery and finally back to the resting position. This > happens every few seconds and leaving it connected overnight changed > nothing. >That repeated seeking suggests it's not passing its self test, and is constantly retrying. It's probably searching for servo data on the disks, and not finding it.>
On 09/30/2020 05:40 AM, John Pierce wrote:> On Tue, Sep 29, 2020, 8:33 AM H <agents at meddatainc.com> wrote: > >> I have an old external harddisk, Toshiba 320 Gb, with a USB connector that >> I wanted to check for contents. It did not start up when connected and I >> could not hear the motor spinning. After leaving it in the freezer >> overnight the motor spins but it is not recognized by my computer. I >> disassembled it and could see that the head assembly rests outside the disk >> but when it is powered on, the head first moves to the center of the disk, >> then to the periphery and finally back to the resting position. This >> happens every few seconds and leaving it connected overnight changed >> nothing. >> > That repeated seeking suggests it's not passing its self test, and is > constantly retrying. It's probably searching for servo data on the disks, > and not finding it. > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centosI see. I have not searched for any low-level disk utility from Toshiba, the manufacturer of the disk. Do you think that might be worthwhile to hopefully fix this?
On 09/30/2020 03:21 AM, Simon Matter wrote:>> I have an old external harddisk, Toshiba 320 Gb, with a USB connector that >> I wanted to check for contents. It did not start up when connected and I >> could not hear the motor spinning. After leaving it in the freezer >> overnight the motor spins but it is not recognized by my computer. I >> disassembled it and could see that the head assembly rests outside the >> disk but when it is powered on, the head first moves to the center of the >> disk, then to the periphery and finally back to the resting position. This >> happens every few seconds and leaving it connected overnight changed >> nothing. >> >> I installed smartmontools but the disk is not even recognized by my system >> as a /dev/sd* device and therefore not accessible to smartd (at least as >> far as I know it.) > Usually such devices had an ide or sata port and the USB connection was > made with an interface module. Maybe you can connect the device directly > with an ide or sata adapter and see if it shows up there. > > It's also quite normal that a drive doesn't spin up after being powered of > for a long time. Moving the drive around in your hand so that the disks > can turn inside can help to make them going. > > Regards, > Simon > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centosIt has a SATA-interface and I could try that but not in the next few days unfortunately. As I said, putting it in the freezer dislodged the disks and I had tried moving/shaking it prior to that but this did not help.