External Hdd (Unsupported sector size)

Volumes4343 · Post by **Volumes4343** » Sat Feb 24, 2024 4:48 am

Hi all, thanks for any ideas in advance, I have been trying to solve this for roughly ten days.

I have an external refurbished enterprise hdd (Seagate Exos X16 St16000NM000G 16TB) connected to a Linux Mint PC using a powered enclosure that connects via usb. Using the same enclosure windows can use the drive normally. The drive is bitlocker encrypted, though using the dislocker cli tool I have used both this enclosure with Linux Mint successfully with no issue with other drives. Drive has NTFS format.

EDIT1: I have removed the bitlocker encryption (quick reformat from windows), and the problem persists. While I believe there was a single time when bitlocker was encrypted the drive was recognized by Linux Mint (on system restart), I have not been able to reproduce this result.

EDIT2: I noticed that if I start the Linux SeaTools (Seagate specific application) the device is detected, from there if I start then immediately stop a Simple Overwrite Format the device can then be partitioned with 'sudo fdisk /dev/sda'. Afterwards I can format the only created partiion with 'sudo mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sda1'. But unplugging and replugging the device in gives the same below dmesg errors where it seems the partition table can no longer be detected.

What I think is the biggest clue:

Code: Select all

$ dmesg | grep sda
[    8.167153] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Unsupported sector size 37988.
[    8.167471] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
[    8.167473] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 37988-byte physical blocks
[    8.167549] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[    8.167550] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
[    8.167710] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[    8.167951] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Optimal transfer size 33553920 bytes not a multiple of physical block size (37988 bytes)
[    8.168291] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Unsupported sector size 37988.
[    8.169014] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

Linux Mint version and PC details:

Code: Select all

$ hostnamectl
 Static hostname: xxxx
       Icon name: computer-laptop
         Chassis: laptop
      Machine ID: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
         Boot ID: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Operating System: Linux Mint 21.1
          Kernel: Linux 5.15.0-97-generic
    Architecture: x86-64
     Hardware Vendor: Lenovo
  Hardware Model: Lenovo Legion 5 15IMH05H

The following are the output of many cmds I saw online to collect details, maybe one of them can provide a hint:

Code: Select all

$ sudo lsblk -f 
NAME                FSTYPE      FSVER    LABEL UUID                                   FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda

Code: Select all

$ sudo fdisk -l | grep sda # no output

Code: Select all

$ sudo parted /dev/sda # error code 1 with no stdout/stderr

Code: Select all

$ sudo lshw -C disk
  *-disk                    
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sda
       version: 0
       serial: 5B5338EE1A62
       configuration: ansiversion=6 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=37988

Code: Select all

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda 

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.37.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: No such file or directory

Code: Select all

$ sudo kpartx -u /dev/sda
read error, sector 0
llseek error
llseek error
llseek error
read error, sector 0
read error, sector 0
read error, sector 0

Code: Select all

$ sudo parted /dev/sda print # error code 1 with no stdout/stderr

Code: Select all

$ sudo testdisk /dev/sda
TestDisk 7.1, Data Recovery Utility, July 2019
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org

Unable to open file or device /dev/sda: Invalid argument

Code: Select all

$ sudo partprobe /dev/sda # error code 1 with no stdout/stderr

Code: Select all

$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.8

Problem reading disk in BasicMBRData::ReadMBRData()!
Warning! Read error 22; strange behavior now likely!
Warning! Read error 22; strange behavior now likely!
Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: not present
***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory. 
***************************************************************
Disk /dev/sda: 0 sectors, 0 bytes
Model:       gUerneS ot
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/37988 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): DA2EAE01-D528-4E13-A040-06F7C9C29EC9
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 18446744073709551582
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 0 sectors (0 bytes)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

Thanks for taking the time to read this far, and please share any ideas.