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Linux doesn't seem to recognize my drive at all. It doesn't show up in mount or lsblk but can be found in /dev/.

While trying to mount it manually I get the following messege:

mount -t ext4 /dev/sdc /mnt/hdd/sdc
mount: no medium found on /dev/sdc

same goes for fdisk and mke2fs.

fdisk: unable to open /dev/sdc: No medium found

mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/sdc
mke2fs 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014)
/dev/sdc is entire device, not just one partition!
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
mke2fs: No medium found while trying to determine filesystem size

fsck.ext4 -f /dev/sdc
fsck.ext4: No medium found while trying to open /dev/sdc

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
 or
    e2fsck -b 32768 <device>

e2fsck gives similar message.

What can be done about this drive?

Forgot to mention that I've tried wiping drive with dd but /dev/sdc won't respond to it.

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2 Answers 2

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Medium errors mean that your computer fails to read your disk. It usually happens when the drive is underpowered or damaged. Try to connect it with a different USB cable (and preferably to a different USB port) to address the first problem. If it doesn't help, you may want to go to the website of your HDD manufacturer and download whatever rescue tools and firmware updates they provide. Note that this may require you to connect your HDD to a Windows machine, as many manufacturers won't provide any Linux tools.

I'd also try to access the drive with smartctl -H /dev/sdc to see if there are any failure messages. Unfortunately, not all external HDDs can be checked this way even if the HDD itself supports SMART: some el'cheapo USB-to-SATA bridges may prevent smartctl from working properly

As a side note, while it's possible to format the whole /dev/sdc device into a given filesystem, the recommended way is to create a partition table (even if you need a single partition).

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    Unfortunately changing USB cable & port didn't helped. Tried cable and port with different drive and it works fine. I'm unable to use Windows at workplace. There's big chance that I've killed the drive.
    – RoughTomato
    Commented Jun 1, 2016 at 14:02
  • There is a chance, yes. If you don't have any important data on that drive, I suggest you try something as silly as dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc count=1000 and then fdisk /dev/sdc again. If you still get medium errors, it's hardware.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Commented Jun 1, 2016 at 14:10
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    already done that (forgot to mention though). dd returns error. If it's hardware I guess it's beyond my abilities to fix. Thanks for help.
    – RoughTomato
    Commented Jun 1, 2016 at 14:13
  • Even if you can't use Windows now, I still suggest you check out manufacturer's website for rescue and firmware update tools. If you find one, it's totally worth trying it out sometime later.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Commented Jun 1, 2016 at 14:15
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    Will do back home, tried smartctl exited with following message Read Device Identity failed: scsi error unsupported field in scsi command I'll post updates if I figure something up or firmware update does something useful. Thanks for all the help!
    – RoughTomato
    Commented Jun 1, 2016 at 14:35
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From you post it seems like you are trying to set file system for the disk with creating partition. Please follow the steps below and check.

Check wheather the disk is listing using fdisk -l once confirmed disk list then select the disk and create partion

selecting --> fdisk /dev/sdc

checking wheather partion created

previously using print "P" create new partion using "n" Write tables

to disk and exit "w"

then try assigning file system and check wheather you are able to access the partitions

Note:

also for creating file system put the partion path and not the whole disk path.

use like mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1 (or) mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc2

not as mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc

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  • fdisk -l doesn't show /dev/sdc at all. It's only listed in my /dev/ directory. I know I should make partition and I did before disc died on me. Now I just want to wipe it clean but unfortunately it won't respond to anything.
    – RoughTomato
    Commented Jun 1, 2016 at 14:04

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