Fix a HDD that got bricked due to reboot during formatting

Question

Someone gave me a 1TB Western Digital WD10SPZX HDD that got bricked due to a reboot during formatting. The formatting was being done using Windows File Explorer. Western Digital Dashboard no longer detects the disk.

I am now trying to fix it (using Fedora Linux). Fedora sees the HDD but reports a size of 0B (/dev/sdb):

$ lsblk
# NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
# sda      8:0    0 931,5G  0 disk 
# ├─sda1   8:1    0   600M  0 part /boot/efi
# ├─sda2   8:2    0     1G  0 part /boot
# └─sda3   8:3    0 929,9G  0 part /home
#                                  /
# sdb      8:16   0     0B  0 disk
# sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
# zram0  252:0    0   7,6G  0 disk [SWAP]

Same with dd:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb status=progress
# dd: writing to '/dev/sdb': No space left on device
# 1+0 records in
# 0+0 records out
# 0 bytes copied, 0.000169542 s, 0.0 kB/s

fdisk cannot access the HDD:

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
# fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb: Invalid argument

I also tried other commands to get some clues, but without success:

$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb
# mke2fs 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
# mkfs.ext4: Device size reported to be zero.  Invalid partition specified, or
#   partition table wasn't reread after running fdisk, due to
#   a modified partition being busy and in use.  You may need to reboot
#   to re-read your partition table.

$ sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sdb
# tune2fs 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
# tune2fs: Invalid argument while trying to open /dev/sdb
# Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.

$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdb
# 
# /dev/sdb:
# 
# ATA device, with non-removable media
# Standards:
#   Likely used: 5
# Configuration:
#   Logical     max current
#   cylinders   0   0
#   heads       0   0
#   sectors/track   0   0
#   --
#   Logical/Physical Sector size:           512 bytes
#   device size with M = 1024*1024:           0 MBytes
#   device size with M = 1000*1000:           0 MBytes 
#   cache/buffer size  = unknown
# Capabilities:
#   IORDY(may be)(cannot be disabled)
#   Standby timer values: spec'd by Vendor
#   R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 0   Current = ?
#   DMA: not supported
#   PIO: pio0 
# Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 50014ee65dc51dac
#   NAA     : 5
#   IEEE OUI    : 0014ee
#   Unique ID   : 65dc51dac
# Checksum: correct

Do you have any idea to fix the HDD? I do not need to restore the data. I am just trying to fix the disk.

Answer 1

WD10SPZX is a (drive managed) SMR drive. In a way SMR drives work like SSD drives, in the sense that LBA addresses are translated to physical addresses using a 'translator'. think of it as a drive managed 'file system' although it does not track files but LBA sectors.

A sudden reboot or power surge can mess up the translator, possibly to a degree where the drive deems the firmware unreliable, or it simply prevents the controller from accessing the firmware or service area. Think of it as a corrupt file system after a sudden reboot which is left in a 'dirty state'.

Possibly professional data recovery tools can help, but that would likely exceed the cost of a new drive.

I'd at least try and see what WD utilities can do, see: https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/50396/~/how-to-install-and-use-wd-drive-utilities-features. Perhaps erasing the drive using the WD utility works, I am not too sure though.