From: Sander Sweers <sander.sweers_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 14 May 2006 22:11:58 +0200

On 14/05/06, Eric Schreiber <Eric.Schreiber_at_gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> today I copied some files over to an XP-Machine and the USB-connection to
> my H340 locked up. I had to pull it out... Usually I don't use
> Windows... I should have known better :-(

This could be because of the hard drive is failing. But it would have
happened on linux also.

> Now the player seems to be screwed. When booting Rockbox it comes up
> just fine but going through directories it needs a lot of time and the
> hard drive makes noises as doing lots of retries/rereads.

Another indication the drive is dying.

> IRiver firmware comes up with 0 files/0 directories and chinese
> characters in the display.
>
> root_at_xabbu:/etc# dosfsck -v /dev/sdb1
> dosfsck 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
> dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
> Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
> There are differences between boot sector and its backup.
> Differences: (offset:original/backup)
> 65:03/00
> 1) Copy original to backup
> 2) Copy backup to original
> 3) No action
> ? 3
> Boot sector contents:
> System ID "MSWIN4.1"
> Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk)
> 512 bytes per logical sector
> 32768 bytes per cluster
> 32 reserved sectors
> First FAT starts at byte 16384 (sector 32)
> 2 FATs, 32 bit entries
> 4881920 bytes per FAT (= 9535 sectors)
> Root directory start at cluster 2 (arbitrary size)
> Data area starts at byte 9780224 (sector 19102)
> 1220389 data clusters (39989706752 bytes)
> 63 sectors/track, 255 heads
> 63 hidden sectors
> 78124032 sectors total
> Read 32 bytes at 12432522240:Input/output error

IO errors indicate the drive is dying. Check your dmesg and it will be
full of errors. But it could also be a broken cable or usb port. Try a
different cable or port.

>
> The last line gives me a hard time. Is my hard drive dying...?
>
> Does anybody have any idea what's going on?
>
> Thanks in advance
> -Eric

When a hard disk has bad sectors it is able to relocate the date of
the bad sector to a free one. If it is not able (no free sectors for
exampe) to do this anymore the drive gives IO errors.

I have a H120 lying here with the same issue. I can fill it up to a
certain point but if it gets too full it will stop responding (many IO
errors). So you might be able to format it and only put on the files
you really need, until you get a new drive/player.

If there is data on there you do not have a backup for get it off now!

greets
Sander
Received on 2006-05-14