Cant mount drive, could this be a zero-length partition?

sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /media/k
mount: /dev/sdc1: can't read superblock

sudo mkfs.ext4 -n /dev/sdc
mke2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)
/dev/sdc is entire device, not just one partition!
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
183148544 inodes, 732566646 blocks
36628332 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
22357 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
102400000, 214990848, 512000000, 550731776, 644972544

Testdisk analyzed GPT and one partition,but after and deep search in analyze ,the disk seems to be dead "read I/O error"

Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066739] ata3.00: configured
for UDMA/133 (device error ignored)
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066770] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc]
Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066779] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc]
Sense Key : Aborted Command [current] [descriptor]
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066788] Descriptor sense
data with sense descriptors (in hex):
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066793] 72 0b 00 00
00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066810] 00 00 00 00
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066818] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc]
Add. Sense: No additional sense information
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066827] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc]
CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066843] end_request: I/O
error, dev sdc, sector 0
Jul 31 00:19:24 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 7970.066879] ata3: EH complete

anyone for ...

3 TB music collection :(

Im not able now to put some picture cause of the forum policy . :(

 sudo fsck.ext4 -b 102400000 -B 4096 /dev/sdc1 e2fsck 1.42 (29-Nov-2011) fsck.ext4: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdc1 The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 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>

Why its show ext2 filesystem damn.

this is the mount commands output

 sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /media/k mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdc1, missing codepage or helper program, or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so

this is syslog output when i try to mount the volume

 Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.317917] ata3.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x1 SErr 0x0 action 0x0 Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.317926] ata3.00: irq_stat 0x40000008 Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.317934] ata3.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.317949] ata3.00: cmd 60/08:00:c2:02:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 4096 in Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.317952] res 41/40:00:c8:02:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x409 (media error) <F> Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.317959] ata3.00: status: { DRDY ERR } Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.317965] ata3.00: error: { UNC } Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.329953] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133 Jul 31 18:04:29 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 709.329974] ata3: EH complete Jul 31 18:04:30 morteza-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 710.362452] EXT3-fs (sdc1): error: no journal found

here is fdisk -l output

Disk /dev/sda: 32.0 GB, 32017047552 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3892 cylinders, total 62533296 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0001a10f Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 23619583 11706368 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 23621630 62531583 19454977 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 23621632 62531583 19454976 83 Linux
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 3907029167 1953514583+ ee GPT
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdc'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sdc: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 4294967295 2147483647+ ee GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdd'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sdd: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 3907029167 1953514583+ ee GPT
Disk /dev/sde: 8076 MB, 8076132352 bytes
249 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1021 cylinders, total 15773696 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c2243 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 * 62 15762197 7881068 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

2 Answers

It looks like you're formatting the entire disk, not just a partition: /dev/sdc stands for the whole drive, while /dev/sdc1 is its first partition. You should format and mount partitions, not drives.

To troubleshoot, try this:

• re-partition it using fdisk (or a GUI like gparted). You should re-create the GPT/Partition table
• format the first partition (/dev/sdc1) as ext4
• now try mount

If it does not work, please post the output of the following commands:

fdisk -l /dev/sdc
fsck /dev/sdc1

Trying to be useful to other people I had a similar situation with 2 (!) disks attached on a single-board computer with Ubuntu.

I was not able to see some files:

$ ls -l /mnt/somewhere/stuff
ls: reading directory /mnt/somewhere/stuff: Input/output error

I was not able to mount again the filesystem:

$ umount /dev/sdb
$ mount /dev/sdb /mnt/somewhere
mount: /dev/sdb: can't read superblock

I was not able to fix the situation:

$ fsck /dev/sdb
Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/sdb
Could this be a zero-length partition?

I was not able to find any S.M.A.R.T. system error:

$ smartctl -t short /dev/sdb
$ smartctl -a /dev/sdb
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 6446

At the end it was an hardware bug in our powered USB hub. I don't know if I can tell the brand here.

In short, do not trust your USB hub, even if it is recent and decent. Tell your friends. This is a very nasty problem, that can affect people with a single-board computer such as a RaspberryPI with Ubuntu or other distributions, without the ability to use native proper power supply.

In this case my solution was: buy another USB Hub and anyway buy another single-board computer with native power supply as long term plan.

I'm curious to find out how often these hardware issues happen with Ubuntu. I was not able to test other operating systems so I'm not 100% sure it's an hardware issue.