Cannot create partition: "Unable to read /dev/sdd"

[antiartist]

I know better than to post that much text into a post....sorry

Out put of sudo fdisk -l (in which there are no /sdd or higher devices listed):

tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for tom:

Disk /dev/sda: 10.3 GB, 10254827520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1246 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00018313

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1188     9537536   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            1188        1247      474113    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            1188        1247      474112   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005f5c2

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       38913   312568641    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3e6caab7

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1      182401  1465136001    7  HPFS/NTFS
tom@HouseMedia:~$

Output from sudo blkid (also no /sdd or higher devices):

tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="39609753-75df-4ff0-9381-0d00fd4af125" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="d5a546d6-5d61-40ef-91b6-85739d59f789" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="26bc4db0-3e1f-4e7c-af3a-de0351fa35b1" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="228F-2D10" TYPE="vfat"

Any ideas? Is there a way to start over that won't cause me to break things further?

[bab1]

I know better than to post that much text into a post....sorry

Out put of sudo fdisk -l (in which there are no /sdd or higher devices listed)...


Any ideas? Is there a way to start over that won't cause me to break things further?

Let's just try and partition the disk one more time. What do you get with this command

sudo fdisk /dev/sdd

If you get something like this

WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
         switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to
         sectors (command 'u').

Command (m for help):

...then you have had success. The important part is this

Command (m for help):

... This is the command prompt for fdisk. Enter m to see the menu of options. The option n will create a new partition. Have you used fdisk before? If not, see here and here for basic information.

[antiartist]

I have used fdisk once before; when I setup a single partition on this new disk. I then used dd to write a disk image I had made (also with dd) to this disk and that is when the disk stopped working propertly.

fdisk continues to return the same error:

tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdd
[sudo] password for tom:

Unable to read /dev/sdd
tom@HouseMedia:~$

[bab1]

I have used fdisk once before; when I setup a single partition on this new disk. I then used dd to write a disk image I had made (also with dd) to this disk and that is when the disk stopped working propertly.

fdisk continues to return the same error:

tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdd
[sudo] password for tom:

Unable to read /dev/sdd
tom@HouseMedia:~$

What is confusing to me is how you wrote the image to /dev/sdd rather than /dev/sdd1.

You can't break this disk any more than it already is. Is this host a desktop with a GUI? If so you might be able to use Disk Utility to fix things. See if you can start the Disk Utility with root powers like this

sudo palimpsest

... Navigate to the disk /dev/sdd and see if you can use this to create a partition and format it.

Why are you using dd to format the drive? What kind of image are you working with?

[antiartist]

I had a created an image of my existing system disk using dd using directions very similar to these except I did not realize until later that with the disk still mounted, what I was making an image of was basically useless.

I believe I wrote the image to /sdd1 and then I discovered that about restoring 9GB of stuff, the partition was still showed as empty (using ls). I then fumbled around trying to get to a point where I could wipe and repartition the drive again. At some point, I realized that I was in the current situation (where the disk both exists and doesn't exist, according to ubuntu.) This seemed so simple and straight forward. And of course, it was not as I am still learning.

No, there is no GUI available. This is a headless box.

So whatever is on this disk is obviously buggered. How can I start over? In my fumbling, I noticed that /dev/sdd exists even when the disk is not actually plugged into the box. Is this unusual?

[bab1]

I had a created an image of my existing system disk using dd using directions very similar to these except I did not realize until later that with the disk still mounted, what I was making an image of was basically useless.

I believe I wrote the image to /sdd1 and then I discovered that about restoring 9GB of stuff, the partition was still showed as empty (using ls). I then fumbled around trying to get to a point where I could wipe and repartition the drive again. At some point, I realized that I was in the current situation (where the disk both exists and doesn't exist, according to ubuntu.) This seemed so simple and straight forward. And of course, it was not as I am still learning.

No, there is no GUI available. This is a headless box.

So whatever is on this disk is obviously buggered. How can I start over? In my fumbling, I noticed that /dev/sdd exists even when the disk is not actually plugged into the box. Is this unusual?

No it is not unusual. The system caches the info, assuming you will plug the disk in at some later date. If a new disk is installed it uses the next description. This also explains all the other descriptions (sde, sdf, sdg etc) You must have unplugged and then installed the disk multiple times.

Since the disk may have a newly assigned descriptor, we might only need to see what is being used currently. I would try the last descriptor sd? and see if I could get fdisk to recognise the disk.

The latest formatter for Linux is parted. I have never used it so you would have to read up on it, but you would have to know the descriptor for the disk with this too.

[antiartist]

Sorry the delay in responding. I had to take a break as this was getting a little frustrating.

So tried using fdisk against the different /dev/sd? variations and the drive doesn't seem to be attached to any of them:

tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdd

Unable to read /dev/sdd
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sde

Unable to open /dev/sde
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdf

Unable to open /dev/sdf
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdg

Unable to open /dev/sdg
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdh

Unable to open /dev/sdh

[bab1]

Sorry the delay in responding. I had to take a break as this was getting a little frustrating.

So tried using fdisk against the different /dev/sd? variations and the drive doesn't seem to be attached to any of them:

tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdd

Unable to read /dev/sdd
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sde

Unable to open /dev/sde
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdf

Unable to open /dev/sdf
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdg

Unable to open /dev/sdg
tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdh

Unable to open /dev/sdh

Let's start over again. The following should show all disks attached to the machine. Post the output of this

sudo lshw -C disk

[antiartist]

tom@HouseMedia:~$ sudo lshw -C disk
[sudo] password for tom:
  *-disk:0
       description: ATA Disk
       product: WDC WD102BB
       vendor: Western Digital
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sda
       version: 07.0
       serial: WD-WMA471224295
       size: 9779MiB (10GB)
       capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
       configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=00018313
  *-disk:1
       description: ATA Disk
       product: ST3320820A
       vendor: Seagate
       physical id: 0.1.0
       bus info: scsi@4:0.1.0
       logical name: /dev/sdb
       version: 3.AA
       serial: 5QF1VYTG
       size: 298GiB (320GB)
       capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
       configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=0005f5c2
  *-cdrom
       description: DVD-RAM writer
       product: DVDRRW GSA-H30L
       vendor: HL-DT-ST
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/cdrom
       logical name: /dev/cdrw
       logical name: /dev/dvd
       logical name: /dev/dvdrw
       logical name: /dev/scd0
       logical name: /dev/sr0
       version: S755
       serial: [HL-DT-STDVDRRW GSA-H30L S75506/12/26��������
       capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
       configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
  *-disk
       description: SCSI Disk
       product: Desktop
       vendor: Seagate
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sdc
       version: 0130
       serial: 2GHN6GFL
       size: 1397GiB (1500GB)
       capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
       configuration: ansiversion=4 signature=3e6caab7
  *-disk
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sdd
  *-disk:0
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sde
  *-disk:1
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.1
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.1
       logical name: /dev/sdf
  *-disk:2
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.2
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.2
       logical name: /dev/sdg
  *-disk:3
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.3
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.3
       logical name: /dev/sdh
tom@HouseMedia:~$

[bab1]

 *-disk
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sdd
  *-disk:0
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sde
  *-disk:1
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.1
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.1
       logical name: /dev/sdf
  *-disk:2
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.2
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.2
       logical name: /dev/sdg
  *-disk:3
       description: SCSI Disk
       physical id: 0.0.3
       bus info: scsi@6:0.0.3
       logical name: /dev/sdh

The above appears to be the disk in question. I would remove the disk in question and see what you get from the sudo lshw -C disk command with it removed.

My best guess is this disk is formatted vfat and is corrupted by being removed without unmounting it first. If you have a windows machine, you might try installing it there and "safely unmounting" it. Then adding it back to the Ubuntu machine to see what you have then.