Re: [PLUG] restoring a corrupted USB iPod

On 2/14/07, Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net > wrote:

I'm having a frickin' magical day today.  It started out with the replacement
iPod to the one in question dying during a system freeze during a yamipod
update.  I was using yamipod because it doesn't use hald -- I never could get
hal to daemonize after a dist-upgrade gone bad and was too lazy to start from
scratch and reinstall everything.

Magical event #1.  The ubuntu dapper system froze -- no mouse, nothing.  This
has only happened to me with Linux 3 or 4 times in 7 years.  After a hard
reset hal daemonized without complaint, samba drives mounted without
complaint, devices appeared on my desktop, and amarok got along well with my
iPod.  I haven't a clue about the cause of this miraculous cure.

Magical event #2 I had a pay as you go cell phone that I decided to activate
as an emergency backup.  I never really used it.  A couple of months ago, I
tried to use it and got a message that I had nothing left on my account.
This was not supposed to be the case, but I didn't need it and threw it on my
dresser.  Today I charged it in order to play with the camera.  While
charging, I got a call! It was the wrong number, but after I hung up the call
indicator showed all of the money I was supposed to have on the account.
Phone works fine all day.  Amazing.

Magical event #3.  After getting nowhere with google, and sending this initial
email to the list, I decided to turn the broken iPod on while checking for
responses.  The iPod turned on without complaint, and even had music loaded
on it!  What's going on here?

Well sorry for boring the list with this silliness, but I am having a day when
things I gave up on fixing are suddenly and mysteriously fixing themselves,
and in my delighted amazement, couldn't help myself.

I am trying to think of other things that were broken so that I can try them
too.

On Wednesday 14 February 2007 15:17, Greg Lopp wrote:
> On 2/14/07, Art Alexion < art.alexion@verizon.net> wrote:
> > The kernel correctly identifies it, but reports I/O errors.
> >
> > Suggestions for accessing it to repartition and reformat?
>
> Putting my USB developer hat on to read the log (hmmm, hat's a little
> dusty)
>
> relevant dmesg below:
> > [17184814.516000] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
> > [17184814.516000] hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
> > [17184814.832000] usb 1-1.4: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd
> > and address 3
> > [17184814.940000] usb 1-1.4: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
>
> So, the USB enumeration is OK.  This is the generic part that any and all
> USB devices perform. The nano told the host that it could behave in two
> different ways. The host chose way #1.
>
> [17184815.764000] SCSI subsystem initialized
>
> > [17184815.868000] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
>
> Configuration #1 is a mass storage device.  Init-ing the MSD includes which
> command set is going to be used.  FD, SCSI, others?
>
> [17184815.872000] scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
>
>
> SCSI it is then.
>
> [17184815.872000] usb-storage: device found at 3
>
> > [17184815.872000] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before sca
> > nning
>
> Polling the device to give it a chance to powerup, spin up, etc. It will
> TEST_UNIT_READY until the answer is affirmative.
>
> [17184815.872000] usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
>
> > [17184815.872000] USB Mass Storage support registered.
> > [17184820.876000]   Vendor: Apple     Model: iPod              Rev: 2.
> > 70
> > [17184820.876000]   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SC
> > SI revision: 04
>
> More data from the enumeration.
>
> [17184820.900000] usb-storage: device scan complete
>
> [17184821.008000] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type met
>
> > hods
>
> [17184821.036000] sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
>
>
> Assuming a timeout with the polling. (Possibly a bad packet)  Send a
> REQUEST_SENSE to the device....
>
> > [17184821.036000] : Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.036000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
>
> ....reports something wrong with the disk.
>
> [17184821.056000] sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
>
>
> tried std SCSI command. failed. Device will not report the number and size
> of its sectors.
> As you can see, it keeps trying.....
>
> [17184821.056000] sda : status=1, message=00, host=0, driver=08
>
> > [17184821.056000] sd: Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.056000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.064000] sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
> > [17184821.064000] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
> > [17184821.140000] sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
> > [17184821.140000 ] : Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.140000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.164000] sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
> > [17184821.164000] sda : status=1, message=00, host=0, driver=08
> > [17184821.168000] sd: Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.168000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.172000] sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
> > [17184821.176000] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
> > [17184821.192000] sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
> > [17184821.196000] : Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.196000 ]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.216000] sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
> > [17184821.216000] sda : status=1, message=00, host=0, driver=08
> > [17184821.220000] sd: Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.220000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.228000] sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
> > [17184821.228000] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
> > [17184821.228000]  sda:<3>Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical bloc
> > k 0
> > [17184821.228000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
> > [17184821.228000]  unable to read partition table
> > [17184821.232000] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
> > [17184821.280000] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
> > [17184821.528000] sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
> > [ 17184821.528000] : Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.532000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.552000] sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
> > [17184821.552000] sda : status=1, message=00, host=0, driver=08
> > [17184821.552000] sd: Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.556000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.560000] sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
> > [17184821.564000] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
> > [17184821.580000] sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
> > [17184821.580000] : Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.580000 ]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.604000] sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
> > [17184821.604000] sda : status=1, message=00, host=0, driver=08
> > [17184821.604000] sd: Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.604000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [17184821.612000] sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
> > [17184821.612000] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
> > [17184821.616000]  sda:<3>Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical bloc
> > k 0
> > [17184821.616000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
> > [17184821.616000]  unable to read partition table
> > [17184821.620000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 1
> > [17184821.620000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 2
> > [17184821.620000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 3
> > [17184821.620000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 4
> > [17184821.620000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 5
> > [17184821.620000] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 6
>
> Your host cheated. Although it was unable to get READ_CAPACITY to work, it
> went ahead and tried to read the partition table of the drive.  The READ_10
> command (to read the first 7(!?!) logical blocks on the drive) also failed.
>
> [17184821.812000] sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
> > [17184821.812000] : Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > [17184821.812000]     Additional sense: Medium format corrupted
> > [ 17184821.836000] sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
> > [17184821.836000] sda : status=1, message=00, host=0, driver=08
> > [17184821.836000] sd: Current: sense key: Unit Attention
> > and then it continues to repeat itself.
> > --
>
> I would expect READ_CAPACITY to be answered from firmware - no need for the
> flash device to be "powered up" for read.
> This looks beyond simple format or fs corruption to me.  It isn't that the
> data is bad on the drive, but that the device is not successfully
> communicating as a mass storage device......correction: it is communicating
> as a mass storage device, but is reporting a serious error.  The requests
> are successful but the status fields indicate errors.
>
> Restating:
> USB communication : looks good
> Mass Storage device comm. : looks appropriate
> Storage media status : failure
> File system status : moot

--

_____________________________________________________________
Art Alexion

PGP fingerprint: 52A4 B10C AA73 096F A661  92D2 3B65 8EAC ACC5 BA7A
Keyserver: hkp://subkeys.pgp.net
The attachment - signature.asc - is my electronic signature; no need for
alarm.  Info @
http://mysite.verizon.net/art.alexion/encryption/signature.asc.what.html
_____________________________________________________________

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