I am fairly new to ubuntu, so please don bite my head off if I ask a stupid question.
Anyway, I tried formatting one of my hard drives using the gnome disks tool, and that returned an error.
Error creating file system: Command-line `mkntfs -f -F -L "New Volume" "/dev/sdb"' exited with non-zero exit status 1:
stdout: `Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes.
Creating NTFS volume structures.
'
stderr: `/dev/sdb is entire device, not just one partition.
mkntfs forced anyway.
Error writing to /dev/sdb: Input/output error
Error writing non-resident attribute value.
add_attr_sd failed: Input/output error
Couldn't create root directory: Input/output error
Failed to fsync device /dev/sdb: Input/output error
Warning: Could not close /dev/sdb: Input/output error
' (udisks-error-quark, 0)
I have no idea what this error means, and how I should format my hard drive (IF I am still able to). Does this mean that my hard drive is fried and that I can just throw it out, or can I still save it?
EDIT:
Using sudo fdisk -l returns the following output:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 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: 0x00084eb8
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 499711 248832 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 501758 312580095 156039169 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 501760 312580095 156039168 8e Linux LVM
Disk /dev/sdc: 82.0 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders, total 160086528 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: 0xd30c01f2
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 2048 160083967 80040960 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu-root: 237.4 GB, 237447938048 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 28868 cylinders, total 463765504 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
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu-root doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu-swap_1: 4294 MB, 4294967296 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 522 cylinders, total 8388608 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
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu-swap_1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
But this does not contain the hard drive I am trying to format, as it seems. The other two devices that show up (/dev/sda and /dev/sdc) are the ones I have combined into one logical view. The third one, or I should say the second one (/dev/sdb) never shows up in this list, but only shows up in the gnome disks utility.
Formatting it from the command line, as well as formatting it from the utillity returns the same result.
EDIT 2:
Using sudo parted -l returned the following:
Model: ATA MAXTOR STM316021 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 256MB 255MB primary ext2 boot
2 257MB 160GB 160GB extended
5 257MB 160GB 160GB logical lvm
Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label
Model: ATA Maxtor 6Y080L0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 82.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 82.0GB 82.0GB primary
Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu-root: 237GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Number Start End Size File system Flags
1 0.00B 237GB 237GB ext4
Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu-swap_1: 4295MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Number Start End Size File system Flags
1 0.00B 4295MB 4295MB linux-swap(v1)
As shows, my /dev/sdb device is unrecognized (Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label). This should bring me a bit closer to the solution, if only I knew what to do with this.
EDIT 3:
After some further research, it turns out that my hard drive doesn have a partition table, and I can't create one on the device, because my computer detects it as if it were a zero-length partition.
I'll have to cut my losses and just accept the fact that it's dead.
Thanks anyway for being helpful.
