Failing Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB HD
by yancek from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5RXAG)
This HD (2TB drive)is used exclusively for backups and is only attached when doing backups. There is no OS on the external drive. I have an internal SSD and when my external Seagate was attached, it showed as sda. There is no OS installed on the Seagate, only partitions for backups.
Several days ago, I was going to do a backup on Ubuntu and when I plugged in the external drive to a USB port, the standard icons which show in the left panel of the Ubuntu Desktop did not appear as they usually do so I was unable to access the drive to do my backup.
I have done the following to try to detect the problem, the external would be sda.
sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda
badblocks: No such file or directory while trying to determine device size
sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.11.0-40-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
Smartctl open device: /dev/sda failed: No such device
sudo blkid (shows NO partitions for sda)
sudo parted -l, sudo fdisk -l AND sudo lsblk SHOW NO PARTITIONS FOR SDA
Using Disks in Ubuntu, only the SSD drive shows, not sda (the external drive)
With the computer powered off, I attach the external drive and power on the computer to try to boot and I hear a constant beep from the external drive. (From what I have read, this generally means on a Seagate that the drive is not getting enough power.) After about 2 minutes, I see a NON-blinking cursor in the upper left of the screen. After another minute, I see the BIOS firmware options (Boot Options, BIOS firmware options, etc.) If I select a boot option from the UEFI menu, it appears to start booting but never does.
If I shut down the computer and disconnect the external drive, my Linux system boots without problem.
I have a second laptop which shows the same results when the external attached except that the lsblk command shows "sdb" but no partitions. This laptop has a SATA drive so the internal would be sda.
I've tried using diifferent USB ports with the same negative results.
Since I also have windows 10 installed, I did an online search for Seagate Repair Tools for Windows and got to the Seagate site which suggested trying a different port or cable particularly if there is a constant beep which I did. The Seagate site suggested that in windows I go to Device Manager, then the View tab and the Show Hidden Devices, then expand Disk Drives which did show the Seagate drive, The suggestion was to right click Seagate Drive and select uninstall then unplug and plug in again which I did with no positive results.
Generally, when I do a backup, I have the computer powered off, plug in the USB drive, boot the OS and proceed to do the backup. I'm not sure if the drive is dead, if it needs more power as suggested by Seagate due to the beeping or if I accidentally unplugged the drive without first ejecting or unmounting it or if there is some other possibility. The 2TB size is far more than I need as I rarely have more than 30GB of data on it.
Suggestions welcome and thanks for any help.
Several days ago, I was going to do a backup on Ubuntu and when I plugged in the external drive to a USB port, the standard icons which show in the left panel of the Ubuntu Desktop did not appear as they usually do so I was unable to access the drive to do my backup.
I have done the following to try to detect the problem, the external would be sda.
sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda
badblocks: No such file or directory while trying to determine device size
sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.11.0-40-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
Smartctl open device: /dev/sda failed: No such device
sudo blkid (shows NO partitions for sda)
sudo parted -l, sudo fdisk -l AND sudo lsblk SHOW NO PARTITIONS FOR SDA
Using Disks in Ubuntu, only the SSD drive shows, not sda (the external drive)
With the computer powered off, I attach the external drive and power on the computer to try to boot and I hear a constant beep from the external drive. (From what I have read, this generally means on a Seagate that the drive is not getting enough power.) After about 2 minutes, I see a NON-blinking cursor in the upper left of the screen. After another minute, I see the BIOS firmware options (Boot Options, BIOS firmware options, etc.) If I select a boot option from the UEFI menu, it appears to start booting but never does.
If I shut down the computer and disconnect the external drive, my Linux system boots without problem.
I have a second laptop which shows the same results when the external attached except that the lsblk command shows "sdb" but no partitions. This laptop has a SATA drive so the internal would be sda.
I've tried using diifferent USB ports with the same negative results.
Since I also have windows 10 installed, I did an online search for Seagate Repair Tools for Windows and got to the Seagate site which suggested trying a different port or cable particularly if there is a constant beep which I did. The Seagate site suggested that in windows I go to Device Manager, then the View tab and the Show Hidden Devices, then expand Disk Drives which did show the Seagate drive, The suggestion was to right click Seagate Drive and select uninstall then unplug and plug in again which I did with no positive results.
Generally, when I do a backup, I have the computer powered off, plug in the USB drive, boot the OS and proceed to do the backup. I'm not sure if the drive is dead, if it needs more power as suggested by Seagate due to the beeping or if I accidentally unplugged the drive without first ejecting or unmounting it or if there is some other possibility. The 2TB size is far more than I need as I rarely have more than 30GB of data on it.
Suggestions welcome and thanks for any help.