Initio INIC-1618L drive sectors count wrong (1 less)

[tharrrk]

Hi there,
I've ordered some cheap USB2.0 enclosures from dx. They report one sector less than any other enclosures that I have or even when the disk is directly connected to the (e)SATA port.

Does anybody know if there is any way to fix the firmware in the chip?
I didn't even find the chip on the Initio web.

Thanks in advance for any information/answers.

Some (hopefully) useful info:

lsusb:

Code:

Bus 001 Device 008: ID 13fd:0840 Initio Corporation INIC-1618L SATA

dmesg:

Code:

Correct:
[75815.092185] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[75815.226079] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=2329
[75815.226100] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5
[75815.226110] usb 1-3: Product: USB to ATA/ATAPI bridge
[75815.226117] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: JMicron
[75815.226126] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 509FFFFFFFFF
[75815.227188] usb-storage 1-3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[75815.230473] usb-storage 1-3:1.0: Quirks match for vid 152d pid 2329: 8020
[75815.230560] scsi9 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0
[75816.271016] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ST932042 3AS                   PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
[75816.274110] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[75816.274632] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] 625142448 512-byte logical blocks: (320 GB/298 GiB)

New enclosures - faulty:
[76241.940118] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci-pci
[76242.074026] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=13fd, idProduct=0840
[76242.074046] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[76242.074053] usb 1-1: Product: External
[76242.074063] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Generic
[76242.074073] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 355648305139484C20202020
[76242.075261] usb-storage 1-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[76242.077803] scsi10 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0
[76243.076936] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  External         1.14 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[76243.079132] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] 625142447 512-byte logical blocks: (320 GB/298 GiB)

625142448 is correct, 625142447 is reported by the new ones, which is wrong.

image:
Full size image

[fzabkar]

I wonder if the bridge firmware is incorrectly interpreting the drive's Identify Device data, or could it be reserving the last sector for its own internal use?

Have you examined the last sector with a disc editor, eg DMDE (freeware)?

[tharrrk]

Hi
First of all - thanks for your answer!

I did not. I put the disk in, hoping it's going to work as usual, but the filesystem could not be mounted. I still hope it didn't write anything in - will have a look!
But I put the disk back into the other enclosure and it works just fine. No errors on fs, but I'll try running fsck anyway. Thanks for pointing me - I would never imagine it even could do that nasty things (but why not)...

Cheers
Tharrrk

[fzabkar]

FWIW, Western Digital's Passport and My Book drives reserve part of the user area for Smartware and other things. I wouldn't have thought that a generic bridge would do something like this, but who knows.

[tharrrk]

Hi there.

It seems there is nothing written in the last sector.

I've put the blank disk in, created a partition table, created one partition over the whole disk and then connected the disk over eSATA.

Attaching in the faulty enclosure:

[243560.668173] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 18 using ehci-pci
[243560.801100] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=13fd, idProduct=0840
[243560.801111] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[243560.801115] usb 1-3: Product: External
[243560.801121] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Generic
[243560.801126] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 4A5231303034344D30393933
[243560.802384] usb-storage 1-3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[243560.803230] scsi16 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0
[243561.801101] scsi 16:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic External 1.14 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[243561.806348] sd 16:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[243561.807033] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953525167 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
[243561.807909] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[243561.807923] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[243561.808631] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[243561.808638] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[243561.811136] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[243561.811147] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[243561.842658] sdb: unknown partition table
[243561.870910] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[243561.870927] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[243561.870937] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

root@R600:/tmp# hdparm -I /dev/sdb|grep sector
sectors/track 63 63
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 1953525168
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16

Creating table & partition

root@R600:/tmp# parted /dev/sdb print
Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label

root@R600:/tmp# parted /dev/sdb mklabel msdos
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.

root@R600:/tmp# parted /dev/sdb mkpart primary 2048s 100%
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.

root@R600:/tmp# parted /dev/sdb print
Model: Generic External (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 1000GB 1000GB primary

Check with fdisk

root@R600:/tmp# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204885504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525167 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: 0x00057f8d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 1953523711 976760832 83 Linux

Strange thing is that it reports log/phy sector size 512/512 - the disk itself is 1TB and is using 4k sectors internally... see below.

Attaching to eSATA

[245147.763142] ata5: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4040000 action 0xe frozen
[245147.763155] ata5: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
[245147.763162] ata5: SError: { CommWake DevExch }
[245147.763191] ata5: hard resetting link
[245148.488075] ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[245148.489270] ata5.00: ATA-8: HGST HTS721010A9E630, JB0OA3J0, max UDMA/133
[245148.489280] ata5.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA
[245148.490524] ata5.00: configured for UDMA/133
[245148.504111] ata5: EH complete
[245148.504503] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA HGST HTS721010A9 JB0O PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[245148.507248] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[245148.507496] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
[245148.507509] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 4096-byte physical blocks
[245148.507708] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[245148.507721] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[245148.507806] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[245148.783637] sdb: sdb1
[245148.784997] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

root@R600:/tmp# hdparm -I /dev/sdb|grep sector
sectors/track 63 63
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 1953525168
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16

Print pt contents with fdisk/parted

root@R600:/tmp# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 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: 0x00057f8d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 1953523711 976760832 83 Linux
root@R600:/tmp# parted /dev/sdb print
Model: ATA HGST HTS721010A9 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 1000GB 1000GB primary

Sector count is OK.
Sector size now differs. 4k phy sectors reported correctly.
Looking through cfdisk shows 0,75MB extra free space at the end of the disk.

Last sector dump

Code:

root@R600:/tmp# dd if=/dev/sdb skip=1953525167 bs=512 | od -Ax -v -tx1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.0409056 s, 12.5 kB/s
000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0001a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0001c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000200


No. Nothing there.
It seems like some kind of "legacy" mode?
Changing sector size and sector count - seems to me like the jumper switches on the old drives - limit capacity to ... but it was pre-LBA, makes no sense nowadays...


Thanks and have a great day
Tharrrk

[fzabkar]

When connected via eSATA, the software is able to communicate directly with the drive. The drive then reports its logical and physical sector size via the ATA Identify Device command (words 106 and 209).

There is an example in the following thread:
https://community.wd.com/t/what-does-al ... ling/17216

You could use smartctl (from smartmontools) to view the same information.

When the drive is behind a USB-SATA bridge, the external device becomes a "USB mass storage device". The OS communicates with such devices using SCSI commands. The bridge firmware then translates these SCSI commands into their equivalent, or near equivalent, ATA commands. Some bridge firmware configures itself with 512B/512B logical/physical sector sizes while other bridges (eg WD My Books and Seagate GoFlex) configure themselves with 4KB sector sizes. Your bridge appears to be the former.

In short, the reported physical/logical sector size depends on whether the software is communicating with the bridge or the drive behind the bridge. If you retrieve the Identify Device data block (using smartctl) by tunnelling through the bridge firmware, then you may see the extra sector. That's because you will be getting the data from the drive rather than the USB mass storage device. The bridge firmware simply passes the command to the drive, without translating it, and it then passes the drive's raw Identify Device response to the software, without interfering with it.

[tharrrk]

Hello.

Understand.
You are absolutely right.
S.M.A.R.T. can see the disk and reports sector sizes used by the drive - and an extra sector (comapring the size).

However - the faulty part seems to be the software in INIC-1618L chip itself.
Initio didn't even answer (yet). Seller (dx) did not as well. Not a surprise.
I didn't find any firmware on the net by myself.

Do you (or anybody else) see any possibility of fixing it?

Thanks for your answers
---

root@R600:/tmp# smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-86-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, http://www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: HGST Travelstar 7K1000
Device Model: HGST HTS721010A9E630
Serial Number: JR10044M09935N
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000cca 8a8c43982
Firmware Version: JB0OA3J0
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 6
SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Tue May 3 09:28:20 2016 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
...

...
[340981.677931] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953525167 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
...
root@R600:/tmp# echo $(( 1953525167*512 ))
1000204885504
root@R600:/tmp# echo $(( 1000204886016 - 1000204885504 ))
512

[ooferomen]

I just got a ORICO 2588US from newegg with the same INIC-1618L and noticed the same thing.

also it identifies itself as self powered with a max power draw of 2ma.

[fzabkar]

also it identifies itself as self powered with a max power draw of 2ma. :roll:

I believe that the design should allow for an OEM to add a serial flash memory chip with the correct parameters, otherwise the chip merely reports its own internal defaults. I doubt that the bridge chip would be able to monitor the actual current draw.

[tharrrk]

In my case there seems to be no additional memory. I don't want to unglue the pcb (yet) but it seems there are no ICs on the other side, maybe just some wiring or small resistors/capacitors. It's pretty flat and mounted with the both-side-sticky-tape.

Just curious - did anybody ever get an answer from INITIO after sending them a question via their contact form?

Cheers