Hi,

I have a seagate 3TB drive formatted with GPT working on my NAS for a long time now (it is NOT bootable).
All the sudden, yesterday it stopped working.
When I look at the boot log files I see:
[ 45.620232] ata3: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4050000 action 0xe frozen
[ 45.620316] ata3: irq_stat 0x00400040, connection status changed
[ 45.620387] ata3: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake DevExch }
[ 45.620465] ata3: hard resetting link
[ 51.384029] ata3: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[ 55.640022] ata3: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
[ 55.640090] ata3: hard resetting link
[ 56.420033] ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[ 56.420514] ata3.00: HPA detected: current 3907073134, native 5860533168
[ 56.420598] ata3.00: ATA-8: ST3000DM001-9YN166, CC94, max UDMA/133
[ 56.420605] ata3.00: 3907073134 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA
[ 56.421593] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
[ 56.421610] ata3: EH complete
[ 56.421802] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3000DM001-9YN1 CC94 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 56.422399] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] 3907073134 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)
[ 56.422409] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] 4096-byte physical blocks
[ 56.422609] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 56.422620] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 56.422707] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 56.423211] sdc: unknown partition table
[ 56.448407] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk


Which is weird why its being recognized as 2 TB ?

When I run gdisk, I get the following errors:

# gdisk /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.1

Warning! Disk size is smaller than the main header indicates! Loading
secondary header from the last sector of the disk! You should use 'v' to
verify disk integrity, and perhaps options on the experts' menu to repair
the disk.
Caution: invalid backup GPT header, but valid main header; regenerating
backup header from main header.

Warning! One or more CRCs don't match. You should repair the disk!

Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: damaged

****************************************************************************
Caution: Found protective or hybrid MBR and corrupt GPT. Using GPT, but disk
verification and recovery are STRONGLY recommended.
****************************************************************************

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 3907073134 sectors, 1.8 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): C40B9466-47AC-41CB-A275-571BA26F8FE4
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 5860533134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2925 sectors (1.4 MiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 5860532223 2.7 TiB 0700 primary

Command (? for help):

Command (? for help): v

Caution: The CRC for the backup partition table is invalid. This table may
be corrupt. This program will automatically create a new backup partition
table when you save your partitions.

Problem: The secondary header's self-pointer indicates that it doesn't reside
at the end of the disk. If you've added a disk to a RAID array, use the 'e'
option on the experts' menu to adjust the secondary header's and partition
table's locations.

Problem: Disk is too small to hold all the data!
(Disk size is 3907073134 sectors, needs to be 5860533168 sectors.)
The 'e' option on the experts' menu may fix this problem.

Problem: partition 1 is too big for the disk.

Identified 4 problems!


When I try to repair it with gdisk's recovery options (or so I think I am doing), I get this error, which makes sense because it thinks its a 2TB drive(?!)

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): ?
b use backup GPT header (rebuilding main)
c load backup partition table from disk (rebuilding main)
d use main GPT header (rebuilding backup)
e load main partition table from disk (rebuilding backup)
f load MBR and build fresh GPT from it
g convert GPT into MBR and exit
h make hybrid MBR
i show detailed information on a partition
l load partition data from a backup file
m return to main menu
o print protective MBR data
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
t transform BSD disklabel partition
v verify disk
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)
? print this menu

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): b

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 3907073134 sectors, 1.8 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): C40B9466-47AC-41CB-A275-571BA26F8FE4
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 5860533134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2925 sectors (1.4 MiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 5860532223 2.7 TiB 0700 primary

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w
Caution! Secondary header was placed beyond the disk's limits! Moving the
header, but other problems may occur!

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
1953459123 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

Problem: partition 1 is too big for the disk.
Aborting write operation!
Aborting write of new partition table.



Any help will be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I booted a different linux distrubution, and this could see the whole 3TB (weird, because I don't remember changing kernels on the old one!).

In any case, there's another problem. the drive won't mount because it sees a DIFFERENT drive geometry.
the old says:
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 5860533134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2925 sectors (1.4 MiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 5860532223 2.7 TiB 0700 primary

the new geometry detected is less then just a bit shorter then 5860532223 - meaning the partition "ends" after the end of the drive, so gdisk/fdisk refuses to mount the drive.

UPDATE2:
I found out whats the problem with the geometry size - seems the drive has something thats called HPA (host protected area) on the disk, thats why linux didn't see the whole size.
- you can get linux to ignore it by passing ide_core.nohpa=0.0 in the commandline
I'm currently experimenting with getting it to work

the second thing is that I used testdisk which actually found the parturition, and I could actually see all my files ! - But I don't know how to save the partition size so that linux would also be able to mount the drive..

Is it possible that you have recently attached your 3TB drive to a Gigabyte motherboard?

If so, see Q2:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/HD ... y_FAQ.html

Whatever the reason for the HPA, you could restore the drive's full native capacity with HDAT2 or SeaTools for DOS. I don't know which Linux tools you could use instead, though.

As for TestDisk, it will always find the 3TB partition in the partition table in sector 0. However, it still won't be able to access anything beyond 2TB until you remove the HPA.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Can also use MHDD maxlba

Loki

Also Hdd capacity restore tool
http://hddguru.com/software/2007.07.20- ... tore-Tool/