I just bought a new external SSD, and it's already doing weird stuff. I tried to test it, but even the result from SMART tests are weird. When I try
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb1
I get :
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor: VendorCo
Product: ProductCode
Revision: 2.00
Compliance: SPC-2
User Capacity: 2 097 152 000 000 bytes [2,09 TB]
Logical block size: 512 bytes
scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
Terminate command early due to bad response to IEC mode page
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.
So, is my new SSD already dying ? Thanks to anyone who can help !
Just out of curiosity, when you say doing "weird stuff", what exactly do you mean that the drive is doing? Like are things randomly getting deleted, or does it wear wear white after labour day kind of weird?
More like random things being deleted and the drive suddenly being seen as "dirty" by Zorin. That being said, it happened when it was formated in NTFS, and the drive seems to behave normally since I reformated it in ExFAT a few hours ago. Except the weird SMART thing.
(Also I'm French and we are fully allowed to wear white after labour day ;o)
If it's a new drive under warranty, I would just take it back to the store for a replacement. There's no reason to take any chances with your data if you can avoid it.
And just in case you are unaware, if you are not planning on using this drive with Windows machines, I would format using EXT4 which is the filesystem used by Zorin OS. Just for best compatibility.
Honestly if your drive was mostly having issue while it was formatted under NTFS, my first thought would be to assume that that would be the issue, and not the drive itself failing. If it is a brand new (or new ish) ssd, I find it hard to believe it's failing pretty quickly, especially if it's a name brand such as Samsung or WD, etc.
I would also agree with @zenzen about formatting to EXT4 if you don't need anything windows related.
It's actually a no-name chinese drive, hence my suspicion towards it.
I initially wanted to format it in ext4 but I want to be able to use it on 2 different computers (both on Linux) and I read there coul be problems with permissions using ext4. Am I wrong ? I've been using Zorin for a few years now but I'm kinda new to the whole file system debate and I don't understand it completely.
Where did you get this drive from? The way you describe it already makes it sound so alarming... proceed with caution!
The problem with permissions that you are referring to would only apply when any of the two computers is not running Linux, since the permissions are part of the filesystem itself. When sending to the drive, the contents can be send normally but not the permissions. Likewise, when reading a file from the drive that originated on a Windows machine, Linux wouldn't know which permissions to apply for each file.
So, if both machines use Linux, you should use EXT4 for better overall results.
I bought it second-hand from someone who apparently never used it. I intend to use it as a backup drive.
Thanks a lot for the ext4 explanation ! Another issue I got is that when I tried to format the drive in ext4 using Gparted, it was automatically owned by root with no write permissions, and even after changing the permissions and owner I couldn't write on it Maybe I did something wrong, I will try again.
You can also using Disks to format the drive, which comes already installed. Not that there's anything wrong with Gparted but I wanted to share this thread for you to use as reference:
A relatively common practice among "no-name Chinese" storage products is to include an EXTREMELY small amount of actual storage while faking a much larger amount. Obviously, that can cause all manner of nonsense. This page shows how to use a utility designed to test for that particular deceit:
I'm currently using a different distro, so I can't easily check whether or not f3 is available in Zorin's or Ubuntu's repos, but I'd be surprised if it isn't.
So, I formated the drive in ext4 using disks (haven't check its capacity yet but I will). It went well, but I can't write on the drive. I tried ls-l /dev/sdb1 and got the following result :
I tried changing the permissions and owner of the drive using chown and chmod. Doesn't work. When I try to create a directory on the disk it tells me the file system is read only, even when I used sudo.
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong ? I could write on the drive without problems when it was formated as ExFAT.
(1) I have a policy to never ever buy a 2nd hand storage drive, whether used or otherwise. The chance of getting exposed to virus's, malware, or hacker attempts, is extremely high.
(2) I also make it a point to never ever buy no-name Chinese brands of storage drives, as already mentioned above, for the past 25+ years now, sellers on Ebay have been making a killing, on fooling people, with their storage quantities, with improper reporting.
(3) Always buy name brand storage drives, from reputable online computer stores. Never buy used, never buy no-name Chinese.
To answer your question, is your hard drive dying? Based on what I've been reading in your post, the answer is likely yes.
Solution: Buy a brand new storage drive, from a reputable online dealer. And no, that doesn't mean Newegg anymore. Ever since they were bought out by a Chinese company, they have ruined that business.
B&H would be a more reputable dealer. Buying new from Amazon can be ok, but you have to insure your buying from Amazon directly, not some shady seller on there.
MicroCenter has been making positive waves through the country, for the past what 6 years now. They are a brick and mortar computer/electronics supply shop, but also have an online store. They also sell on Amazon on occasion too.
