I bought this My Passport 1TB drive in 2009. But I dumped Windows in favor of Ubuntu over a decade ago, and don’t even like the Microsoft NTFS format used on most drives. So I used the Linux gparted (gnome partition editor) and reformatted it as ext4. Note that over 98% of Linux software (including distros like Ubuntu) are all totally free, and my decade’s experience shows that it is all highly immune to malware attacks. Plus it works better than Windows, and the only downside is Linux does not play Window’s games. not directly anyway. However, add a free VM Manager, install a 32-bit version of Windows under it, then evenWindows’ game play is possible.
My Passport has been very reliable, and I had it divided into 3 partitions: a Ubuntu install, a storage partition, and a Linux swap partition. But I ran out of storage space, so eliminated the Ubuntu install partition and chose to move and resize the storage partition to used that space as well. Big mistake. After hours of running, gparted quit displaying anything at all in it’s window on Ubuntu. After over a day of that, I powered off the laptop because it gave no indication that it was still doing anything. Powered back on, gparted showed that it had resized and moved the storage partition, but it had been stuck in the long Long LONG **LONG LONG ** process of adjusting the folder and file contents in storage to fit their newlocations.
My access to the storage folder was hosed because I killed gparted, and one corrupted folder was preventing me from working with that whole partition. Probably one file in that folder was the problem. But I could not do anything to fix it, not even delete the folder or any of it’s contents.
Considering my options, <i was pleased to see that from the GUI Desktop, I still had access to folders and files on that partition. I hadon order another 1TB USB HDD to come in next week, ajd I hoped to copy most folders and files from one to the other, then do what I could to get this one working properly again. But what could I do now? I have access to fdisk and df, and know rhat fdisk is also a part of Windows. Running ‘sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb’, I could see details about the USB drive, just as fdisk does. fdisk will let me write a new Partition table, but that effectively wipes my whold frive clean. <i want to recover my data first. And gparted gives me two tools to use: (1) Try to use module gpart and recover the data, or (2) try to clean the ext4 partition, meaning fix any errors in the partition layout. <i had the Clean running for over 3 days, most of thst time with its window blank, and decide 3 days were too much time spent. So yes, I killed it again. On trying ttto access the drivel, I may have to build a new Partition Table yet. But for the moment, I am doing another Clean, but using my backup laptop to free up my main one.
So looking ahead, how many heads, tracks, cylinders, sectors are there in a 1TB WD 2.5" 2,0 USB 5400 drive from 2009? <or is there a tool I can use to find out? This is all fdisk tells me:
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000170586112 bytes, 1953458176 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
Disklabel type: dos
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
[sudo] password for oldefoxx:
Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000170586112 bytes, 1953458176 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
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000812c5
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb2 2048 1908738047 1908736000 910.2G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 1908738048 1953458175 44720128 21.3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb2 2048 1908738047 1908736000 910.2G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 1908738048 1953458175 44720128 21.3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Heads, tracks, and cylinders are still requested by fdisk when setting up a Partition Table. My guess is that the actual drive geometry is about the same for all 1TB 2.5" WD drives. and it is the motor speed and added-on electronics that make the difference between models, because that would be reasonable. That and the case design, material used, supplied software, and a few incidentals. But I could be wrong. The “Disk identifier: 0x000812c5” might be helpful, but used in a search engine, it produced no matches.
Though off Wimdows almost entirely, I have Oracle Virtualbox installed and 3 Windows clients under it: Win2k, WinXP, and Win7. Meaning by activating Virtualbox and starting a client, I can load and run compatible programs. So it is not like Windows is completely out of the picture.
