User:Tingo/setblocksize
setblocksize is created by Michael Bauerle. It is a tool to reformat a SCSI disk with new block size.
setblocksize requires GNU/Linux with sg driver installed - connect the disk to a machine running this OS to reformat it.
Since my experiments with sg_format (see the sg3_utils page) failed, I decided I had nothing to loose by testing this tool as well.
Machine info
I used an old machine I had lying, installed an Adaptec AVA-2904 SCSI card into it, a hard drive and installed Fedora 24 serve on it.
[tingo@kg-htpc ~]$ cat /etc/fedora-release Fedora release 24 (Twenty Four) [tingo@kg-htpc ~]$ uname -a Linux kg-htpc.kg4.no 4.5.5-300.fc24.i686 #1 SMP Thu May 19 13:42:13 UTC 2016 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Drive info
The drive is the same old Seagate ST31200N that I managed to "brick" with sg_format.
[tingo@kg-htpc ~]$ dmesg | grep sd [...] [ 19.581428] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0 [ 19.599840] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 19.599851] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [ 19.599858] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: Medium format corrupted [ 19.602945] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off [ 19.602955] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 9f 00 00 08 [ 19.606941] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA [ 19.626816] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 19.626828] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [ 19.626835] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: Medium format corrupted [ 19.635282] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
I edited out the info about sda (the os drive) since it is not relevant here
Compiling setblocksize
I had to install both kernel-headers and gcc in F24 (Fedora 24) before I could compile the program. Commands:
[tingo@kg-htpc setblocksize]$ sudo dnf install kernel-headers [tingo@kg-htpc setblocksize]$ sudo dnf install gcc
after that it was a simple make command to get a executable program
[tingo@kg-htpc setblocksize]$ make all
I tested that the program worked
[tingo@kg-htpc setblocksize]$ ./setblocksize setblocksize V0.2 Checking parameters ... Parameter error! Usage: 'setblocksize [-b<Blocksize in Byte>] [-t<Timeout in Minutes>] <sg_device>'
it worked so far.
Test if setblocksize works on the drive
The drive is already "bricked" so it can't be worse.
[tingo@kg-htpc ~]$ sudo work/setblocksize/setblocksize -b1024 /dev/sg1 setblocksize V0.2 Checking parameters ... Blocksize specified. Done. New blocksize: 1024 Bytes Format timeout: 120 minutes Open device file ... Done. Prepare command ... Done. Send INQUIRY command ... Done. Check status ... Command successful. Check for LUN ... LUN present. =============================================================================== SCSI ID : 0 LUN : 0 Connected to: Host2 / Channel0 Manufacturer: SEAGATE Model : ST31200N Device type : Disk =============================================================================== Do you really want to reformat this device [y/n]? y Prepare command ... Done. Send MODE SELECT command ... Done. Check status ... Command successful. Prepare command ... Done. Send FORMAT UNIT command ... *** Please wait - Do not manually interrupt or power down! ***
(the LED on the drive lights up, now I have to wait)
Done. Check status ... Command successful. Close device file ... Done. Exiting ...
The process took about 20 minutes on this drive.
check the result
I installed sg3_utils on the Fedora machine to figure out if setblocksize had done its job.
sg_format
[tingo@kg-htpc ~]$ sudo sg_format /dev/sg1
SEAGATE ST31200N 8008 peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
Mode Sense (block descriptor) data, prior to changes:
Number of blocks=0 [0x0]
Block size=1024 [0x400]
Read Capacity (10) results:
Number of logical blocks=1074591
Logical block size=1024 bytes
No changes made. To format use '--format'. To resize use '--resize'
So sg_format thinks the drive has 1024 byte blocks - good.
sg_readcap
[tingo@kg-htpc ~]$ sudo sg_readcap /dev/sg1 Read Capacity results: Last logical block address=1074590 (0x10659e), Number of blocks=1074591 Logical block length=1024 bytes Hence: Device size: 1100381184 bytes, 1049.4 MiB, 1.10 GB
sg_readcap also agrees with sg_format.
So it looks like setblocksize really managed to change the drive.
fdisk
fdisk -l output was requested. Here it is:
[tingo@kg-htpc ~]$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb Disk /dev/sdb: 1 GiB, 1100381184 bytes, 1074591 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 1024 = 1024 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 1024 bytes / 1024 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 1024 bytes / 1024 bytes
Another vote for 1024 byte blocks (or "sectors").
History
- 2016-09-07: I did 'fdisk -l' on the drive, and documented the output.
- 2016-09-06: initial testing with setblocksize.