1 (edited by jb10101 2019-11-21 07:55:40)

Topic: Partition table silently fails to be created

I have 2 brand new 4TB Western Digital Reds that I'm unable to create partition tables on.  I do the standard device > create partition table > gpt > apply, and gparted acts like it is doing things, but just silently fails to create a partition table.  Both disks have the error 'unrecognised disk label'.  I've tried to create partition tables with parted as well, and mklabel also silently fails.  Any suggestions?

I'm using:
gparted 0.30.0-3ubuntu2
linux mint 19.1

2

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

I don't have a 4T hard drive, but in my Linux Mint 19.1 virtual machine I simulated one using a loop device and successfully wrote a GPT to it and created a partition.  I suspect there is some hardware or maybe software issue that is specific to your machine.

Suggestions:
1. Attempt the partitioning again and run dmesg afterwards to print the kernel log, looking for any hardware error reports.
2. Boot the GParted Live CD and try from there.  This excludes any software issue in your OS.

3

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

1. Running dmesg after attempting to create the partition table showed no hardware error reports that I could tell
2. Using the GParted live CD produced the same behavior

Any other ideas?

4

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

Time for some debugging.  Please show me the output from these commands:

ls -l /sys/block

# This is 2 single quotes enclosing the 0 length string.
grep '' /sys/block/*/device/model

sudo lsblk -o name,maj:min,rm,size,ro,type,fstype,label,mountpoint

sudo fdisk -l

# Read first 1 MiB from one of those Western Digital Red disks.
# Replace sdb with the actual disk name.
sudo dd if=/dev/sdb bs=1M count=1 of=wdr-1M.dat

# Only if those Western Digital Red disks contain no data, write 1 MiB
# of data back to the disk.  Again replace sdb as needed.
sudo dd if=wdr-1M.dat bs=1M count=1 of=/dev/sdb

5

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

:~$ ls -l /sys/block
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:35 dm-0 -> ../devices/virtual/block/dm-0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 dm-1 -> ../devices/virtual/block/dm-1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 dm-2 -> ../devices/virtual/block/dm-2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 loop0 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 loop1 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 loop2 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 16:00 loop3 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 loop4 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 16:00 loop5 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 loop6 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 loop7 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:35 sda -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/ata2/host1/target1:0:0/1:0:0:0/block/sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:35 sdb -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/ata3/host2/target2:0:0/2:0:0:0/block/sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:35 sdc -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/ata4/host3/target3:0:0/3:0:0:0/block/sdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:35 sdd -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.1/ata7/host6/target6:0:0/6:0:0:0/block/sdd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:35 sde -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.1/ata7/host6/target6:0:1/6:0:1:0/block/sde
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:36 sr0 -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/ata1/host0/target0:0:0/0:0:0:0/block/sr0


:~$ grep '' /sys/block/*/device/model
/sys/block/sda/device/model:Crucial_CT512MX1
/sys/block/sdb/device/model:Hitachi HDT72101
/sys/block/sdc/device/model:WDC WD30EFRX-68E
/sys/block/sdd/device/model:WDC WD40EFRX-68N
/sys/block/sde/device/model:WDC WD40EFRX-68N
/sys/block/sr0/device/model:DVDRAM GH24NS50 


:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 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
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc813a9d4

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *     2048 1000214527 1000212480  477G 8e Linux LVM


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 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: 0xa41ea0c8

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1        2048 1953521663 1953519616 931.5G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT


Disk /dev/sdc: 2.7 TiB, 3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 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
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: FA1F73C2-B119-4B3C-A339-9E36632E8B7B

Device     Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdc1   2048 5860532223 5860530176  2.7T Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdd: 3.7 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 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 /dev/sde: 3.7 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 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 /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root: 461 GiB, 494957232128 bytes, 966713344 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 /dev/mapper/mint--vg-swap_1: 16 GiB, 17137926144 bytes, 33472512 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 /dev/mapper/cryptswap1: 16 GiB, 17137401856 bytes, 33471488 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


:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdd bs=1M count=1 of=wdr-1M.dat
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1048576 bytes (1.0 MB, 1.0 MiB) copied, 0.0121199 s, 86.5 MB/s


:~$ sudo dd if=wdr-1M.dat bs=1M count=1 of=/dev/sdd
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1048576 bytes (1.0 MB, 1.0 MiB) copied, 0.53827 s, 1.9 MB/s

6

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

That write performance of only 1.9 MB/s is unusually low.  I would have expect it to be about the same as the read performance.  Anyway lets try to create a partition table.

dsk=/dev/sdd

# Write new GPT to disk.
sudo sgdisk --clear $dsk

# Compute end sector.  End of last available whole MiB.
end=`sgdisk --end-of-largest $dsk`
echo $end
end=$(( $end / 2048 * 2048 - 1 ))
echo $end

# Create partition from 1MiB to $end.
sudo sgdisk --new=1:2048:$end $dsk

sudo sgdisk --print $dsk

Then try creating a file system.

sudo mkfs.ext4 /${dsk}1

If there are any errors show me the output.

7

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

:~$ dsk=/dev/sdd

:~$ sudo sgdisk --clear $dsk
Creating new GPT entries.
The operation has completed successfully.

:~$ end=`sudo sgdisk --end-of-largest $dsk`
:~$ echo $end
Creating new GPT entries. 7814037134

:~$ end=$(( 7814037134 / 2048 * 2048 - 1))
:~$ echo $end
7814035455

:~$ sudo sgdisk --new=1:2048:$end $dsk
Creating new GPT entries.
The operation has completed successfully.

:~$ sudo sgdisk --print $dsk
Creating new GPT entries.
Disk /dev/sdd: 7814037168 sectors, 3.6 TiB
Model: WDC WD40EFRX-68N
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 2156DB1F-CD66-4DDC-99BD-E47233F87FF9
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 7814037134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 7814037101 sectors (3.6 TiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

:~$ sudo mkfs.ext4 ${dsk}1
mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
The file /dev/sdd1 does not exist and no size was specified.

8

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

1. sgdisk --clear claimed it successfully wrote a new GPT.

2. But sgdisk --new used to create the partition said it had to write a new GPT again.

3. Then sgdisk --print said it had to create a new GPT again and printed no partitions.

4. Then mkfs.ext4 said there was no block special device /dev/sdd1 for the partition.

So writes to the hard drive report success but when reading the same sectors back, doesn't return the previously written data.  I have never seen a hard drive behave like that.

Lets read the first sectors of /dev/sdd which should contain a GPT.

sudo dd if=/dev/sdd bs=512 count=34 | hexdump -C

Use hdparm and smartctl to report everything possible about /dev/sdd to see if there are any clues.

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdd
sudo smartctl -x /dev/sdd

9

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdd bs=512 count=34 | hexdump -C
00000000  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
*
34+0 records in
34+0 records out
17408 bytes (17 kB, 17 KiB) copied, 0.00115038 s, 15.1 MB/s
00004400


:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdd

/dev/sdd:

ATA device, with non-removable media
    Model Number:       WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0                    
    Serial Number:      WD-WCC7K3ULUNT7
    Firmware Revision:  82.00A82
    Transport:          Serial, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
    Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x006d) 
    Supported: 10 9 8 7 6 5 
    Likely used: 10
Configuration:
    Logical        max    current
    cylinders    16383    0
    heads        16    0
    sectors/track    63    0
    --
    LBA    user addressable sectors:   268435455
    LBA48  user addressable sectors:  7814037168
    Logical  Sector size:                   512 bytes
    Physical Sector size:                  4096 bytes
    Logical Sector-0 offset:                  0 bytes
    device size with M = 1024*1024:     3815447 MBytes
    device size with M = 1000*1000:     4000787 MBytes (4000 GB)
    cache/buffer size  = unknown
    Form Factor: 3.5 inch
    Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 5400
Capabilities:
    LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
    Queue depth: 32
    Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific minimum
    R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16    Current = 16
    DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6 
         Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
    PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
         Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
    Enabled    Supported:
       *    SMART feature set
            Security Mode feature set
       *    Power Management feature set
       *    Write cache
       *    Look-ahead
       *    Host Protected Area feature set
       *    WRITE_BUFFER command
       *    READ_BUFFER command
       *    NOP cmd
       *    DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
            Power-Up In Standby feature set
       *    SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
            SET_MAX security extension
       *    48-bit Address feature set
       *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set
       *    Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
       *    FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
       *    SMART error logging
       *    SMART self-test
       *    General Purpose Logging feature set
       *    64-bit World wide name
       *    IDLE_IMMEDIATE with UNLOAD
       *    WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
       *    {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
       *    Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
       *    Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
       *    Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
       *    Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s)
       *    Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
       *    Host-initiated interface power management
       *    Phy event counters
       *    Idle-Unload when NCQ is active
       *    NCQ priority information
       *    READ_LOG_DMA_EXT equivalent to READ_LOG_EXT
            DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
            Device-initiated interface power management
       *    Software settings preservation
       *    SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
       *    SCT Write Same (AC2)
       *    SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
       *    SCT Features Control (AC4)
       *    SCT Data Tables (AC5)
            unknown 206[12] (vendor specific)
            unknown 206[13] (vendor specific)
       *    DOWNLOAD MICROCODE DMA command
       *    WRITE BUFFER DMA command
       *    READ BUFFER DMA command
Security: 
    Master password revision code = 65534
        supported
    not    enabled
    not    locked
        frozen
    not    expired: security count
        supported: enhanced erase
    478min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 478min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 50014ee2671bb563
    NAA        : 5
    IEEE OUI    : 0014ee
    Unique ID    : 2671bb563
Checksum: correct


:~$ sudo smartctl -x /dev/sdd
smartctl 7.0 2018-12-30 r4883 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-70-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-18, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Red
Device Model:     WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0
Serial Number:    WD-WCC7K3ULUNT7
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2671bb563
Firmware Version: 82.00A82
User Capacity:    4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Thu Nov 28 09:08:52 2019 PST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
AAM feature is:   Unavailable
APM feature is:   Unavailable
Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
Write cache is:   Enabled
DSN feature is:   Unavailable
ATA Security is:  Disabled, frozen [SEC2]
Wt Cache Reorder: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)    Offline data collection activity
                    was never started.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)    The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever 
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:         (43680) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:              (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)    Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)    Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:      (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:      ( 463) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:            (0x303d)    SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAGS    VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     POSR-K   100   253   051    -    0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            POS--K   100   253   021    -    0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        -O--CK   100   100   000    -    2
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   PO--CK   200   200   140    -    0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         -OSR-K   100   253   000    -    0
  9 Power_On_Hours          -O--CK   100   100   000    -    150
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        -O--CK   100   253   000    -    0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK   100   253   000    -    0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       -O--CK   100   100   000    -    2
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        -O--CK   200   200   000    -    18
194 Temperature_Celsius     -O---K   126   119   000    -    24
196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   ----CK   100   253   000    -    0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   ---R--   100   253   000    -    0
                            ||||||_ K auto-keep
                            |||||__ C event count
                            ||||___ R error rate
                            |||____ S speed/performance
                            ||_____ O updated online
                            |______ P prefailure warning

General Purpose Log Directory Version 1
SMART           Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]
Address    Access  R/W   Size  Description
0x00       GPL,SL  R/O      1  Log Directory
0x01           SL  R/O      1  Summary SMART error log
0x02           SL  R/O      5  Comprehensive SMART error log
0x03       GPL     R/O      6  Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
0x04       GPL,SL  R/O      8  Device Statistics log
0x06           SL  R/O      1  SMART self-test log
0x07       GPL     R/O      1  Extended self-test log
0x09           SL  R/W      1  Selective self-test log
0x10       GPL     R/O      1  NCQ Command Error log
0x11       GPL     R/O      1  SATA Phy Event Counters log
0x30       GPL,SL  R/O      9  IDENTIFY DEVICE data log
0x80-0x9f  GPL,SL  R/W     16  Host vendor specific log
0xa0-0xa7  GPL,SL  VS      16  Device vendor specific log
0xa8-0xb6  GPL,SL  VS       1  Device vendor specific log
0xb7       GPL,SL  VS      56  Device vendor specific log
0xbd       GPL,SL  VS       1  Device vendor specific log
0xc0       GPL,SL  VS       1  Device vendor specific log
0xc1       GPL     VS      93  Device vendor specific log
0xe0       GPL,SL  R/W      1  SCT Command/Status
0xe1       GPL,SL  R/W      1  SCT Data Transfer

SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (6 sectors)
No Errors Logged

SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

SCT Status Version:                  3
SCT Version (vendor specific):       258 (0x0102)
Device State:                        Active (0)
Current Temperature:                    24 Celsius
Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature:     23/26 Celsius
Lifetime    Min/Max Temperature:     22/26 Celsius
Under/Over Temperature Limit Count:   0/0
Vendor specific:
01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

SCT Temperature History Version:     2
Temperature Sampling Period:         1 minute
Temperature Logging Interval:        1 minute
Min/Max recommended Temperature:      0/65 Celsius
Min/Max Temperature Limit:           -41/85 Celsius
Temperature History Size (Index):    478 (447)

Index    Estimated Time   Temperature Celsius
 448    2019-11-28 01:11    24  *****
 ...    ..( 55 skipped).    ..  *****
  26    2019-11-28 02:07    24  *****
  27    2019-11-28 02:08    25  ******
 ...    ..( 12 skipped).    ..  ******
  40    2019-11-28 02:21    25  ******
  41    2019-11-28 02:22    24  *****
 ...    ..(405 skipped).    ..  *****
 447    2019-11-28 09:08    24  *****

SCT Error Recovery Control:
           Read:     70 (7.0 seconds)
          Write:     70 (7.0 seconds)

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04)
Page  Offset Size        Value Flags Description
0x01  =====  =               =  ===  == General Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x01  0x008  4               2  ---  Lifetime Power-On Resets
0x01  0x010  4             150  ---  Power-on Hours
0x01  0x018  6         4435052  ---  Logical Sectors Written
0x01  0x020  6           12491  ---  Number of Write Commands
0x01  0x028  6          645245  ---  Logical Sectors Read
0x01  0x030  6           13528  ---  Number of Read Commands
0x01  0x038  6       540000000  ---  Date and Time TimeStamp
0x03  =====  =               =  ===  == Rotating Media Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x03  0x008  4             150  ---  Spindle Motor Power-on Hours
0x03  0x010  4               2  ---  Head Flying Hours
0x03  0x018  4              18  ---  Head Load Events
0x03  0x020  4               0  ---  Number of Reallocated Logical Sectors
0x03  0x028  4               0  ---  Read Recovery Attempts
0x03  0x030  4               0  ---  Number of Mechanical Start Failures
0x03  0x038  4               0  ---  Number of Realloc. Candidate Logical Sectors
0x03  0x040  4               0  ---  Number of High Priority Unload Events
0x04  =====  =               =  ===  == General Errors Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x04  0x008  4               0  ---  Number of Reported Uncorrectable Errors
0x04  0x010  4               0  ---  Resets Between Cmd Acceptance and Completion
0x05  =====  =               =  ===  == Temperature Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x05  0x008  1              25  ---  Current Temperature
0x05  0x010  1              24  ---  Average Short Term Temperature
0x05  0x018  1               -  ---  Average Long Term Temperature
0x05  0x020  1              26  ---  Highest Temperature
0x05  0x028  1              22  ---  Lowest Temperature
0x05  0x030  1              25  ---  Highest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05  0x038  1              23  ---  Lowest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05  0x040  1               -  ---  Highest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05  0x048  1               -  ---  Lowest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05  0x050  4               0  ---  Time in Over-Temperature
0x05  0x058  1              65  ---  Specified Maximum Operating Temperature
0x05  0x060  4               0  ---  Time in Under-Temperature
0x05  0x068  1               0  ---  Specified Minimum Operating Temperature
0x06  =====  =               =  ===  == Transport Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x06  0x008  4              17  ---  Number of Hardware Resets
0x06  0x010  4              17  ---  Number of ASR Events
0x06  0x018  4               0  ---  Number of Interface CRC Errors
                                |||_ C monitored condition met
                                ||__ D supports DSN
                                |___ N normalized value

Pending Defects log (GP Log 0x0c) not supported

SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
ID      Size     Value  Description
0x0001  2            0  Command failed due to ICRC error
0x0002  2            0  R_ERR response for data FIS
0x0003  2            0  R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS
0x0004  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS
0x0005  2            0  R_ERR response for non-data FIS
0x0006  2            0  R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS
0x0007  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS
0x0008  2            0  Device-to-host non-data FIS retries
0x0009  2            0  Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy
0x000a  2            1  Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET
0x000b  2            0  CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000d  2            0  Non-CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000f  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC
0x0012  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC
0x8000  4       149462  Vendor specific

10

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

So we already know that all writes to sdd are reported as success.  We now know that all reads from sdd return byte 0xFF.

Need to work out its the hard drive or if it's the connectivity.  Leave all the SATA cables plugged into the computer the same, just temporarily unplug either your 1 TB Hitachi or your 3 TB Western Digital Red.  Plug your 4 TB Western Digital Red with serial number WD-WCC7K3ULUNT7 into that now free SATA cable.  Before you shutdown to do this make sure you comment the line in /etc/fstab which mounts the file system on the drive you are removing.  This is to avoid boot failure.

Try using GParted to create a parttion table and partition on your relocated 4 TB Western Digial Red.  Use Device > Device Information to see the model and serial number of the disk.

11

Re: Partition table silently fails to be created

Hmm wow, thats crazy.  The issue was with both of the SATA ports.

I switched one of the 4TB drives' cable with the 3TB cable, and it was able to write a partition table to the device successfully.  Then, I tried using each of the SATA cables that had been plugged into the 4TB drives to create a partition table on the other 4TB drive, and both of those cables failed.  I was then able to successfully use the old 3TB cable to write a partition table to the other 4TB drive.

Then I swapped out the cables that weren't working with fresh cables, and they still didn't work.  So, something has happened to those ports specifically. 

I previously had 1TB and 3TB hard drives hooked up with those 2 cables, and they failed recently.  I recovered some of the data from them, and then ran scrub to erase everything.  I wonder if running scrub messed up the SATA controller or something?

Thanks for all your help mfleetwo!