vanished hard drive on imac running bionic64<Solved>

[mmmrr]

hello

while running bionic64 the shutdown shuddered,
the harddrive, sda, would
no longer boot. i have a usb which boots bionic32,
but both fdisk and gparted said that input/output
error stopped them opening sda. the sda icons were
still on the desktop.

i am not concerned about lost data.
i found another disk/partition tool [gdisk?]
which i think let me do some deletion of corrupt material.
i ran /sbin/badblocks to check for physical damage. no report of badsectors.

now the sda icons are gone from the desktop.
fdisk and gparted no longer see the harddrive,'sda'. how do i bring it back to use?

fdisk -l reports 16 seemingly identical /dev/ram disks, then 2 /dev/loop, then the two usb sticks. system now calls the one i boot from, sda1.

# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/ram0: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram1: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram2: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram3: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram4: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram5: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram6: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram7: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram8: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram9: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram10: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram11: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram12: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram13: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram14: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/ram15: 13.5 MiB, 14155776 bytes, 27648 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/loop0: 424.1 MiB, 444690432 bytes, 868536 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

Disk /dev/loop1: 22.6 MiB, 23683072 bytes, 46256 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

Disk /dev/loop2: 2 GiB, 2147483648 bytes, 4194304 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

Disk /dev/sda: 7.5 GiB, 8053063680 bytes, 15728640 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: 0x14efa4c2

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 15726591 15724544 7.5G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdb: 28.8 GiB, 30943995904 bytes, 60437492 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: 0xa5ed6e52

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 60436479 60434432 28.8G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

#

---------------------

hardware info from pupsys:

PC Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Product Name: iMac7,1

Motherboard Vendor: Apple Inc.
Product Name: Mac-F42386C8

BIOS Vendor: Apple Inc.
Version: IM71.88Z.007A.B03.0803051705
Release Date: 03/05/08

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz
Min/Max Speed: 800/2400 MHz
Current Speed of Core 0:1800 MHz, 1:1400 MHz
Core Count: 2
Min/Max Speed: 800/2400 MHz
Current Speed of Core 0:1800 MHz, 1:1400 MHz
Core Count: 2

Frequency governor : conservative
Freq. scaling driver : acpi-cpufreq

l1tf:Mitigation: PTE Inversion
meltdown:Vulnerable
spec_store_bypass:Vulnerable
spectre_v1:Mitigation: __user pointer sanitization
spectre_v2:Mitigation: Full generic retpoline

temp1 (radeon) : +39.0 C (high = +NA.0 C, crit = +120.0 C)
Core 0 (coretemp) : +47.0 C (high = +100.0 C, crit = +100.0 C)
Core 1 (coretemp) : +55.0 C (high = +100.0 C, crit = +100.0 C)

Personal Storage File:
Name: /upupbb/upupbbsave-usb_imac.2fs
Total Size: 2048 MB
Free Space: 536 MB
Location: partition sda1

Memory Allocation:
Total RAM: 2962 MB
Used RAM: 2775 MB
Free RAM: 187 MB
Buffers: 70 MB
Cached: 1542 MB
Total Swap: 0 MB
Free Swap: 0 MB

Actual Used RAM: 1163 MB Used - (buffers + cached)
Actual Free RAM: 1799 MB Free + (buffers + cached)

Linux Kernel: 4.9.163-lxpup-32-pae (i686)
Kernel Version: #1 SMP Thu Mar 14 15:41:19 GMT 2019
Build GCC: 8.3.0
PAE Enabled: Yes

Kernel Command Line:
BOOT_IMAGE=/upupbb/vmlinuz net.ifnames=0 pmedia=usbflash pdrv=C415-8213 psubdir=/upupbb pfix=fsck,fsckp TZ=PST8PDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0

Distro: BionicPup32 19.03
Window Manager: JWM v2.3.7
Desktop Start: xwin jwm

---------------------------

i have downloaded a standalone set of linux utilities, finnix 124.iso, which may give me some help, but i'm happy to see what the forum has to say.

cheers, mm

[rockedge]

Sounds like hardware failure! We had a Mac desktop go down in similar fashion

[bigpup]

All that Disk /dev/RAM stuff is because you are running Bionicpup32 from a USB.
It is using a saveramdisk, for storage of stuff that will go into the actual save, when it gets updated.

Only have the internal hard drive and the USB Bionicpup32 drive. No other USB drives plugged in.

fdisk and gparted no longer see the harddrive

Booting from the Bionicpup32 USB
So you can use programs in it.

I think the drive has died or the file system is really badly messed up.

If you open Gparted program and select to show all drives.
Top right of Gparted main window is drop down device selection.

Does it list /dev/sdb as a device to select?

If no.

Run Pup-Sysinfo program.
Devices->Drive storage->SCSI
Top of info displayed should be probedisk section.
Does it list any drive not labeled USB or CD?
If yes.
What is is listed as?
If no.

Go into the computers bios setup.
See if the internal hard drive is showing up as a listed device someplace.
If yes.
Are there any optional settings for it?

[mmmrr]

thanks,
removed second usb drive with savefile.
Booting from the Bionicpup32 USB

gparted only shows sda which it assigns
to bionic32 usb--size matches usb.
/dev/sdb not listed.

pup-sysinfo shows only usb and cd drives

pup-sysinfo > motherboard > bios shows:

Vendor: Apple Inc.
Version: IM71.88Z.007A.B03.0803051705
Release Date: 03/05/08
ROM Size: 2048 kB

--

# biosdecode 3.1
BIOS INFORMATION (dmidecode):
Vendor: Apple Inc.
Version: IM71.88Z.007A.B03.0803051705
Release Date: 03/05/08
ROM Size: 2048 kB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
ACPI is supported
IEEE 1394 boot is supported
Smart battery is supported
Function key-initiated network boot is supported
BIOS Revision: 0.1

---------------------

is there a chance that an upgraded bios
might see the hard drive?

cheers bigpup

[bigpup]

Changing the bios is not going to help.
The drive was working and now it is not.
So the bios is good.

Everything is indicating the drive has physically died.

If you start the computer and quickly get into the bios setup.
If the drive is physically working at all, it should show as a device someplace in the bios setup.

[mmmrr]

after the previous post i turned off the computer.
about an hour later i restarted it, with the bionic32 usb.
the hard drive icon was back on the desktop, named sda1.
the usb is sdb1. when i clicked on sda1 nothing happened.
opened gparted. it offered to scan sda1, calling it the hard drive,
as the default choice to scan. also offered the usb and all drives.
i went with default.

it shows the black exclamation mark next to the first partition.
the swap partition is next. then a larger unallocated partition.

happy with this seeming improvement, a gift. i'm not doing
anything more until i hear what experienced voices have to
suggest.

cheers, mm

[williams2]

fdisk says that you have a 7.5 GiB hard drive.
It says there is 1 partition ( /dev/sda1 ) taking all 7.5 GiB of space.

It says sda1 is formatted as a FAT32 partition.

It says Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Very old hard drives had sectors of 512 bytes,
Most newer hard drives have physical sector sizes of 4096 bytes.

Does this make sense to you?

You seem to have a save file on sda1. If the hard drive ( sda1 ) is not accessible,
then the save file would also not be accessible.

[mmmrr]

hi williams2,
that fdisk is reporting at a time when fdisk
is unable to see the actual harddrive, which
is approx. 300GB, from 2007.

that fdisk is seeing is the 8GB usb which
i'm using to run the computer [imac 7,1]
while trying to get the actual hardrive working.

fdisk assigns 'sda' and 'sda1' to actual or
usb drives in this case. a shutdown for a
while seems to have improved matters, as
my previous post says.

cheers, mm

[bigpup]

If you can get Gparted to see the drive.

This will delete all that is on the drive.
But only way to know you are starting from a known good condition.

I would try making a new partition table. (msdos)
Make whatever partitions you want on it and format them.

After this, in Gparted.
Right click on each partition.
Select check.

See if it returns no errors.

Do an install of whatever operating system you want to use.
Hopefully it will now work OK.

If no errors, it may work for some time.
I say this, because it did totally die for a time.

The drive maybe could be overheating.
I would take the cover off the computer and look inside.
clean out any dirt, dust bunnies, cooling fans, clean corroded contacts, even disconnect and reconnect, anything that plugs into something.
Especially check anything to do with the hard drive.

[mmmrr]

thanks big pup.
i'll proceed with that program with gparted.
i'll reinstall bionic 64.
i'll use a vacumm crevice tool on the fan vent
along the top of the case of the imac.
that big all in one screen plus computer is a bit
of a nightmare to get into so i'd need to do some
research into procedure and tools before doing
anything. i was given the creature, converted it
to puppy, happy with performance despite quirks.
cheers, mm

[mmmrr]

gparted failed during attempt to 'swapoff'
the swap partion enroute to creating a partion
table. after some seconds of progress bar going
to & fro, the first message appeared:

Error fsyncing/closing /dev/sda1: Input/output error

retry & ignore were the choices.
tried both without change. then second message arrived:

Input/output error during read on /dev/sda
with a third choice, cancel.

with that choice, gparted display went grey, lost all info,
hard drive icon vanished from desktop.

it has reppeared with shutdown and restart.

i'm looking int using 'dd' to write zeros to the flaky
hard drive, probably pointless. the finnix.iso
is on hand, i remember looking at it years ago, a powerful
set of tools with zero documentation. at least nowadays
i would know to search on the tool name.

while trying to burn the iso to a dvd-rw i learned
those disks must be formatted before use. if not
then any use throws an error message preventing a rewrite.

i even tried 'dd' zeros to the dvd-rw. watched the dd
display in terminal complete without a hitch. but when i
clicked on the dvd there was all the untouched content.

going to put finnix.iso on a usb when i find instructions
which seem sound. best time to autupsy is after death

cheers, mm.

[mmmrr]

clear instructions for .iso to usb were in the second part of:

https://www.pragmaticlinux.com/2021/03/ ... iso-image/

''In contrast to the previous section, in this section
we’ll use just the terminal to create a bootable USB
drive from a Linux ISO image.''

finnix booted on the imac. it is slightly more
user-friendly than i remembered but unless the
user has been hardcore commandline for years not
useful. no way i could get to a list of utilities,
let alone start looking at the hard drive.

similiar multi-part utilty for windows, 'ubcd', used
primitive dos graphics most effectively for navigation
and operational display.

better news is that i have been able to boot
a bionic64 dvd on the imac. i intend to install it to a 32gb
usb drive then try running the imac from that.
the imac firmware was never quick. now it is comically slow.
but once through the sandtraps of booting it's okay.

muted cheers, mm

[mmmrr]

speedbump & workaround
using bootflash to install bionic64 to usb,
i watched gparted choose to scan all drives,
although i had been careful to choose only
the usb, target drive, for scanning.

i could tell by the slow pace of the progress
bar & the the flickering legend that gparted
was wrestling with the wonky hardrive. i shut
down the install.

instead, used fdisk to prep the usb stick for receiving
an bionic64.iso. that installed, booted, is now
running on the usb on the imac.

not an installed system but i'm prepping another
usb as a possible host. i don't know hoe the live iso
i'm running might react to a shutdown so i'm leaving
it on.

any opinions welcome. mm

[bigpup]

i don't know hoe the live iso
i'm running might react to a shutdown so i'm leaving
it on.

In general.
Bionicpup64 should ask at shutdown to make a save file/folder to store stuff in.
If the USB has any free space in the partition or partitions on it.
Should be able to write the save to it.
Storing any changes, additions, settings, etc.....

When you boot using this bionicpup64 USB install.
It should find and use the save.

Have to see the partition layout and format used, to give you specific info on this specific USB install.

A live install works the same as a frugal install.

Only difference is the boot loader that is used to boot them.
A live install uses the boot loader that is in the Puppy ISO.
A frugal install needs a boot loader installed to boot it.

[mmmrr]

thanks bigpup,
the bionic64 iso usb shows three icons on the desktop:
sda, sda1, sda2. i have taken screenshots [png]of cfdisk /dev/sda
and gparted sda. i'm not sure how to attach them to this post.
cfdisk reports on all three. gparted reports minimally on sda
only.

when i click on the icons, presently unmounted as the os is
running iin ram, sda1 shows a dozen or so items which look
like the .iso files. clicking on sda1 or sda2 calls pmount which
shows those partitions as grey shadows: 354M & 67M, respectively.
sda is 28.8G. sda & sda1 both are iso9660. sda2 is vfat

i hope this helps; ready to do more. cheers, mm

[bigpup]

You do not exactly say how you did the install.

But by what you are now saying.
It looks like the type of install that burns the Bionicpup64 ISO to the USB drive the same way as burning to a CD.
You end up with a drive formatted iso9660 which is a read only format.
And the rest of the drive is left unusable.

It did give you a sda2 partition formatted vfat.
It maybe could be made usable to store the save.

Gparted will not show this partition as able to do anything with it?

Note:
Bionicpup64 should have the program Take A Shot under menu->Graphics->
You can use this program, to make an image of something, and attach the image file it makes, to a post.

You may be better off going back to trying to use Bootflash to do the install.
Just give it the time it needs to do it's thing.

[mmmrr]

oops i was writing before reading yr latest...

i 'dd' ed the iso to the usb

''You end up with a drive formatted iso9660 which is a read only format.
''And the rest of the drive is left unusable.''

exactly.

i'm remebering that this iso/usb move is a step on the way to an install.
that wonky hard drive seems off the radar. the iso is running in ram; i'll
try bootflash again with 16 gb usb. i want to keep this 32gb one with the
bionic64iso on it, just in case something goes sideways.

most useful comments, thanks, bigpup.
cheers, mm

ps--exactly how attach img to post??

[bigpup]

Yes dd command will give you an install that boots, but it is like making a USB into a burned closed CD.

When you are in the posting input screen making a post.

At the left bottom.
Click on attachments.
Click on add files.
Navigate to the image file you want to add.
Highlight it and click open.
You will now see the file listed with a place inline button and a delete button.
Put the input indicator where you want to place the file in the post.
Click place inline.
The file will be attached at that place in the post you are making.

Example:

Screenshot(3).jpg (77.15 KiB) Viewed 1241 times

.
.
In the forum FAG is information on what file types and sizes can be attached.
.
.

[mmmrr]

success. found a 64gb usb drive.
one 57GiB vfat bootable partition.
one 2.5GiB linux swap partition.
reading from gparted as bionic64 runs.

i can use gparted to resize the big slice.
at the end of bootflash installation i was
asked if i wanted to include legacy boot.
no idea at all so said yes.

made a test image in painstaking civil war
colours to try adding it to post...
does the subject need amending??
perhaps the word 'RESOLVED'

hearty cheers, mm