Hybrid HDD (SSHD) not detected

[sceps]

This 1TB SSHD WD HDD is mostly not being detected by 3 computers and 3 external enclosures. Any remedies to try? Or is it time to junk it?

With different enclosures, in Windows 10, the drive shows 100% “activity” in Task Manager but typically 0KB/s read or write except for some blips. It eventually errors out and can’t mount the partitions on the drive.

In linux, with one enclosures it is recognized by Gnome Disks but attempts at automatic partition mounting keep looping, with journalctl showing IO errors.

The drive was also connected to another computer internally, booted with Hirens Boot USB live environment, and the WD data lifeguard diagnostic software doesn’t see the drive at all. Some other utility software (tried a bunch) list the drive but can’t seem to do much with it.

gsmartcontrol doesn’t report SMART errors, has just a couple of errors in the log from an earlier time, and managed to do a short scan with no problems detected.

I’m thinking to try to format the disk, and see if it’s a hardware or logical problem. Any other ideas?

[xyz]

Has this drive been in continuous use? If so, how long? I see that it was built in 2015 so could be EOL with a hardware fault.

[sceps]

It was used in a laptop for several years until the laptop died somehow. The data was recovered from this drive, and the drive was just sitting on a shelf for a couple of years.

Of course it is EOL, and the product page via the QR code is no longer up. I wonder what the reliability reputation of these hybrid drives is like.

It’s strange how the behavior of the drive seems to vary with different enclosures and computers. I tried with a generic PrimeCables enclosure on a linux computer and it mounted quickly this time, albeit still with tons of errors in the system logs.

Given the errors about unclean filesystem, formatting the drive is my next thought. But the IO errors make me wonder if the drive is failing, even though SMART reports ok.

Some log samples:

xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: ERROR Transfer event for unknown stream ring slot 7 ep 11
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: @00000000fecfc710 00000000 00000000 1a00e400 070c8001
kernel: scsi_io_completion_action: 13 callbacks suppressed
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#2 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#2 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#2 Add. Sense: Invalid command operation code
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#2 CDB: Write(6) 0a 01 12 e8 08 00
kernel: blk_print_req_error: 36 callbacks suppressed
kernel: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 70376 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x100000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 8541, lost async page write

ntfs-3g[1176421]: Unmounting /dev/sdb1 (System Reserved)
ntfs-3g[1176421]: Failed to sync device /dev/sdb1: Input/output error
ntfs-3g[1176421]: Failed to close volume /dev/sdb1: Input/output error

udisksd[1178813]: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).
udisksd[1178813]: The file system wasn't safely closed on Windows. Fixing.
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#12 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#12 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#12 Add. Sense: Invalid command operation code
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#12 CDB: Write(10) 2a 00 00 5e bb 80 00 04 00 00
kernel: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 6208384 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 1024 prio class 2
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001536, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001537, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001538, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001539, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001540, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001541, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001542, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001543, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001544, lost async page write
kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb2, logical block 6001545, lost async page write
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#13 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#13 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#13 Add. Sense: Invalid command operation code
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#13 CDB: Write(10) 2a 00 00 5e bf 80 00 04 00 00
kernel: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 6209408 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 1024 prio class 2
[...]
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: ERROR Transfer event for unknown stream ring slot 7 ep 11
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: @00000000fecfc3b0 00000000 00000000 1a00e400 070c8000
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#5 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#5 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#5 Add. Sense: Invalid command operation code
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#5 CDB: Write(10) 2a 00 00 5e c3 80 00 04 00 00
kernel: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 6210432 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 1024 prio class 2
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#4 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#4 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#4 Add. Sense: Invalid command operation code
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#4 CDB: Write(10) 2a 00 00 5e c7 80 00 04 00 00
kernel: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 6211456 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 1024 prio class 2
[...]
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: ERROR Transfer event for unknown stream ring slot 7 ep 11
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: @00000000fecfd6a0 00000000 00000000 1a00e400 070c8001
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#6 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=1s
kernel: sd 16:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#6 CDB: Write(10) 2a 00 00 5e e3 80 00 04 00 00
kernel: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 6218624 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 1024 prio class 2
[...]
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: ERROR Transfer event for unknown stream ring slot 7 ep 11
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: @00000000fecfd240 00000000 00000000 1a00e400 070c8000
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: Set TR Deq already pending, don't submit for 0x0x000000009fdbf3b0
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: Failed to clear cancelled cached URB 000000009c7d3c0c, mark clear anyway
kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: Failed to clear cancelled cached URB 00000000a17655c1, mark clear anyway

[sceps]

Deleting partitions with fdisk failed with /dev/sdb: fsync device failed: Input/output error

Formatting is also failing:

# mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sdb2
Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes.
Creating NTFS volume structures.
Failed to sync device /dev/sdb2: Input/output error
Syncing device. FAILED

Attempts to create a test file on the drive also fails. Benchmarking in Gnome Disks with writing fails, but benchmarking reads only works.

Maybe the drive is in read only mode somehow even though I don’t see other indications of this.

Even if I can’t use the drive, I’d like to securely erase the contents before discarding.

[Gnuuser]

Solve the problem is a single shot .
Give it a 48 hour bath in battery acid
There wont be a whole lot left.
And certainly unrecoverable.

[sceps]

Curious development. After doing a (enhanced) secure erase with hdparm (following the guide here: ATA Secure Erase (SE) and hdparm) the drive seems to function normally.

The HDD is recognized in all enclosures, journalctl no longer shows I/O errors, reading and writing to disk work, SMART shows no alarms with any attributes, and it passed an extended SMART scan.

Has anyone heard of secure erase or similar procedure “fixing” such an issue? Could the earlier errors have been at a logical and not a hardware level, or is this a false sense of security?