250215 Michael wrote:
> On Saturday 15 February 2025 11:50:23 Greenwich Mean Time Nuno Silva wrote:
> > On 2025-02-15, Philip Webb wrote:
> > > Recently, I bought 2 new Kingston Exodia 256 GB USB sticks
> > > from Canada Computers, the store in Toronto I've used for 25 yr .
> > > With many previous new USB sticks of sizes <= 128 GB
> > > & which came with a VFat filesystem,
> > > I simply repartitioned them using Fdisk, which created a Linux partition
> > > & then used 'mke2fs' to format them with an Ext2 filesystem.
> > >
> > > This time, something has gone wrong :
> > > root:538 ~> mke2fs /dev/sdb1
> > > mke2fs 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
> > > Creating filesystem with 60567296 4k blocks and 15147008 inodes
> > > Filesystem UUID: 80c2f275-ed6b-4ef5-b785-b53bd225ca9e
> > > Superblock backups stored on blocks: 32768, 98304, 163840, 229376,
> > > 294912,
> > >
> > > 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 4096000, 7962624, 11239424,
> > > 20480000, 23887872
> > >
> > > Allocating group tables: done
> > > Writing inode tables: done
> > >
> > > Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information:
> > > mke2fs: Input/output error while writing out and closing file system
> > >
> > > I tried repartitioning the stick into 2 x 128 GB partitions,
> > > in case it was the sheer size which was the problem, but got the same
> > > result. The error occured with both sticks, so it doesn't seem to be bad
> > > hardware. It took 10 h 40 m to process the 256 GB part'n on my 2023
> > > desktop machine, so trying suggestions cb a rather long-drawn-out affair
> > > (smile).
> > >
> > > Has anyone else encountered this ? Does anyone have suggestions ?
> >
> > Are there kernel error or warning messages when this happens?
>
> An ext2fs with 4K block size has a maximum filesystem size limit of 16TiB.
> Your 256GB drive will not experience a formatting problem because of its size.
>
> Formatting a 256GB USB drive, especially if it is a USB 3.0 or later spec,
> should not take hours, but minutes if not seconds.
See listing below. My notes tell me that in many previous cases,
it has taken these rates to format : 2 : 6 min/GB ; 3 : 1,8 min/GB ;
today, it took 2 h 51 m to format a 64 GB partition (mainly inodes).
> Assuming there was no power cut or interruption to the formatting operation,
> the error has the smell of a hardware problem,
> hence dmesg should reveal if something went wrong with the device.
> You can try reformatting the USB drive,
> while keeping an eye on the output of 'dmesg -W'.
Here's the output of the formatting + 'dmesg -W' ;
I used a different port, which is known to behave properly,
+ the other stick now re-partitioned to offer a 64 GB partition :
root:554 ~> t ; mke2fs /dev/sdb1 ; t
2025-02-15 Sat 17.57.46
mke2fs 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
Creating filesystem with 16777216 4k blocks and 4194304 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 93b5ff29-fe5d-48e5-85b0-35b12bee226e
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424
Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: mke2fs: Input/output
error while writing out and closing file system
2025-02-15 Sat 20.48.04
dmesg 250215 21:12 : no messages while writing inode tables ;
different 3.0 port normally used without problem by scanner ;
'ls /dev' shows /dev/sdb sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4 still listed ;
stick is still in the port
root:635 ~> dmesg -W
[2023143.202399] usb 10-2: USB disconnect, device number 2
[2023143.210193] blk_print_req_error: 716 callbacks suppressed
[2023143.210196] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 95422464 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x800 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[2023143.210202] buffer_io_error: 1328 callbacks suppressed
[2023143.210203] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 11927552, lost
async page write
[2023143.210218] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 95422472 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x100000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[2023143.210221] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 11927553, lost
async page write
[2023143.210259] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 95684608 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x100000 phys_seg 2 prio class 2
[2023143.210264] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 11960320, lost
async page write
[2023143.210269] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 11960321, lost
async page write
[2023143.210277] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 95946752 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x100000 phys_seg 2 prio class 2
[2023143.210280] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 11993088, lost
async page write
[2023143.210283] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 11993089, lost
async page write
[2023143.210302] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 96208896 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x100000 phys_seg 2 prio class 2
[2023143.210305] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 12025856, lost
async page write
[2023143.210308] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 12025857, lost
async page write
[2023143.210312] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 96471040 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x100000 phys_seg 2 prio class 2
[2023143.210315] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 12058624, lost
async page write
[2023143.210342] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 12058625, lost
async page write
[2023143.210351] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 96733184 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x100000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[2023143.210373] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 96733192 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x800 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[2023143.210382] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 96995328 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x800 phys_seg 2 prio class 2
[2023143.210401] device offline error, dev sdb, sector 97257472 op 0x1:(WRITE)
flags 0x800 phys_seg 2 prio class 2
[2023143.926864] usb 10-2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[2023143.946392] usb 10-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0951, idProduct=1666,
bcdDevice= 1.10
[2023143.946397] usb 10-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
SerialNumber=3
[2023143.946400] usb 10-2: Product: DataTraveler 3.0
[2023143.946402] usb 10-2: Manufacturer: Kingston
[2023143.946404] usb 10-2: SerialNumber: E0D55EA57410E8B189D80112
[2023143.946819] usb-storage 10-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[2023143.946993] scsi host12: usb-storage 10-2:1.0
[2023144.950983] scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DataTraveler 3.0
PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[2023144.951249] sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[2023144.951349] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] 484540416 512-byte logical blocks: (248
GB/231 GiB)
[2023144.951913] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[2023144.951917] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 00
[2023144.952478] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled,
doesn't support DPO or FUA
[2023145.369087] sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4 < >
[2023145.369453] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
I can't make sense of the "USB disconnect" at the beginning
nor the "Attached SCSI removable disk" at the end :
I didn't touch anything during the whole process & have no removable disks.
> If both of these sticks are behaving the same way,
> it could be the port on your PC which has a problem.
> You can try using a different USB port
> to eliminate this causing the formatting failure.
I used the port normally used by my scanner with no problems.
The behaviour is the same.
> Other than a hardware problem with the device itself,
> there is the chance of counterfeit USB drives, churned out at volume
> and having a smaller size and speed than advertised
> or such poor quality flash chips they end up corrupting data.
> Usually they survive a reformat, at least with FAT,
> but can fail at any point thereafter.
That's very unlikely for sticks bought from a reputable store.
I've used Canada Computers since 2000 & had a problem only once,
a defective mobo for a new machine, which was replaced by another make.
Can anyone find anything of interest in the logs above ?
--
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatcadotinterdotnet
