[ubuntu-uk] New hard drive errors

[Barry Drake]

On 18/06/16 16:21, Mark Fraser wrote:
> I fixed these, but on running fsck a second time, these block differences were
> back.  Now this drive is currently sat in an external USB tray so that I could copy
> files across before replacing the one in the computer. Are these errors due to
> it being on USB or is the drive faulty?
>
You might try getting a copy of Windows - either Win 7 or XP. Either of 
these will say that the disk has an unrecognisable system, and will 
offer fdisk to delete the partition.  It will let you use fdisk to 
create a new NTFS partition, and will then let you do a long format to 
begin installation.  MS Win is very verbose in long-format mode, and you 
will find out if the disk is faulty.  I'm not sure whether MS can work 
with a USB drive?  I have a built-in trayless caddy, so I don't use a 
USB arrangement.  Incidentally, Windows will trash the boot sector of 
/dev/sda, so unplug that before trying the process.

-- 
http://barrydrake.co.nr/