0

By mistake removed USB drive from Mac while copying something to it. After that, not able to either format it, or write to it. On clicking "Erase" on disk utility in mac, am seeing this error:

Error screen on trying to initialize disk

fDisk shows this:

Disk: /dev/disk3    geometry: 126717/255/63 [2035712000 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: 07    0  47  56 -  765  53  56 [      3016 - 2035708984] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused      
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused      
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

Tried zeroDisk using diskutil which gave this error:

$ diskutil zeroDisk force /dev/disk3
Proceed? (y/N) y
Started erase on disk3
Error: -69759: Securely erasing data to prevent recovery failed
Underlying error: 5: POSIX reports: Input/output error

I want to format the disk, and am not interested in recovering the data initially copied. Any way I can achieve this?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    Remove the drive. Hold it over the round receptacle next to your desk. Let go. Purchase a new drive at the checkout counter at your local discount store.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    May 29, 2016 at 11:27

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

The input/output error indicates a faulty sector (hardware-wise).

  • If you drive is quite new, you may ascribe the fault to the early removal, and hope the rest is OK. Then you can look for badblocks with badblocks -w /dev/.... However, I don't know if and how bad blocks can be marked as such in Apple filesystems (in Linux ext2/3/4 FS, you'd use the -c option to mke2fs).

  • If you drive is not-so-new, it's probably wearing off and there will be more and more errors. Then you should ditch it.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .