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Repair broken SSD Drive / Linux

Par dans Informatique / Computers Étiquette , ,

After multiple failed attempts to detect the SSD Drive in Windows, it is failing in BIOS too, which is not a good sign. Mounting the SSD to external USB (realtek chip for SSD-to-USB). We can see the drive is linked to sdb , so /dev/sdb

Check Kernel messages at /var/log/kern.log

2025-09-17T11:08:05.612372+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.387787] usb 1-6: new high-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
2025-09-17T11:08:05.768178+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.545654] usb 1-6: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=9210, bcdDevice=f0.01
2025-09-17T11:08:05.768208+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.545670] usb 1-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
2025-09-17T11:08:05.768212+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.545677] usb 1-6: Product: RTL9210B-CG
2025-09-17T11:08:05.768215+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.545682] usb 1-6: Manufacturer: Realtek
2025-09-17T11:08:05.768217+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.545687] usb 1-6: SerialNumber: 012345678911
2025-09-17T11:08:05.824153+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.602814] usb-storage 1-6:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
2025-09-17T11:08:05.824180+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.603412] scsi host4: usb-storage 1-6:1.0
2025-09-17T11:08:05.828111+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.603596] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
2025-09-17T11:08:05.832163+02:00 www kernel: [9970569.609888] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
2025-09-17T11:08:06.860187+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.638452] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access Realtek RTL9210B-CG 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
2025-09-17T11:08:06.860242+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.639011] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
2025-09-17T11:08:06.868218+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.646987] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
2025-09-17T11:08:06.868246+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.646999] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Illegal Request [current]
2025-09-17T11:08:06.868250+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.647005] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: Invalid field in cdb
2025-09-17T11:08:06.872128+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.647615] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
2025-09-17T11:08:06.872153+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.647624] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 0-byte physical blocks
2025-09-17T11:08:06.872157+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.648252] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
2025-09-17T11:08:06.872159+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.648262] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 37 00 00 08
2025-09-17T11:08:06.872161+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.648874] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
2025-09-17T11:08:06.872164+02:00 www kernel: [9970570.649485] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

You can get disk information by running hdparm -i /dev/sdb

You can also run lshw -class disk -businfo | grep /dev/sdb

Run lsblk to list the viewed partitions and disks.

Install ddrescue on debien apt-get install gddrescue

Create an image copy of the drive ddrescue /dev/sdb /tmp/image /tmp/mapfile -r 3 -v

Repair a failing boot disk (constant repair mode)

Par dans Informatique / Computers Étiquette , , ,

Boot from a Windows 10 Install Media (USB disk)

Select Next on language/region

Select Repair PC option on bottom left

Select Troubleshoot

Boot a command prompt

run diskpart

list disk to identify the internal hard disk

select disk # to select the proper disk

list the disk volumes – list vol

Identify the EFI hidden volume # number (Hidden, kind of 512Mb, could be formatted FAT32)

Selection this EFI hidden volume : select vol #

Assign a drive letter : assign letter=n:

exit

browse from command line to this EFI drive letter N:

Repair the BCD boot : bcdboot C:\windows /s n: /f UEFI

Repair the MBR : bootrec /fixmbr

Reboot the machine

Android i9195 (S4 mini LTE) fix for /efs can’t mount issues

Par dans Informatique / Computers Étiquette , , , , ,

Ok, sometimes after some kind of flashing error/corruption, you end up with your Samsung S4 mini LTE (GT-i9195) returning error E:failed to mount /efs (Invalid argument) in various recovery tool (TWRP and others).

If you check your /efs with a root level explorer, you will find out the folder is empty. Technically this cause my phone to : loose bluetooth pairing after turning it off or turning off bluetooth stack. Also cannot install Lollipop, stuck on the loop boot 🙁 with Cyanogenmod or other updates.

Here is the fix for it :

– Flash TWRP recovery and root your device using recovery method by installing UPDATE-SuperSU-vX.XX.zip file.

– Install ADB on your computer.

– Boot your device into recovery mode (Vol Up+Home+Power).

– Connect your device to PC via USB cable wait until windows update the driver.

– In the recovery mode choose  “Mount /System”

– Open ADB command window and type the following command (from windows command line, from the folder ADB is installed into):

adb shell
mke2fs /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
mount -w -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
reboot

These instructions are quite similar to what you find around on Internet with S3, however here please note that the block is the N°10, different from the instructions you find googlig around. At this stage the phone should reboot itself.

If you encounter some « can’t mount /fstab » error, this is because you have NOT applied correctly the root UPDATE-Super-SU patch on the device.

By following the above command, it will create a generic EFS files on your device. Your IMEI number will NOT be changed or reset, as this is stored in a different place on a Samsung GT-i9195 (on the p11 and p12 blocks apparently).

Reboot, and voilà you should not hit this /efs folder issue anymore, and if you browse the /efs folder, you should now see something with folders named « drm », « imei » « lost+found » and « wifi ».