Linux Sata Drive - all folders show Not Active (no Linux experience)

[CJCollins]

Hi everyone
I have absolutely zero experience with Linux but here goes. We have a music server that we have had since 2016, upgraded by the company we bought it from in 2019. The HDD is linux based.
A few weeks ago our music server suddenly stopped working. We contacted the support team at the company we bought it from but they said they no longer support it and wanted us to spend £££ on a new unit.
Having done some research online, we bought a sata to USB and plugged it into a laptop. We then downloaded a free linux reader and could see the drives and a number of folders within those drives. However, each drive, in the linux reader, is showing as 4.00kb or 0.00kb (with the odd one at 12.00kb) but the overall folder size still shows as 3TB (it's a 4tb drive with over 3TB of music on it). When I used the DiskInternals reader to look at the folders, each one says Not Active.

I've been looking on Google but with no experience of Linux at all I'm feeling a bit out of my depth. What I would like to know is whether anybody can tell me if the drive itself is absolutely no good or if it is salvagable (remember, it does show 3TB used and the HDD does spin). If it is, potentially salvagable, what would be the cause of the problems and how can I fix it?

Thanks
Caroline

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Hi, welcome to the forums.

If I understand you're using Windows with software called "Linux Reader" that reads your ext4 formatted HDD?

To examine in what state your drive is you have 2 options, one is done from your current Windows OS, another option would be to boot from live Linux USB and then install and run smartctl command.

If you boot from live Linux USB provide SMART output in your next reply:
First you need to install smartmontools with:

sudo apt install smartmontools

Then run lsblk to list all drives and partitions, which may look like this:

Identify your drive from the output and then run:

sudo smartctl -av /dev/sdX

Note that you need to replace X in the sdX above to match output for your disk, for instance if your disk is sda then you would run:
sudo smartctl -av /dev/sda
Do not specify partition sda1 but disk name sda without number.

The alternative is to do this from Windows, I suggest you download CrystalDiskInfo from link below:

CrystalDiskInfo

About CrystalDiskInfo A HDD/SSD utility software which supports a part of USB, Intel RAID and NVMe. Aoi Edition Standard Edition Shizuku Edition Kurei Kei Edition Download System Requirements OS Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019/2022/2025 Architecture...

crystalmark.info

Install and run it and then follow instructions on site below to provide us with SMART report:

How to get a report in CrystalDiskInfo? ▷➡️

How to get a report in CrystalDiskInfo? ▷

tecnobits.com

I don't know if this program is able to interpret ext4 drives, if it's not then you'll need to follow Live USB procedure and run smartctl.

All this is only to tell if your disk is in good shape.