Re: [gentoo-user] Re: problem formatting new 256 GB USB stick

[Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net>]

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 ?

-- 
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ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
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