# Mint or HDD Gone Bad on Me?



## cornemuse (Feb 24, 2021)

I have Mint Mate on a 2½" hdd. I swap it out now & then (have removeable drive bay trays), Had it running earlier this morning on this machine. I tried downloading some (political) images. It showed them as downloading but they're not. Also I tried editing a *.doc file, I could 'copy' from it but couldnt edit it. The hdd = WD blue 12 yrs old. I have allus had good luck with linux, from 'Ubuntu about ver 8.?), I dont know which version this one is 16 - 18?, I usually write # on the hdd. Dont know if hdd is bad or Mint got corrupted? I got the drive(s) from older but never used Dell laptops, basically never used (like brand new!) till 4-5 years ago. I bought a 'lot 6' of 'em, one still never used. (all 120 gig), I know its not the computer 'cause this (right now!) is on the same comp with Windows hdd swapped into it.

Any ideas?

Theres nothing important to lose on it, so, would reinstalling be an option? Maybe cloning? I still have the burnt dvd I installed it from, I tried a newer version of Mint but didnt like it, installed  windoze on/over it. Oh, tried saving bookmarks but they (like images), wouldnt save. I dont know how to check hdd's out with linux/mint as with Windows.

I seem to come up with weird issues! Playing with/experimenting with these o/s's helps pass the time in these weird times of the Covid, , , , ,

-corne-


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## Ruyki (Feb 24, 2021)

Check log files for disk errors.
And install the smartmontools package and use it to check if there are any issues with the hard drive's SMART data.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 24, 2021)

cornemuse said:


> WD blue 12 yrs old



I wouldn't trust the drive, just replace it.  A 120GB SSD is only like $25 these days...


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## ThrashZone (Feb 24, 2021)

Hi,
Mint cinnamon 20.1 seems okay but I'm on an ssd.


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## RJARRRPCGP (Feb 24, 2021)

For SSD, you want bigger than 120 GB.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 24, 2021)

RJARRRPCGP said:


> For SSD, you want bigger than 120 GB.


That very much depends on what you are using it for. But, yes, with 240GB SSDs prices dropping to within $10 of 120GB drives, it is hard to justify not going with the 240GB.


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## Bones (Feb 24, 2021)

cornemuse said:


> I have Mint Mate on a 2½" hdd. I swap it out now & then (have removeable drive bay trays), Had it running earlier this morning on this machine. I tried downloading some (political) images. It showed them as downloading but they're not. Also I tried editing a *.doc file, I could 'copy' from it but couldnt edit it. The hdd = WD blue 12 yrs old. I have allus had good luck with linux, from 'Ubuntu about ver 8.?), I dont know which version this one is 16 - 18?, I usually write # on the hdd. Dont know if hdd is bad or Mint got corrupted? I got the drive(s) from older but never used Dell laptops, basically never used (like brand new!) till 4-5 years ago. I bought a 'lot 6' of 'em, one still never used. (all 120 gig), I know its not the computer 'cause this (right now!) is on the same comp with Windows hdd swapped into it.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> ...


Had some issues with Mint myself earlier (Graphics related) but since I swapped to Peppermint 10 Linux it's been all good so far.


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## lexluthermiester (Feb 25, 2021)

Ruyki said:


> Check log files for disk errors.
> And install the smartmontools package and use it to check if there are any issues with the hard drive's SMART data.


This.



newtekie1 said:


> I wouldn't trust the drive, just replace it.


Rubbish, I have drives older than that which are still in use and fully trusted. Needless paranoia. However...



newtekie1 said:


> A 120GB SSD is only like $25 these days...


...this is not a bad idea unless they can not afford it.



RJARRRPCGP said:


> For SSD, you want bigger than 120 GB.


Let's let the OP decide for themselves what size drive they need.


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## RJARRRPCGP (Feb 25, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Let's let the OP decide for themselves what size drive they need.


Well, the size-increase recommendation is in case the SSD that the OP gets, can't handle or cope well with a lot of writes.


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## lexluthermiester (Feb 25, 2021)

RJARRRPCGP said:


> Well, the size-increase recommendation is in case the SSD that the OP gets, can't handle or cope well with a lot of writes.


Good point. Linux Mint has very good SSD support(Kernel support) and the write leveling schemes are very optimized, so I don't think it would be a big deal.


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## RJARRRPCGP (Feb 25, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Good point. Linux Mint has very good SSD support(Kernel support) and the write leveling schemes are very optimized, so I don't think it would be a big deal.


Well, I have the feeling that it won't hammer it like I suspect Windows 10 does.


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 25, 2021)

cornemuse said:


> I have Mint Mate on a 2½" hdd. I swap it out now & then (have removeable drive bay trays),



That could be the problem.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 25, 2021)

RJARRRPCGP said:


> Well, I have the feeling that it won't hammer it like I suspect Windows 10 does.



Windows doesn't really hammer SSDs unless you have like 4GB of RAM and the page file is constantly in use.



lexluthermiester said:


> Rubbish, I have drives older than that which are still in use and fully trusted. Needless paranoia. However...



I have older drives too. But a WD Blue laptop drive from 12 years ago? No, I'm not trusting that drive with anything important.  Then again, I wouldn't trust a brand new WD Blue HDD with anything important...


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## DeathtoGnomes (Feb 25, 2021)

I agree on upgrading the HDD to SSD whatever size is decided. 

as for the data on it, you can try to run scandisk (/scannow) in a windows prompt, there is also bootrec /fixmbr and other options (see link). IDK what linux has thats equivalent. If that doesnt work there are several free programs to download, I've used Recuva (piriform). 






						2 Methods to Fix Master Boot Record (MBR) in Windows 10, 11, 8, 7
					

Here we gathered 2 different methods to fix MBR in Windows 10 with step-by-step guide. Check them out and learn how to repair or rebuild master boot record.



					www.diskpart.com


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## lexluthermiester (Feb 25, 2021)

newtekie1 said:


> Then again, I wouldn't trust a brand new WD Blue HDD with anything important...


That says more about you and your opinions than it does WD or mechanical HDD's.

Today's HDD's are some of the most reliable storage ever made. And that has more or less been true for at least 20 years. HDD failures are very rare unless abuse of some kind has been inflicted on them. The OP's drive might be the problem, or it might be a problem with the software itself. While Linux Mint is generally rock solid, it is not immune to the occasional problem just like any other OS. We won't know the answer until the OP tries a different drive, a newer version of Mint freshly installed or both.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 25, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> That says more about you and your opinions than it does WD or mechanical HDD's.
> 
> Today's HDD's are some of the most reliable storage ever made. And that has more or less been true for at least 20 years. HDD failures are very rare unless abuse of some kind has been inflicted on them. The OP's drive might be the problem, or it might be a problem with the software itself. While Linux Mint is generally rock solid, it is not immune to the occasional problem just like any other OS. We won't know the answer until the OP tries a different drive, a newer version of Mint freshly installed or both.


Yep, my opinions are based on experience with thousands of hard drives through my life, and WD Blue drives are extremely unreliable, by far the worst on the market IME. When a computer comes in my shop with a dead hard drive, I can give it 9 out of 10 odds that it will be a WD Blue.  You can go on and on about how reliable hard drives are, and they definitely are a lot more reliable than decades ago, but that doesn't change the fact that WD Blue drives are the worst drives on the market and I wouldn't ever use one for anything important. Give me a WD Red, Purple, or Black but never a Blue.


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## lexluthermiester (Feb 25, 2021)

newtekie1 said:


> When a computer comes in my shop with a dead hard drive, I can give it 9 out of 10 odds that it will be a WD Blue.


I also own a shop and that is not the trend I have seen over the years. More times than not it's a Seagate drive that has gone bad.


newtekie1 said:


> You can go on and on about how reliable hard drives are, and they definitely are a lot more reliable than decades ago, but that doesn't change the fact that WD Blue drives are the worst drives on the market and I wouldn't ever use one for anything important. Give me a WD Red, Purple, or Black but never a Blue.


Ok, you do your thing then.

My advice to the OP is to do testing before jumping to any conclusions that are not based on merit.


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## cornemuse (Feb 27, 2021)

As i said, theres nothing I _really_ want to keep except a few links in the bookmarks. What I can do is fire it up, (takes _forever _to finally start Mint), start FF, click on specific bookmark, properties, & write it down with a pencil & paper. I just cannot save _anything_, to _anywhere_. Yhe window says saved/ok, but it is not saved, to neither hdd nor thumb drive. For what I do, 120G is plenty. I never thought about it but I have some 120G SSD's i could try, they're just sitting there gathering dust.

Thanks for all your responses!

-corne-


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## cornemuse (Mar 14, 2021)

I installed Peppermint on a 120g hdd, (looking, I realized the old drive with Mate was 80g, which has been plenty as I saved everything to a sd/thumb usb). Issue now is when I use the usb thumb, remove to Win sys computer, it has become 'write protected', with 2 diff thumb drives. I cant delete or edit .txt or .doc files either. The usb = SD cards, and yes they are set to 'unlocked', cant format either one either, 'write protected'. They are both 16g sd cards.
Peppermint buried the 'switch left right mouse buttons' option, took ½ hour to locate.

How does one "force format" a drive?

-c-


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## lexluthermiester (Mar 14, 2021)

cornemuse said:


> I installed Peppermint on a 120g hdd, (looking, I realized the old drive with Mate was 80g, which has been plenty as I saved everything to a sd/thumb usb). Issue now is when I use the usb thumb, remove to Win sys computer, it has become 'write protected', with 2 diff thumb drives. I cant delete or edit .txt or .doc files either. The usb = SD cards, and yes they are set to 'unlocked', cant format either one either, 'write protected'. They are both 16g sd cards.
> Peppermint buried the 'switch left right mouse buttons' option, took ½ hour to locate.
> 
> How does one "force format" a drive?
> ...


Use a third party utility like AOMEI or EaseUS(both free for personal use) or use Gparted.


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## cornemuse (Mar 15, 2021)

Thanx! I have EaseUS


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## cornemuse (Mar 16, 2021)

I had Partition Wizard (free) already installed, worked like a charm, , , ,


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## cornemuse (May 13, 2021)

I installed (newest version of) Mint Mate. First thing right off the bat, the thumb drive was write protected, apparently, this is an issue with Mate. Recommended fix is not user friendly! *the whole terminal business* I re-installed the original version I had on a dvd. Now it makes thumbs read only too. Whats up??

-c-


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## lexluthermiester (May 14, 2021)

cornemuse said:


> I installed (newest version of) Mint Mate. First thing right off the bat, the thumb drive was write protected, apparently, this is an issue with Mate. Recommended fix is not user friendly! *the whole terminal business* I re-installed the original version I had on a dvd. Now it makes thumbs read only too. Whats up??
> 
> -c-


Ok, that's bizarre!


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## Solaris17 (May 17, 2021)

cornemuse said:


> I installed (newest version of) Mint Mate. First thing right off the bat, the thumb drive was write protected, apparently, this is an issue with Mate. Recommended fix is not user friendly! *the whole terminal business* I re-installed the original version I had on a dvd. Now it makes thumbs read only too. Whats up??
> 
> -c-



Sounds like the thumb drive is just legitimately bad because thats what they do, other than not being seen at all.


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## LFaWolf (May 29, 2021)

Although I don’t have a thumb drive gone bad on me, that sounds like your drive is going down. Some SSDs turned into read only when they go bad. Maybe that was your whole issue?


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## cornemuse (May 30, 2021)

I googled (actually duckduckgo'd! I like to plug them), there were a lotta returns about usb devices becoming 'locked' in/on/with Mint.
Happened _again_. Thumb was 'Fat' not fat32, hmmm. with win machine I saved whole thumb drive to C, re-formatted thumb to fat32, set the drive image? (from orig copied to C), anyways, removed "write only" setting, re-copied to original thumb.

The original Mint hdd is good, thumb(s) are good. = Original 1st Mint I installed. 16?


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