[Discuss] bad hd super block

[John Blomfield]

I have a problem with a SATA data drive. My bios will not boot with it 
installed in my computer. It does not contain the OS only various data 
partitions. My computer has just a mSata SSD drive and a HD drive. I use 
the HD for data and the SSD for my OS. If I remove the HD and my 
computer will boot without problems and when I put the HD in a USB 
enclosure and plug it in I can access the data partitions with my 
Dolphin file manager. However if I try to mount it using the "mount" 
Command line it complains of a bad super block. I have tried running 
fsck with the following result:

ban:/home/john # fsck /dev/sdb
fsck from util-linux 2.23.2
e2fsck 1.42.8 (20-Jun-2013)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
     e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

ban:/home/john # e2fsck -b 8193 /dev/sdb
e2fsck 1.42.8 (20-Jun-2013)
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
     e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

ban:/home/john #

Has anyone any ideas what to do next? I have all the data backed up so I 
am tempted to re-partition and re-format the whole drive and replace all 
the data but will this work and is there a less time consuming method?

John


-- 
John Blomfield
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Old John B's Linux Notes http://www.oldjohnbslinux.wordpress.com