Score:1

superblock bad magic number in external ext4 hdd; no backup superblocks work

ng flag

I have an 8TB external HDD formatted as ext4, one single partition per gparted. I do NOT have any data on it at this time that I care about, so there is no issue of extracting data from it.

The drive began to act strangely - e.g., it would take a very long time to save a very small file to it. Using gparted I created a brand new ext4 single partition on the drive, thinking that mighy magically make the problem go away. But it did not.

When I run fsck on the drive, I get the message that the superblock has a bad magic number, and that I should restore that superblock with a good magic number from the backup superblocks. However, every one of those backup superblocks also complain that they too have a bad magic number.

What does this tell me about this drive?

How can I fix this problem with the superblocks so I can continue using this drive?

Jad avatar
br flag
Jad
If you are booted from a drive, it always complains about the superblocks with gparted, iirc. Although it does sound like it might not be 100% healthy. Can you boot to usb, and check using gparted from there?
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