I have an old HP Stream 13-c002dx that is becoming increasingly unstable under Windows 8.1. I downloaded the xubuntu 22.04 live disk onto a usb drive, and I've successfully pulled all of the data that I care about off the drive, although there were some I/O errors during the copy.
Notes about the HP Stream 13: it's a cheap celeron laptop with a 32GB eMMC hard drive integrated into the motherboard. If the drive is toast, I'll have to replace the motherboard or throw the laptop away.
The drive is /dev/mmcblk0. Here's the partition table according to gdisk:
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 534527 260.0 MiB EF00 EFI system partition
2 534528 796671 128.0 MiB 0C01 Microsoft reserved ...
3 796672 45119487 21.1 GiB 0700 Basic data partition
4 45119488 61077503 7.6 GiB 2700 Basic data partition
Running a quick scan on the hard drive via the BIOS system diagnostics screen shows no errors. I think this is a bit suspicious due to the I/O errors during file copy, but it does indicate to me that the drive is not on the brink of failure.
Under Install Xubuntu 22.04.LTS, I click Continue at the Write the changes to disks dialog. The Timezone window shows up, but several seconds later I get a dialog that reads
Error!!!
Input/Output error during write on /dev/mmcblk0
[Retry] [Ignore] [Cancel]
Sometimes the installer freezes at this point, requiring xkill, if it doesn't freeze, clicking any of the buttons pops up the error
Failed to create a file system
The efi file system creation in partition #1 of MMC/SD cart #1 (mmcblk0) failed
[OK]
Clicking [OK] allows me to cancel the file system creation and cancel the install.
Regardless of what I try, the partitions are not touched. I've even tried removing them using gparted. Again, I get I/O errors.
I do think that the hard drive is suspect; I was hoping that the process of formatting the hard drive would mark and blacklist bad sectors, and I would be able to use the laptop until the drive entirely craps out. It seems that I can't write to the partition table, but it can't be totally corrupt, because I can still reboot to Windows, and I can still see the partitions.
It feels like something is actively keeping me from writing to the partition table. It's obviously not an issue of unplugged cables or something, because the drive is integrated into the board. Any thoughts about what I should try next?
The excerpt from /var/kern/log shows the I/O errors after I try to write changes to the disk during the install process.
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.548945] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 0 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 1 prio class 0
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.548981] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 0, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.550726] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 61079544 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 1 prio class 0
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.550755] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 7634943, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.551988] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 0 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 1 prio class 0
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.552016] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 0, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.557041] mmcblk0: p1 p2 p3 p4
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562617] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 0 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 3 prio class 0
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562632] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 0, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562653] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 1, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562661] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 2, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562854] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 61079528 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 3 prio class 0
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562865] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 7634941, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562880] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 7634942, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.562893] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 7634943, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.575989] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 0 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 5 prio class 0
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.576007] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0, logical block 0, lost async page write
Nov 4 13:58:01 xubuntu kernel: [2335561.576926] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 61079512 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 5 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906219] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 2048 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906239] buffer_io_error: 9 callbacks suppressed
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906241] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 0, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906270] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 1, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906278] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 2, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906285] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 3, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906293] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 4, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906300] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 5, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906306] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 6, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906318] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 7, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906331] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 8, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.906344] Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk0p1, logical block 9, lost async page write
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.911993] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3072 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.917732] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 4096 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.923440] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 5120 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.929061] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 6144 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.934865] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 7168 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.941732] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 8192 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.946324] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 9216 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x4800 phys_seg 128 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:00:28 xubuntu kernel: [2335708.946632] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 10240 op 0x1:(WRITE) flags 0x800 phys_seg 5 prio class 0
Nov 4 14:02:49 xubuntu kernel: [2335849.802252] mmcblk0: p1 p2 p3 p4
