External HDD suddenly stopped working [closed]

I am using Ubuntu 16.04 (dual boot with Windows 10). Today, I wanted to use one of my external Hard Disks (WD - My Book Essential) but no partition appeared.

It seems the device is being detected, but neither OS can recognize partitions in it. (99% I am sure it was NTFS).

$ ls /dev/sdb*
/dev/sdb

$ sudo fsck.nfs /dev/sdb
/dev/sdb: NFS file system.

$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt -t auto
mount: /dev/sdb: can't read superblock

$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt -t ntfs-3g 
Failed to read bootsector (size=0)
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

$ parted -l /dev/sdb
                        <<<< returns nothing
$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   350M  0 part 
├─sda2   8:2    0 117.2G  0 part 
├─sda3   8:3    0   466M  0 part 
├─sda4   8:4    0     1K  0 part 
├─sda5   8:5    0 779.3G  0 part 
├─sda6   8:6    0  26.3G  0 part /
└─sda7   8:7    0   7.9G  0 part [SWAP]
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  

$ dmesg | tail -30
[ 5276.984581] ses 6:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13
[ 5276.985126] ses 6:0:0:1: Wrong diagnostic page; asked for 1 got 0
[ 5276.985133] ses 6:0:0:1: Failed to get diagnostic page 0xffffffea
[ 5276.985137] ses 6:0:0:1: Failed to bind enclosure -19
[ 5276.989163] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[ 5276.989483] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Asking for cache data failed
[ 5276.989491] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 5276.992708] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 5328.311463] usb 4-2: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 5340.934431] usb 4-2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 5340.950757] usb 4-2: LPM exit latency is zeroed, disabling LPM.
[ 5340.951456] usb 4-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=1130
[ 5340.951463] usb 4-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 5340.951467] usb 4-2: Product: My Book 1130
[ 5340.951470] usb 4-2: Manufacturer: Western Digital
[ 5340.951473] usb 4-2: SerialNumber: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
[ 5340.951812] usb-storage 4-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 5340.952206] scsi host7: usb-storage 4-2:1.0
[ 5343.990579] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Book 1130     1014 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 5343.991228] scsi 7:0:0:1: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1014 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 5343.992376] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 5343.992534] ses 7:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device
[ 5343.993104] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[ 5343.993438] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Asking for cache data failed
[ 5343.993443] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 5343.993928] ses 7:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13
[ 5343.996014] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 5343.997075] ses 7:0:0:1: Wrong diagnostic page; asked for 1 got 0
[ 5343.997081] ses 7:0:0:1: Failed to get diagnostic page 0xffffffea
[ 5343.997085] ses 7:0:0:1: Failed to bind enclosure -19

$ sudo ntfsfix -d -b /dev/sdb 
Mounting volume... Failed to read bootsector (size=0)
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... Failed to read bootsector (size=0)
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
Failed to read bootsector (size=0)
Unrecoverable error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.

$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/null count=1
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes copied, 0.000143676 s, 0.0 kB/s

$ sudo badblocks -b 4096 -c 4096 -s /dev/sdb
badblocks: invalid starting block (0): must be less than 0

$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.5 2016-01-24 r4214 [x86_64-linux-4.4.0-59-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Read Device Identity failed: scsi error no medium present

A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.

I used testdisk as well. It didn't recognize my external HDD.

I tried in Windows as well. In Disk Management it shows the disk needs to be initialized (which can end in losing my data).

As far as I understanding, I am not facing a serious hardware defect. But also cannot figure out what is the exact problem. I would prefer to avoid going for costly process of recovery in case I can manage it myself (with your help)

How should I solve this problem?

Solution 1:

I took the hard disk for repair. As I could guess (based on the result of my test, mentioned in the question) there was no problem on hard disk itself but on the electronic boards.

The problem was solved by replacing the board with a new one.

Now, I can access all my data on the hard disk with no problem.

I hope this be helpful for others who might face with the same problem.