There are times when devices fail, or lock up.
In some of those cases it could be a SATA hard disk locking up (perhaps it is developing bad blocks, perhaps it just had a power failure due to a bad connector and got left in an undefined state).
Thankfully, Linux offers you vast control over the hardware.
To reset a SATA device, start by figuring out which logical port the drive is connected to:
# readlink /sys/block/sdX
../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2/host1/target1:0:0/1:0:0:0/block/sr0
Force disconnect the device:
# echo 1 > /sys/block/sdX/device/delete
Notice the host1 in the returned line above. That’s the controller that needs rescanned.
Trigger rescan:
# echo "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host1/scan
This should do it. If the device is still alive, it should return to working condition.
You can monitor dmesg for status information.
Excelent low level article.
Works perfectly 🙂