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I'm trying to do make the drive go into PIO mode with hdparm on Linux.

hdparm -X pio0 /dev/sdX

I have tried about 4-5 disks (PATA & SATA). I always get the same error:

SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: ...

Ideas? Any other known working alternative method?


ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       Hitachi HDS721616PLA380
        Serial Number:      PVB300Z2R6H4UD
        Firmware Revision:  P22OA70A
        Used: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 1
        Supported: 7 6 5 4 & some of 8
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   16383
        heads           16      16
        sectors/track   63      63
        CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064
        LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455
        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  321672960
        Logical/Physical Sector size:           512 bytes
        device size with M = 1024*1024:      157066 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:      164696 MBytes (164 GB)
        cache/buffer size  = 7384 KBytes (type=DualPortCache)
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        Queue depth: 32
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
        Advanced power management level: disabled
        Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 254
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
        Enabled Supported:
           *    SMART feature set
                Security Mode feature set
           *    Power Management feature set
           *    Write cache
           *    Look-ahead
           *    Host Protected Area feature set
           *    WRITE_BUFFER command
           *    READ_BUFFER command
           *    DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
                Advanced Power Management feature set
                Power-Up In Standby feature set
                SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
                Address Offset Reserved Area Boot
                SET_MAX security extension
                Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
           *    48-bit Address feature set
           *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set
           *    Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
           *    FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
           *    SMART error logging
           *    SMART self-test
                Media Card Pass-Through
           *    General Purpose Logging feature set
           *    WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
           *    64-bit World wide name
           *    URG for READ_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT
           *    URG for WRITE_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT
           *    Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
           *    Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
           *    Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
           *    Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
           *    Host-initiated interface power management
           *    Phy event counters
                Non-Zero buffer offsets in DMA Setup FIS
                DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
                Device-initiated interface power management
                In-order data delivery
           *    Software settings preservation
           *    SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
           *    SCT Long Sector Access (AC1)
           *    SCT LBA Segment Access (AC2)
           *    SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
           *    SCT Features Control (AC4)
           *    SCT Data Tables (AC5)
        Master password revision code = 65297
        not     enabled
        not     locked
        not     frozen
        not     expired: security count
        not     supported: enhanced erase
        64min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 5000cca321c2f31e
        NAA             : 5
        IEEE OUI        : 000cca
        Unique ID       : 321c2f31e
Checksum: correct
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Can you update your question with the output of hdparm -I /dev/sdX ? –  Zuul Jul 22 '12 at 15:07
Yes, sure - done. –  XXL Jul 22 '12 at 15:38
I am very curious as to why you want it in PIO mode... –  Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jul 22 '12 at 18:59
If you are really that curious, then putting a drive into PIO mode gives a particular set of benefits when dealing with per-sector recovery. –  XXL Jul 22 '12 at 19:18
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted


libata.dma=0, libata.ignore_hpa=1 and libata.force=

used this many of times when repairing (scraping, harvesting) disks.

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Try to disable Ultra DMA in BIOS.

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