ERROR: upcase table is not found (Windows wants to format the drive)

[Piotr Pawełczyk]

I'd been using SSD in external USB enclosure with single partition formatted to exFAT until few weeks ago when I started getting this error when trying to mount:

FUSE exfat 1.3.0
ERROR: upcase table is not found.

Tried using the drive on Windows: it asks to format it. Tried attaching the drive directly to SATA port on motherboard (3 different boards): no dice.

Running dumpexfat -s prints:

Volume serial number      0x4fdc8dd9
FS version                       1.0
Sector size                      512
Cluster size                  131072
Sectors count             1875382272
Clusters count               7325487
First sector                       0
FAT first sector                 128
FAT sectors count              57472
First cluster sector           57600
Root directory cluster            10
Volume state                  0x0002
FATs count                         1
Drive number                    0x80
Allocated space                  77%

Running dumpexfat just prints:

ERROR: upcase table is not found.

Running fsck prints:

fsck from util-linux 2.33.1
exfatfsck 1.3.0
Checking file system on /dev/sdg1.
ERROR: upcase table is not found.
File system checking stopped. ERRORS FOUND: 1, FIXED: 0.

Some logs:

$ journalctl | grep exfat
lis 23 23:49:22 szczepan-pc sudo[7946]: szczepan : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/szczepan/Documents/install ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/pacman -S exfat-fuse exfat-utils
lis 23 23:59:48 szczepan-pc sudo[8943]: szczepan : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/szczepan/Documents/install ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/pacman -Sy exfat-fuse exfat-utils
lis 30 15:23:23 szczepan-pc udisksd[1643]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
lis 30 15:23:23 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[2892]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
gru 01 20:12:11 szczepan-pc udisksd[1590]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
gru 01 20:12:11 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[2436]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
gru 30 02:07:48 szczepan-pc udisksd[1588]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
gru 30 02:07:48 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[2760]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
sty 02 22:52:15 szczepan-pc udisksd[1500]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
sty 02 22:52:15 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[2346]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
sty 05 09:34:48 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[3233]: failed to write super block
sty 06 21:44:03 szczepan-pc udisksd[1631]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
sty 06 21:44:03 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[17762]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
sty 07 00:08:45 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[17764]: failed to write super block
sty 11 12:58:21 szczepan-pc udisksd[1623]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
sty 11 12:58:21 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[5206]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
sty 12 02:57:27 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[31637]: failed to read cluster 0x10e8f

(6775 total lines of these 'failed to read cluster' messages)

sty 12 02:57:28 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[31637]: failed to read cluster 0x113f6
sty 12 02:57:28 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[31637]: fsync failed: Input/output error
lut 09 09:45:41 szczepan-pc udisksd[1766]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
lut 09 09:45:41 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[4024]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
lut 15 10:08:14 szczepan-pc udisksd[1705]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
lut 15 10:08:14 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[22138]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
lut 15 10:15:54 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[18189]: fsync failed: Input/output error
lut 15 10:22:14 szczepan-pc udisksd[1705]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
lut 15 10:22:14 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[22789]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
lut 15 10:22:51 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[22790]: fsync failed: Input/output error
lut 23 10:00:18 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[7850]: failed to read cluster 0xf4bd
lut 23 10:00:56 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[7850]: failed to read cluster 0xf4be
lut 23 10:01:28 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[7850]: failed to read cluster 0xf4bd
lut 23 10:02:00 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[7850]: failed to read cluster 0xf4bd
lut 23 10:02:15 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[7850]: fsync failed: Input/output error
lut 23 10:02:23 szczepan-pc udisksd[6471]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
lut 23 10:02:23 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[8258]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
lut 24 12:17:25 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[13142]: failed to write super block
mar 01 15:43:52 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[25814]: failed to write super block
mar 02 08:37:36 szczepan-pc udisksd[2200]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
mar 02 08:37:36 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[4230]: volume was not unmounted cleanly
mar 16 09:35:47 szczepan-pc udisksd[2326]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
mar 16 09:35:47 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[4426]: upcase table is not found
mar 16 09:36:25 szczepan-pc udisksd[2326]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
mar 16 09:36:25 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[4463]: upcase table is not found
mar 16 10:00:59 szczepan-pc udisksd[2210]: FUSE exfat 1.3.0
mar 16 10:00:59 szczepan-pc mount.exfat[3651]: upcase table is not found
mar 16 10:05:48 szczepan-pc sudo[3899]: szczepan : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/szczepan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/exfatfsck /dev/sda
mar 16 10:05:51 szczepan-pc sudo[3910]: szczepan : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/szczepan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/exfatfsck /dev/sda1
mar 16 10:08:12 szczepan-pc sudo[4027]: szczepan : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/szczepan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/exfatfsck /dev/sda1
mar 16 10:08:23 szczepan-pc sudo[4052]: szczepan : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/szczepan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/exfatfsck /dev/sda1 -a

[relan]

fsync failed: Input/output error

This is a hardware failure, not a software issue.

[Piotr Pawełczyk]

But looking at the dates I was able to mount and access the data even though those failures happened.

What about mount.exfat[3233]: failed to write super block? Could it be what's causing the issue now?

Btw. I did dump the whole device with ddrescue - it reported no errors.

Also dumpexfat -s shows Allocated space 77% which would be about right AFAIR so it is able to read "something"?