i cant open my external hard disk

[Nakib Ahmed]

Hi Linux Lite community,
I am new to linux
I hope you are doing all well. I have a problem I cant open my lenovo external hard disk drive in my computer its a 1TB hard drive whenever i try to open my hard drive its show this error

                                        Failed to open directory "1234-5678".
                            Error when getting information for file "/media/nakib/1234-5678/-
                            ChangZhi": input/output error.
                                                                           

[TheDead]

Hi,

There are a few possibilities here.
First question would be; what was the HDD connected to originally?

For exemple, if it was used on a MAC the file system is different (Note : This does not work on Windows but, I have not tried on Linux, so only take this has a hint for further inspection if related).
Second, The disk could be corrupted/or in an unstable state. If it was used in Windows, I guess plugging it in a Windows machine will pop up a "repair" window to try and fix it.
Third, could the disk be encrypted/secured? If it was an internal laptop disk, it could be bitlocked by Windows or the computer's BIOS, etc.

Bonus : I have used different USB external casings in the past, some use a proprietary disk format and are not "readable" if you trnasfer them to another controller. Lacie disks and Western Disigtal MyBook's for example. Or, if it was in a RAID group from another computer/server or disk unit a.k.a. as a NAS drive.

Hope this can direct you to some solution.