Cannot mount cdrom in Linux due to "I/O error"

Question

This is a most puzzling error, and I can't seem to find anyone else with quite the same problem.

I use a Sony Vaio VGN-FE890 laptop running Arch Linux kernel 2.6.30-ARCH. Inserting a cd into the optical drive makes it spin for a bit, then do nothing. Running dmesg returns the following:

cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize!
sr 0:0:0:0: [sr0] Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
sr 0:0:0:0: [sr0] Sense Key : 0x5 [current]
sr 0:0:0:0: [sr0] ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x0
end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 0

The device is /dev/sr0 and running 'sudo mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom' returns:

mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sr0,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       (could this be the IDE device where you in fact use
       ide-scsi so that sr0 or sda or so is needed?)
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

with similar dmesg output as before. I'm starting to think it might be a physical hardware problem. Is this likely? I'm not under warranty anymore and I hate opening up cdrom drives, especially laptop ones (there are so many tiny fiddly pieces it takes hours to get it back together again).

Thanks!

Mala

Answer 1

That's definitely a hardware problem. If it happens on just one or a few disks, the disk is likely to be stuffed. If it happens on a number of different disks, then it's the drive.