disk i/o error on multiple disks after format failure

I have 2 3.5" WD20EARS disks. durring a format/wipe, there was a power failure and now i'm unable to access either disk. I would normally think that it's just a dead disk but since it happened on both, I doubt it.

SMART results say that both disks are OK

Here are a few things I've tried.

• parted

  $ parted /dev/sdf
  Warning: Error fsyncing/closing /dev/sdf: Input/output error
  

• fdisk

  $ fdisk /dev/sdd
  Welcome to fdisk (until-linux 2.31.1).
  
  fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdf: Input/output error
  

• formatting using the graphical ubuntu disk utility

  Error wiping device: Failed to probe the device '/dev/sdf' (udisks-error-quark, 0)
  

• fsck

  $ fsck/dev/sdf
  
  fsck.ext2: Input/output error while trying to open /dev/sdf
  

• ddrescue this is able to read the disk but I don't really care about the data on this drive, I just want it working again.

• hdparm

  $ hdparm --verbose --write-sector 3907029168 --yes-i-know-what-i-am-doing /dev/sdf
  re-writing sector 3907029168:
  

  I don't actually know what I'm doing with this one :p It's not erroring out but I'm not sure it's actually doing anything.

:::EDIT::: hdparm finally finished. here are the results,

sudo hdparm --verbose --write-sector 3907029168 --yes-i-know-what-i-am-doing /dev/sdf

/dev/sdf:

APT: No idVendor found -> not USB bridge device

re-writing sector 3907029168: 

oflags.bits.lob_all=0xfc, flags={ nsect lbal lbam lbah dev command }

oflags.bits.hob_all=0x3c, flags={ nsect lbal lbam lbah }

using LBA48 taskfile

outgoing cdb:  85 0b 06 00 00 00 01 e8 b0 00 88 00 e0 e0 34 00

outgoing_data:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

SG_IO: ATA_16 status=0x2, host_status=0x0, driver_status=0x8

SG_IO: sb[]:  70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 10 51 e0 01 21 00 00 00 a0 b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]:  70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 10 51 e0 01 21 00 00 00 a0 b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

SG_IO: desc[]:  10 51 e0 01 21 00 00 00 a0 b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

ATA_16 stat=00 err=01 nsect=00 lbal=00 lbam=b0 lbah=00 dev=00

succeeded

I says succeeded, but nothing appears to have changed