Disappearing External Hard Drive.

[wobf58]

muungwana,   where I get the new kernel from?  In what repository is it in?  I would like to do that as a last chance before I will return it.

[Old-Polack]

muungwana,   where I get the new kernel from?  In what repository is it in?  I would like to do that as a last chance before I will return it.

Should be on all repo mirrors. Synaptic --> Settings --> Repositories click on your current mirror, add testing in the Section(s): box, click OK, then Reload. When that's done, click on Search and enter kernel in the Search: box, then click the Search button. Scroll down in the main window until you see the kernel choices.

[Just17]

After installation of the kernel, don't forget to delete  testing  from the repository Sections .......  and do not install any other software while that Section is active.   

[wobf58]

Sorry for not responding for a while.  Had to go to CA for work.  After installing the new kernel 3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs, still same issue but I decided to keep the drive since it was a good price and I found a way to work around it.  Maybe future kernel upgrades will solve the issue.  Since you told me how to get to the new kernel in the testing repository, do you know where to find the new KDE4.8.x ??  I don't see it there where the new kernels are shown up.

[longtom]

Sorry for not responding for a while.  Had to go to CA for work.  After installing the new kernel 3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs, still same issue but I decided to keep the drive since it was a good price and I found a way to work around it.  Maybe future kernel upgrades will solve the issue.  Since you told me how to get to the new kernel in the testing repository, do you know where to find the new KDE4.8.x ??  I don't see it there where the new kernels are shown up.

If I remember correctly it is only available in the 64bit testing iso of PCLinuxOS ... but I have been known remembering wrong before ....

[Yankee]

but I decided to keep the drive since it was a good price and I found a way to work around it.

Can I trouble you to ask what that particular workaround was ?

Sometimes when I switch a Windows drive to work with Linux, or
a Linux drive to work with Windows I encounter numerous problems.

But, I've always been able to resolve the problem with 100% success.
Your drive is still baffling to me and I'm still not 100% sure it's a
hardware problem tho'  that is certainly possible with Windows, etc..

THX.

[wobf58]

Ferdes, my work around is the following and it always worked so far.  After booting PCLinuxOS, I attach the Hitachi hard drive to my laptop.  then i just start Windows XP in Virtual Box and after it has booted up I check the Hitachi in Devices/USB Devices.  After that I immediately uncheck it and it will popup in Linux like every other USB drive I plug in to the laptop.  I still don't know why I have to take this detour but it always works and I like the drive.  It was cheap and it is very quiet.  I tried all what you see in the message trail but nothing worked.  I hope this explains it.  If you have any other questions, let me know.

[Just17]

After that I immediately uncheck it and it will popup in Linux like every other USB drive I plug in to the laptop.

I wonder if this is related to the   laptop-mode   autosuspend issue some are experiencing?

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,105835.msg907216.html

.....  probably not, but .....

[wobf58]

Its still the same after the update.  By the way, can someone answer this? What is the best file system for large drives and would it be better to partition a 2TB into two of each 1TB

[Just17]

Its still the same after the update.  By the way, can someone answer this? What is the best file system for large drives and would it be better to partition a 2TB into two of each 1TB

The answer depends on its use and what PCs might want access to how much of it.

Nothing wrong with formatting the 2TB as one ext4 partition if it is going to be used as data storage for your Linux OS.

[Old-Polack]

Its still the same after the update.  By the way, can someone answer this? What is the best file system for large drives and would it be better to partition a 2TB into two of each 1TB

Partitioning is a personal choice, and both the partitioning and filesystems chosen depend on how you personally will use the drive on your system. My 2 TB drive currently looks like this;

Code: [Select]

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048     2099199     1048576   83  Linux
/dev/sdc2         2099200    18876415     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc3        18876416    81790975    31457280   83  Linux
/dev/sdc4        81790976  3907029167  1912619096    5  Extended
/dev/sdc5        81793024   176164863    47185920   83  Linux
/dev/sdc6       176166912   281024511    52428800   83  Linux
/dev/sdc7       281026560   385884159    52428800   83  Linux
/dev/sdc8       385886208   805316607   209715200   83  Linux
/dev/sdc9       805318656   857747455    26214400   83  Linux
/dev/sdc10      857749504   910178303    26214400   83  Linux

...and has 1.3 TB still unpartitioned. All my partitions are formatted either ext3 or ext4, because I only run Linux.

[Yankee]

Hi,

I sometimes make a partition over 50 GB, then at the most 100 GB.
Just seem to be easier to work with on my machine, and I can wear
them out one partition at a time.    Haven't seen a full TB HD yet
either, full of backups.     I might do one 100 GB for each category,
music, video, OS backups, etc..

Some ideas.

FF

[wobf58]

I found the following on https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=125831

Ok, i've finally figured it out.  If I understand it correctly, the problem lies in the slow initialization of the drive's firmware to be ready to be scanned by the usb_storage kernel module. If you look at the output of "cat /sys/module/usb_storage/parameters/delay_use" it shows the value "1" (second). The default value for the kernel 3.3 should be "5" as stated here: http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Document … s.txt#2713. So you can either add the parameter "usb-storage.delay_use=5" to the kernel or add "options usb_storage delay_use=5" to some custom .conf file in the modprobe.d directory. If you chose the latter method and have the module usb_storage put in the MODULES array in mkinitcpio.conf (because of the booting process being stuck while the drive is attached) at the same time, don't forget to also uncomment the FILES array and have the custom file from modprobe.d be incorporated there otherwise the delay_use option won't apply since the usb_storage module is already loaded by intiramfs with default options. Now I can re-attach the drive how many times i want and the drive is allways detected by fdisk, parted and thus by KDE device notifier too. And what more I don't have to have the drive attached during boot but I can do it later when system is already on and it still gets detected.

Can someone tell me where I can find the fiel what contains the "usb-storage.delay_use" entry so I can change it to try if it works.

[muungwana]

you can try changing it by running the following command as root

echo 5 > /sys/module/usb_storage/parameters/delay_use

[wobf58]

muungwana, thx a lot.  the tweak i found really works and by changing the delay value to 5, its popping up now as after attaching it.  there is just one thing left. how i make this change permanent???  i changed it as root but after a reboot its back to '1' and so the drive wasn't coming up after attaching it.  only after doing the change it worked.