External Drive Not Detected

[joechimp]

Well, the thread below has become unsolved again. This time a little different.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,106844.0.html


Somehow I got it to work with PC Linux. Now it doesn't.

Here is the scenario:  Tale of 2 laptops: Both dual boot.

                             Laptop 1 has PCLOS all up to date and running smoothly and Windows XP.

                             The external Hard Drive is not recognized . It was the other day.

                              Laptop 2 has PCLOS all up to date and running smoothly and Windows 7.

                             The external hard drive is not recognized in PCLOS but now runs flawlessly in Windows 7.

My problems always seem strange. Oh well.  Anyone have any input on this . I would certainly appreciate the help. Thank you.


Oh, btw, I took the drive out of the enclosure and checked all connections. Everything was ok.

[T6]

is the external hard disk a ntfs hard disk?

it could have errors and pclinux can't mount it?

have you run a chkdsk on windows or fsck on linux?

[muungwana]

unplug it, wait for 4 seconds,plug it in, wait for 3 seconds and then run this command and give its output

tail -n 20 /var/log/syslog

[joechimp]

is the external hard disk a ntfs hard disk?

it could have errors and pclinux can't mount it?

have you run a chkdsk on windows or fsck on linux?

disk is ntfs

did chkdsk and fsck last time but not yet this time. It was ok last time. Like I said it runs perfect in Windows 7.
I will run them now. Thanks.

[joechimp]

unplug it, wait for 4 seconds,plug it in, wait for 3 seconds and then run this command and give its output

tail -n 20 /var/log/syslog

It's funny, when I plugged it in this time it worked. Just like the other day. Then it didn't work after I unplugged it and plugged it back in.

Here is not working:

tail -n 20 /var/log/syslog
Jul  6 21:14:05 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:05 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 12
Jul  6 21:14:05 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:10 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:11 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 13
Jul  6 21:14:11 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: device not accepting address 13, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:11 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 14
Jul  6 21:14:12 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: device not accepting address 14, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:12 localhost klogd: hub 5-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 3
Jul  6 21:14:12 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
Jul  6 21:14:12 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:12 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:12 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 7
Jul  6 21:14:12 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:13 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:13 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 8
Jul  6 21:14:13 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: device not accepting address 8, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:13 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 9
Jul  6 21:14:14 localhost klogd: usb 2-1: device not accepting address 9, error -71
Jul  6 21:14:14 localhost klogd: hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1



Here is when it is working.

tail -n 20 /var/log/syslog
Jul  6 21:16:29 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: Product: Personal Storage 3100
Jul  6 21:16:29 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: Manufacturer: Maxtor Corporation
Jul  6 21:16:29 localhost klogd: usb 5-3: SerialNumber:
Jul  6 21:16:29 localhost klogd: scsi3 : usb-storage 5-3:1.0
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Maxtor 6 Y080L0           YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 160086528 512-byte logical blocks: (81.9 GB/76.3 GiB)
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd:  sdb: sdb2 < sdb5 >
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul  6 21:16:30 localhost klogd: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
Jul  6 21:16:36 localhost ntfs-3g[4815]: Version 2011.1.15 external FUSE 28
Jul  6 21:16:36 localhost ntfs-3g[4815]: Mounted /dev/sdb5 (Read-Write, label "", NTFS 3.1)
Jul  6 21:16:36 localhost ntfs-3g[4815]: Cmdline options: rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,locale=en_US.UTF-8
Jul  6 21:16:36 localhost ntfs-3g[4815]: Mount options: rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,allow_other,nonempty,relatime,fsname=/dev/sdb5,blkdev,blksize=4096
Jul  6 21:16:36 localhost ntfs-3g[4815]: Ownership and permissions disabled, configuration type 1
Jul  6 21:16:36 localhost hald: mounted /dev/sdb5 on behalf of uid 500




Thank you for your help.

[muungwana]

log in as root, run below command and then restart your computer and check to see if it solve the problem

echo -1 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend

[joechimp]

Currently it is working again. The disk checks out fine. No bad sectors.

However what is curious to me is that it will work every time in Windows 7 , Not on XP at all.

And mostly hit or miss with both laptops running PCLOS and my computers only running PCLOS.

I will try what you suggested muungwana. I want to wait until it doesn't work again to be sure it is that fixing it.

Thanks all for the help. I will report back after awhile to see what transpires. 

[T6]

vista and win 7 handles differently the errors to xp and linux, also if you connect the hard disk in the front usb ports or in the back that makes a difference, sometimes the front usb ports won't deliver the right voltage to the port and this makes it unstable or won't work at all, it is recomended to use only the ports on the back of the case

when i can, i backup the files on my usb devices, delete partition and recreate the partition with the required filesystem, fat32 or ntfs and then copy back the files to avoid problems with the partitions

is the hard disk old?  not sure if i read it properly, a sata maxtor hard disk with 80 gbs, is it a 3.5" enclosure?

if this is the case, the hard disk could be in the beginning of hardware problems, a 80 gb maxtor hard disk is around 7 years old now

[joechimp]

Yes it is old. And yes I pretty much feel that it is the hardware itself that is the problem. Everything else checks out and usually when a hard drive is ready to go, little quirky things start happening.

I'm going to pull a hardrive from one of the desktops I don't use and try it in the enclosure. See how that works out.

The usb voltage thing is a good tip T6. Probably not thought of very often .

Thanks.

[joechimp]

log in as root, run below command and then restart your computer and check to see if it solve the problem

echo -1 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend

Unfortunately, the problem still comes and goes. It was worth a try. As I stated in my previous post, I now agree it is the hard drive telling me soon it will be gone.

Thanks again.

[T6]

with external 3.5 enclosures you have to use the power adapter isn't?

in this case the front usb ports should be enough

it is not ideal to use them with external dvd drives or 2.5" external enclosures

[joechimp]

Yes it has a power adapter .