Can't see USB External Drive

[jpeery]

I think I've got a drive going south, I hear it spin up, and it lights up, but I don't ever see it mount. A little lost in what to do, is there a disk utility I can use to try to recognize and potentially fix the drive (given there's no physical damage to it)?
Thanks!
JP

[wilbbe01]

Has it mounted automatically before?

[cdtech]

With it plugged in type (in a terminal):
sudo fdisk -l
See if we can see it.

[jpeery]

Looks like it's only seeing my HDD:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x90da4431

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 14242 114398833+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14243 14593 2819407+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 14243 14593 2819376 82 Linux swap / Solaris


This is a USB (with it's own power supply) 500 GB WD, my friend's. He says it shows up on his box but he can't access anything on it. From what I can tell my (Ubuntu) laptop doesn't even see it. Of note, it does power up, and shows green in the circle (if you're familiar with these WD drives). In other words, it APPEARS to spin up ok and have power...
Thanks,
Jason

Oh yeah, never automounted on this laptop, but is the first I've tried...

[cdtech]

It's definitely not showing up in Ubuntu. The only other option I can suggest is to use "gparted", but I can almost guaranty it wont show up under there either. Do you know what's on the drive (ie: windows, linux)?

[jpeery]

I want to say it's an NTFS, I know my friend is running XP, so I (dangerous as it is) ASSUME he formatted it NTFS.
Here's what I get outta parted:

(parted) print

Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 117GB 117GB primary ext3 boot
2 117GB 120GB 2887MB extended
5 117GB 120GB 2887MB logical linux-swap

(parted)

Thanks for the help guys, I'm at least learning a lot!
Jason

[cdtech]

If it is indeed plugged in then "sudo fdisk -l" would have shown the device as "sdb". You might try other USB slots to be sure.

Sorry.........

[jpeery]

Yeah, that's what I think, now I have to tell my friend 500GB of movies and songs are gone. Maybe I'll start with: "A priest, the President and Elvis walk into a bar..."
Thanks again,
JP

[cdtech]

:lolflag:

[wilbbe01]

If you can get into the enclosure you could always try taking the drive out and plugging it in internally. You never know if the little board with the drive has a broken usb port or something.

[jpeery]

I've been told you could do that (take them out of the case and use them internally). I am building a new box for said friend, perhaps I'll put this drive in it and see what happens.
Thanks again,
JP