External hard disk drive will not show

[leopoldbirkholm]

Hello,

I have an problem with mounting external hard disk drives on my Ubuntu computer. Let me start with some basic info about my computer.

Manufacturer: MSI
Model: X370
CPU/APU: AMD E-350 Dual Core
Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin with the latest updates.

Search-word on Google and on Ubuntu forums "External drive won't mount", "drive not found" and an combination of these.

I found that I can list the drives that system sees.

sudo fdisk-l

The result of fdisk is

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000070ce

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048   969471999   484734976   83  Linux
/dev/sda2       969474046   976771071     3648513    5  Extended
/dev/sda5       969474048   976771071     3648512   82  Linux swap / Solaris

No sdb drive is found. I have tried with three different drives, all modern. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I appreciate it.

[zero2xiii]

Hay,
I dont follow, can you not mount ANY usb harddrive? Or only this one?

Please post the output of:

lsusb

No sudo needed but can be added for safe measures. This will show us if the USB device is picked up or not. From there we can trouble shoot the mounting part.

Cherz

[leopoldbirkholm]

Hay,
I dont follow, can you not mount ANY usb harddrive? Or only this one?

Please post the output of:

lsusb

No sudo needed but can be added for safe measures. This will show us if the USB device is picked up or not. From there we can trouble shoot the mounting part.

Cherz

Hello zero2xiii and thank you for replaying.

I am sorry that I was not clear. I cannot mount any USB and make them stay mounted.

This morning I re-tried with my WD external. I hooked it in and typed your command. The output was then this:

~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:0139 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1058:1010 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

I thought. Wow, does it work now? So I went to Nautilus and looked for the folder. No-where to be found. Retype

lsusb

Remember, the WD external drive is still connected. Now the output is:

~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Perhaps it is something wrong with WD? Trying an other WD home-made Blue series 320 GB external drive. Same code, lsusb. The output is now:

~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

No change. I can see the LED light and feel the hard drive spinn but no mount.

[leopoldbirkholm]

The three USB-drives I have trying to work with my Ubuntu machine is:

1. Buffalo MiniStation 465 GB drive
2. Western Digital 465 GB drive
3. Western Digital Blue series 320 GB homemade

With homemade I mean I took the hard drive from an non-working computer and put it into an enclosure.

[zero2xiii]

Hay,

Wow that is strange. It is picked up, then discarded. I wonder why.

Let me see now. Lets try this:

sudo dmesg -c

This clears the log, after being displayed to screen. Now plug in your drive, wait a few moments and then:

sudo dmesg

And post me the output please. And remove your drive from the usb port.

I am going to assume that it is an error regarding "ehci_hcd".

After you have done the above, we are going to disable ehci_hcd:

cd /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd/
sudo sh -c 'find ./ -name "0000:00:*" -print| sed "s/\.\///">unbind'

I found the above from here
It is just so much easier than explaining the entire process by hand.

After you have done this, plug the device back in. Again do:

sudo dmesg -c
sudo dmesg

and post the new output. This should tell us what is happening from the system side of things. Please only do this with ONE drive. One that you know works if at all possible.

Cherz

[leopoldbirkholm]

Hay,

Wow that is strange. It is picked up, then discarded. I wonder why.

Let me see now. Lets try this:

sudo dmesg -c

This clears the log, after being displayed to screen. Now plug in your drive, wait a few moments and then:

sudo dmesg

And post me the output please. And remove your drive from the usb port.

Cherz

The output of

~$ sudo dmesg
[  359.064330] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[  359.299880] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[  359.301176] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-2:1.0
[  359.301504] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[  359.301512] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[  359.340410] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[  360.302921] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       5000BPV External 1.75 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[  360.307792] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[  360.312711] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[  360.313304] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[  360.313317] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[  360.313919] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[  360.313930] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  360.321550] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[  360.321565] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  360.365552]  sdc: sdc1
[  360.369670] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[  360.369685] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  360.369696] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[  367.611410] ehci_hcd 0000:00:12.2: force halt; handshake f841c024 00004000 00000000 -> -110
[  367.611425] ehci_hcd 0000:00:12.2: HC died; cleaning up
[  367.611542] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 3
[  367.617661] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] killing request
[  367.617801] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
[  367.617810] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  367.617823] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 09 b2 00 00 52 00
[  367.617851] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 2482
[  367.696391] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
[  367.696406] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  367.696419] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 09 24 00 00 8e 00
[  367.696448] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 2340
[  367.696586] FAT-fs (sdc1): FAT read failed (blocknr 2338)
[  367.712956] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 2

With the code ~$ sudo dmesg I at least could open an folder with the external drive before it crashed and burned (OK, not readable then - sorry, no flames!)
I have now removed the drive and will now try the rest you wrote.

[leopoldbirkholm]

The output of the last suggestion:

sudo sh -c 'find ./ -name "0000:00:*" -print| sed "s/\.\///">unbind'
sed: couldn't flush stdout: No such device

And the WD drive was attached.

[leopoldbirkholm]

OK, so I re-read the article Unable to enumerate USB device.

I first typed in

cd /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd

Then

ls

I followed by noticing the number 0000:00:12.2 and 0000:00:13.2. Then made this input

sudo sh -c 'echo -n "0000:00:12.2" > unbind'
Enter
sudo sh -c 'echo -n "0000:00:12.2" > unbind'
Enter
sudo dmesg -C
Enter
sudo dmesg -c
Enter
sudo dmesg
Enter

I then re-connected my drive and this time the window stayed so now I am trying to copy over an video and see if this work. Will post progress later.

[zero2xiii]

The output of

~$ sudo dmesg
[  359.064330] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[  359.299880] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[  359.301176] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-2:1.0
[  359.301504] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[  359.301512] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[  359.340410] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[  360.302921] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       5000BPV External 1.75 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[  360.307792] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[  360.312711] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[  360.313304] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[  360.313317] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[  360.313919] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[  360.313930] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  360.321550] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[  360.321565] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  360.365552]  sdc: sdc1
[  360.369670] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[  360.369685] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  360.369696] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[  367.611410] ehci_hcd 0000:00:12.2: force halt; handshake f841c024 00004000 00000000 -> -110
[  367.611425] ehci_hcd 0000:00:12.2: HC died; cleaning up
[  367.611542] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 3
[  367.617661] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] killing request
[  367.617801] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
[  367.617810] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  367.617823] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 09 b2 00 00 52 00
[  367.617851] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 2482
[  367.696391] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
[  367.696406] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  367.696419] scsi 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 09 24 00 00 8e 00
[  367.696448] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 2340
[  367.696586] FAT-fs (sdc1): FAT read failed (blocknr 2338)
[  367.712956] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 2

This might be the problem. The Bold parts about the read failures. It disconnects just after the last read failure.

I await your further feedback. At least we have the drive open now. That is a good thing.

Cherz

[leopoldbirkholm]

Ok so I went out for an errand and did turn of my computer. Now on reboot, the problem has come back. When connecting the external drive, it shows the folder for a couple of seconds and then stops.

I input this in Terminal

sudo dmesg -c
Enter
sudo dmesg -C
Enter
sudo dmesg
Output
sudo dmesg
[   91.352203] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[   91.552389] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[   91.553362] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0
[   91.553653] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[   91.553661] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[   91.554541] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[   92.595976] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Packard  Bell Silver           PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
[   92.599226] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[   92.601717] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 156301488 512-byte logical blocks: (80.0 GB/74.5 GiB)
[   92.602569] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[   92.602576] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 34 00 00 00
[   92.603309] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[   92.618212]  sdc: sdc1
[   92.624579] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[  123.115614] ehci_hcd 0000:00:12.2: force halt; handshake f841c024 00004000 00000000 -> -110
[  123.115630] ehci_hcd 0000:00:12.2: HC died; cleaning up
[  123.115758] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, device number 3
[  123.185617] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 2

I will re-do the steps about, with editing an file and see if that solves it.