Hi All,

Invested in a 320gig WD "My Passport". I plugged it in and ran fdisk -l to see where the drive appears. It didn't appear in fdisk, just my two hard drives (see below). I checked dmseg but can't make head nor tail of what the problem is, any ideas???

Any help much appreciated - thanks!

Jaunty-user

------------------
dmesg

[ 1390.500065] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
[ 1390.646844] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 1390.693236] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[ 1390.693523] scsi8 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 1390.693667] usb-storage: device found at 5
[ 1390.693674] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 1390.693681] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 1390.693687] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[ 1395.692255] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 1395.692687] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access USB DISK 2.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 1396.105352] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 1003520 512-byte hardware sectors: (513 MB/490 MiB)
[ 1396.105871] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 1396.105879] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[ 1396.105884] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1396.109605] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 1003520 512-byte hardware sectors: (513 MB/490 MiB)
[ 1396.110086] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 1396.110091] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[ 1396.110095] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1396.110104] sdc: sdc1
[ 1396.111096] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 1396.111211] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
[ 1408.454555] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 5
----------------

root@al:~# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'vol_id --uuid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=a27564cf-857d-40c0-9501-f81b3edb2d82 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=061ed075-843c-40b5-a3ba-cb27a39799eb /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# /storage was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=19a2f0e8-cbdd-471e-afe5-87f1dc01c0c3 /storage ext3 relatime 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=f4aa430a-4488-4ff5-aa7b-c4de3bc6cdf2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0


------------------------
root@al:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x19a2abeb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 973 7815591 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 974 13131 97659135 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 13132 60801 382909275 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0001ee9f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux

Well... based on dmesg, it looks like the kernel sees it. What happens if you mount it by hand? Presumably it's either FAT32 or NTFS, out of the box. The partition is sdc1. I have no idea why fdisk -l isn't seeing it.

Thanks bartonski.

I know the external drive works - its fine on my ubuntu laptop.

I did try to mount by hand but got a message along the lines of 'sdc1 device not available', very odd. I am not sure where its located for me to mount. I think because I've got 2 CD RW's there is a conflict somewhere, but am unable to decode what dmesg means.

Is there any data on the passport drive? If so, you might try catting /dev/sdc1 to see if there's anything there.

You said that the drive does mount on your Ubuntu laptop. How does dmesg look on that machine?

Oh.

Last line: usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 5

I think that all the rest of dmesg is ok, it's just that something is causing the drive to disconnect.

Also, unless I'm mistaken, the numbers along the side in brakets ([ 1396.111211], [ 1408.454555]...) is the time in seconds since boot. If this is correct, it means that the disconnect is not immediate. You can test this by running .

the command 'watch' will run the command supplied as an argument periodically ( '-n 1' specifies that the command will run every second).
If the drive disconnects several seconds after you plug it in, you will see the disconnect.

Thanks - will use watch with dmesg to see if that sheds any light on it.

If the disk is using GPT ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table ) then fdisk will not work.

Thanks for all the tips. Though am still none the wiser, from the dmesg out put it seems that the devices get automatically disconnected. I can't mount it as its simply not available to mount.

[14054.924946] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[14054.924952] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
[14054.928813] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] 1003520 512-byte hardware sectors: (513 MB/490 MiB)
[14054.930200] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
[14054.930208] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[14054.930213] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
[14054.930225] sdd: sdd1
[14054.931173] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
[14054.931286] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
[15262.797769] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, address 6

That line looks bad. If that line represents your Passport, which is supposed to be 320GB, that's not a good thing.

Also:

That looks like a flash drive of some sort. Passport devices will show up with the actual drive ID of the drive inside the enclosure, which always starts with WDC for Western Digital units.

Try running tail -f /var/log/syslog and then attach your drive.

Also, ensure that the drive is actually spinning up. Put it to your ear while you plug it in and listen. There are some USB ports which simply don't provide enough power for the motor to get going. In such a case, you'll have to snag a "dual-connector" USB cable. I unfortunately don't know of a good source for these, I got one with a USB hub I picked up from Radio Shack but I don't think they sell it anymore. Basically it's a USB cable with a mini-USB plug, where there are two plugs going to your computer rather than one; the second one provides only additional power to the USB device.

Hope this helps

fm