Hi,

I just bought a 1TB USB hard disk that is connected to my home-made debian server. It is used to make network backups. It is also a place for file exchanging between our home-lan.

However, I realized that sometimes the disk unmounts or stops working by himself. Users are complaining because when they try to download bigger directories from the server, WinSCP freezes and says that the host is not communicating anymore. At first I thought it was a WinSCP bug, but now I see that it is something related to the disk. I check syslog and I got a lot of these messages:

sda1 is the disk I bought. I'm running debian lenny:

What can I do to fix this? I need to fix it because we use this system a lot and it worked well in the past. My network needs this! The disk is in ext3.

Hi,

I would do some system diagnostics. Since this is a USB device I would first rule out the port by moving to another point. You didn't state whether the device was connected via a powered or un-powered hub. If a system hub then I would suspect a load problem. If this checks out then I would look at hdd diagnostics for the external drive. You should use the manufactures diagnostic set first then look at other GNU/Linux available tools.

'SystemRescueCd' and 'UBCD' are two good LiveCD that contain system diagnostics. Great too have on hand when you are in a twist.

The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Hi again,

The hard disk is in one of my USB ports (I'm not using USB Hubs) and the disk is not being powered by the USB cable - it uses its' own electrical source.

Thanks for the tips about the diagnostics tools - I'll try them as soon as I can (I'm away from the server atm).

See you arround,
Fill

Hi,

I switched USB port and now everything is working perfect again. Seems like I have a slot that does not work anymore .. damn.

Thanks for your great help. I'll download the diagnostic tools anyway, because as you said, it's always good to have them on hand when we're in a twist ;P

Once again, thanks
Fill

Hi,

Glad to hear things are joy.

As the OP you can mark the post as [SOLVED] via the Thread Tools.

ops, I forgot about that little detail ;P

done.