Jacked External Hard Drive

jvonmitchell · 09-25-2008, 10:25 AM

I have a 500g external hard drive, SimpleTech, that I was doing partition work on, very long operation for 500g. When the computer turned off! Now no recognition that a device is plugged-in, in windows, or Ubuntu. I don't see it as a device in Partion edit, in Places, or any place, so it doesn't seem to have a device name. I would like to force mount it just knowing it's in a usb. At least so gparted will recognize the device and I can reformat it.

Thanks.

Oh, I saw the "hardware post" description.
Ubuntu
2.6.20-16-generic.

/usr/bin/lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 4971:ce04
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

pinniped · 09-26-2008, 04:38 AM

Is the "usb_storage" module loaded? Try loading it and see if the device is recognized then; you should at least get something like 'sda' and be able to read the partition table via 'fdisk -l /dev/sda'.

If that doesn't work either, you'll have to look into pulling out the actual HD and connecting it some other way to have a look at it; it is possible that the USB interface is screwed but that the HD and its IDE (or SATA) interface is still fine.

jvonmitchell · 09-26-2008, 02:08 PM

Where do I find this usb_storage module. Chances are that it is loaded. I'm working on the same computer that messed it up in the first place.
I think I'm going to put it in a cpu as the only hard drive and run live cd, but I don't have sata cables right now. Of course that can be fix, but if there is a software approach that I could try between now and when I get the cables that would be awesome. So basically, where do I see this usb_storage module.

TB0ne · 09-26-2008, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jvonmitchell

Where do I find this usb_storage module. Chances are that it is loaded. I'm working on the same computer that messed it up in the first place.
I think I'm going to put it in a cpu as the only hard drive and run live cd, but I don't have sata cables right now. Of course that can be fix, but if there is a software approach that I could try between now and when I get the cables that would be awesome. So basically, where do I see this usb_storage module.

Do an "lsmod | grep usb" and see if it's there. If it's there, (as root), do a "dmesg -c", with the drive unplugged. Then plug it in, and type in "dmesg" again, and see what it comes up with. If it recognizes the drive, you should see the device name there somewhere (something like /dev/sdb1, etc.). You can try to mount it like that, with different options (check out the man page for the mount command).

Chances are, though, that since Windows can't see it either, the partition table is totally fried, and you'll have to reformat it.