[SOLVED] USB 3.0 hard drive randomly disconnects

jlacroix · 08-21-2015, 06:46 AM

Hello everyone,

I have a System 76 Sable desktop with Debian Jessie, all current updates. I have a USB 3.0 external hard drive, encrypted with luks, that disconnects frequently (as in it rarely lasts 10 seconds). When it disconnects, it appears as though I've unplugged the cable.

Here is where things get strange. I've tried this external drive on two other computers (also Debian Jessie), and it works perfectly fine. It only seems to fail on my Sable.

Now, things get even stranger. I decided to boot my Sable into Ubuntu MATE 15.04 using a flash drive, and try this from a live environment. When I attach this drive while running Ubuntu MATE, no problem! It stays connected and works just fine.

So I think I've ruled this out from being a hardware issue (the drive works on other computers, and even works fine on this computer while NOT running Debian). But I'm clueless as to what may be the issue.

Below is the output from /var/log/syslog while these shenanigans occur:

Code:

Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.669834] scsi 11:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMT     2105             0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.670016] sd 11:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.670152] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.670348] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.670350] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.670543] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.709635]  sdc: unknown partition table
Aug 21 07:35:59 ragnarok kernel: [34600.710375] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
Aug 21 07:36:01 ragnarok CRON[10130]: (root) CMD (/usr/local/bin/process_check.py puppet)
Aug 21 07:36:01 ragnarok CRON[10128]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.658787] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, device number 7
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.659235] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.659273] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdc]  
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.659275] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.898901] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok mtp-probe: checking bus 4, device 8: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb4/4-1"
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok mtp-probe: bus: 4, device: 8 was not an MTP device
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.915465] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=174c, idProduct=5136
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.915468] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.915469] usb 4-1: Product: AS2105
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.915470] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: ASMedia
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.915471] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: 00000000000000000000
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.915920] usb-storage 4-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Aug 21 07:36:27 ragnarok kernel: [34628.916050] scsi12 : usb-storage 4-1:1.0
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34629.914596] scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMT     2105             0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34629.914831] sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34629.915023] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34629.915214] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34629.915216] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34629.915410] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34630.212214]  sdc: unknown partition table
Aug 21 07:36:28 ragnarok kernel: [34630.212953] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
Aug 21 07:36:32 ragnarok kernel: [34633.801406] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, device number 8
Aug 21 07:36:32 ragnarok kernel: [34633.801686] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
Aug 21 07:36:32 ragnarok kernel: [34633.801713] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdc]  
Aug 21 07:36:32 ragnarok kernel: [34633.801715] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34634.653117] usb 4-1: device not accepting address 9, error -22
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.041334] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok mtp-probe: checking bus 4, device 11: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb4/4-1"
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok mtp-probe: bus: 4, device: 11 was not an MTP device
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.057926] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=174c, idProduct=5136
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.057929] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.057930] usb 4-1: Product: AS2105
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.057931] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: ASMedia
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.057932] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: 00000000000000000000
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.058376] usb-storage 4-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Aug 21 07:36:33 ragnarok kernel: [34635.058466] scsi13 : usb-storage 4-1:1.0
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.057086] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMT     2105             0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.057415] sd 13:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.057554] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.057755] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.057760] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.057961] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.059186]  sdc: unknown partition table
Aug 21 07:36:34 ragnarok kernel: [34636.060266] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.739617] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, device number 11
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.740086] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.740123] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdc]  
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.740125] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.979426] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok mtp-probe: checking bus 4, device 12: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb4/4-1"
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok mtp-probe: bus: 4, device: 12 was not an MTP device
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.995906] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=174c, idProduct=5136
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.995908] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.995910] usb 4-1: Product: AS2105
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.995911] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: ASMedia
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.995911] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: 00000000000000000000
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.996350] usb-storage 4-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Aug 21 07:36:40 ragnarok kernel: [34641.996463] scsi14 : usb-storage 4-1:1.0
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34642.995325] scsi 14:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMT     2105             0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34642.995517] sd 14:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34642.995668] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34642.995865] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34642.995867] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34642.996105] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34643.293066]  sdc: unknown partition table
Aug 21 07:36:41 ragnarok kernel: [34643.293795] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
Aug 21 07:36:43 ragnarok kernel: [34644.654978] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, device number 12
Aug 21 07:36:43 ragnarok kernel: [34644.655642] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
Aug 21 07:36:43 ragnarok kernel: [34644.655673] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc]  
Aug 21 07:36:43 ragnarok kernel: [34644.655675] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK

fatmac · 08-21-2015, 07:43 AM

Quote:

sdc: unknown partition table

Seems to keep coming up, suggests some thing wrong with the setup on this machine.
Check against the other Debian machines, fstab enties the same?, luks setup the same?
What does Ubuntu see it as?

jlacroix · 08-21-2015, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac

Seems to keep coming up, suggests some thing wrong with the setup on this machine.
Check against the other Debian machines, fstab enties the same?, luks setup the same?
What does Ubuntu see it as?

Thanks for the reply. The reason "unknown partition table" keeps coming up is because the drive is encrypted and hasn't been unlocked yet. Until I enter the passphrase, the system cannot see the partition table. The drive will usually disconnect before I can finish entering the passphrase, and if I do finish entering the passphrase, it will likely drop a few seconds later.

Here is how Ubuntu sees it (I've already entered the passphrase):

Code:

/dev/mapper/luks-d689b193-0167-494c-9137-7f2dd50a8a0a on /media/jay/backup_drive1 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks2)

jefro · 08-21-2015, 02:59 PM

Maybe current draw, some sleep setting?

metaschima · 08-21-2015, 09:41 PM

Try another cable.

jlacroix · 08-22-2015, 10:47 PM

While this drive was working fine on other computers, it has just started to fail on other computers too so I guess the drive or the enclosure is bad. Thanks for the replies regardless.

metaschima · 08-23-2015, 11:03 AM

Don't just throw it away. If you bought it recently RMA it. Try connecting it internally and run a SMART long test on it. First thing to do is try another cable.

fatmac · 08-23-2015, 01:43 PM

Likely a bad cable, they tend to get flexed quite a lot.
(I had this on an old external IDE drive housing.)