USB drive

nemarona · 05-29-2007, 11:08 PM

Hi all

I have a Kingston 2 GB USB pendrive which used to work flawlessly until today. By flawlessly I mean that it would get automatically mounted in Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) and I could just use it.

This all ended today after I lent it for a couple of minutes!

Now the drive won't be recognized and I can't mount it manually either:

Code:

$ sudo mkdir Desktop/test
$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 Desktop/test
mount: el dispositivo especial /dev/sda1 no existe

The last line is Spanish for "the special device /dev/sda1 does not exist".

I read in the Forums that it would be a good idea to type

Code:

$ sudo tail -f /var/log/messages

before mounting the drive, so I could see messages from the kernel (or something like that). The problem is, nothing happens after I plug in the pendrive! It's just like I hadn't done anything.

I'm pretty sure the usb ports are ok, since I was using them until yesterday. I also tried plugging the pendrive to a laptop running Win XP to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

b0uncer · 05-30-2007, 02:42 AM

Test with another usb cadget to see if the USB port you're using really works. Probably does. After that make sure you have loaded the USB kernel modules correctly:

Code:

lsmod

should be seeing something related to usb, ohci, uhci etc..if you don't, use modprobe to load them and re-try.

If it's not working in any machine, then it's probably broken

though sounds funny it doesn't do anything; you should get at least an error message after plugging it in. Usually the filesystem breaks up or you get memory errors in it, I got a 512MB disk show up as a 8MB disk, but having no signals at all sounds odd. Maybe there's no current going trough the device?

OttifantSir · 05-30-2007, 04:48 AM

From what you are saying, I want to ask: Did you reboot any machine with the pendrive in the port?

Although the manufacturers say it can't happen, it CAN: The sudden surge of power as you boot up can fry the chips inside. I have a USB-Bluetooth device that worked like a charm by just plugging it into an Ubuntu-laptop, then I rebooted with the device in the port, and just like that, no more device on ANY machine. I have tried five or six machines, of different makes and models, and noone gets anything off of the device.

I have an antivirus program running on this machine I use now, that tells me that the port is occupied and won't let me reboot without unmounting it and removing it. A little hassle as I forget it so often, but not as much hassle as having to remove it halfway through boot-up and rebooting yet again.

I hope you didn't have anything really important on this device, as your situation seems very similar to mine.

bigrigdriver · 05-30-2007, 06:33 AM

So, you lent it out for a couple of minutes and now it doesn't work.

My suspicion: the person you lent it to unplugged the drive before umounting the drive.

What happens if you just unplug your computer without proper shutdown? The same thing can happen to a USB drive that isn't umounted before unplugging it.

Have you tried running fdisk on the unmounted drive?

If I'm mistaken here, someone please tell me. But, that's my understanding of what may happen.

nemarona · 05-31-2007, 09:12 AM

Thanks for all replies!
I'll go through your suggestions one by one:

1) I made sure the USB port was working correctly by switching USB mouse and USB drive; the USB mouse worked perfectly on both ports while the pendrive didn't.

2) Running

Code:

lsmod

with the pendrive plugged in gives the following output (assumed unrelated lines omitted):

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
usblp                  14848  0
usbnet                 19720  1 cdc_ether
usbhid                 26592  0
ohci_hcd               22532  0
usbcore               134280  6 usblp,cdc_ether,usbnet,usbhid,ohci_hcd

I have little idea on what this means, though.

3) My guess now: there's no current going through the device (i.e. it's broken).

4) I think I didn't reboot the machine with the pendrive still plugged in; the worst that may have happened is unplugging without unmounting first.

5) Here's what I get with fdisk:

Code:

fdisk /dev/sda1
Can't open /dev/sda1

6) If I try

Code:

cfdisk /dev/sda1

I get a message "VERY SERIOUS ERROR: Can't open disk unit. Press any key to quit cfdisk" (The wording may not be exact, since I'm translating back from Spanish).

Please feel free to keep commenting on this. I appreciate your replies!

archtoad6 · 05-31-2007, 10:10 AM

Would lsusb be helpful?

Run it 2ce -- w/ & w/o the pendrive plugged in, & compare the output from each way.

rupertwh · 05-31-2007, 10:30 AM

It's "fdisk /dev/sda", *not* "fdisk /dev/sda1".

nemarona · 06-01-2007, 08:31 AM

1) Here's the output for lsusb.
Without the pendrive:

Code:

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04b8:0005 Seiko Epson Corp. Stylus Printer
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

With the pendrive:

Code:

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04b8:0005 Seiko Epson Corp. Stylus Printer
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

That's exactly the same...

2) I figured it was equivalent to type "fdisk /dev/sda1" or "fdisk /dev/sda". Anyway, the output to both is the same: "Can't open".

I'm going to the store now and ask for a replacement, since I believe this gadget is well dead.

Thanks for all suggestions!