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At work we have two Fujitsu 2.5 inch laptop hard drives in Coolmax USB bays, they work in windows, albeit a bit funky, have to reboot the system and wait 15 to 20 minutes for it to start up, but now I'm trying to get them to load in linux. I'm running OpenSuSE 10.
Figured it should be easy, Linux is detecting that I'm connecting them but what I get when I check /var/log/messages is
linux kernel: usb 1-2: reset full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
linux kernel: SCSI error : <0 0 0 1> return code = 0x50000
linux kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 0
linux kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 0
I'm at a loss here and any help would be greatly appreciated.
It seems to me that these disks are not really working all that well in Windows. You might be able to get some helpful information if you look at the Windows log files.
What log file in windows would I look for that in?
Mostly what I get from windows if I hook it up and try to assign it a drive letter, since it isn't automatically, is "The Drive isn't enabled, restart windows to enable it" Which it then takes 20 minutes to do.
I would look in all three Windows log files, but I would expect that the system log file would be the most likely to have hardware errors.
As long as you have Windows booted you should look in the Control Panel -> Hardware applet. It will show an icon next to each hardware device. The icon indicates if the device is working properly.
Your Linux /var/log/messages shows that Linux wants to map the USB hard drive to /dev/sdb and that it is enountering an error. You already knew that but I just didn't want to talk exclusively about how Windows might help figure this out. Maybe someone with more hardware diagnostic experience in Linux will help.
You could use a different USB cable to see if that is the problem before giving up on the USB disks. You could also try connecting the USB disks to another computer. If that doesn't work then it seems clear that the USB disks aren't working properly. I say this because they don't really work properly in Windows and don't work at all in Linux. If it was just Linux then there might be some hope but since it is with both operating systems it looks like the USB disks are really not working properly.
I think that in your situation I would throw out the USB disks and purchase a new one. I know that isn't helpful but for me there is a point that you just discard bad hardware and replace it. Since these disks aren't really working properly in either Linux or Windows I would discard them.
Last edited by stress_junkie; 12-22-2005 at 08:13 AM.
Well its business drives so getting rid of them is an issue since the business just bought them and with the place I work for, if I can get it to work somehow they won't spend money for it. The disks do the same thing in every computer I've got and both sets of cables act the same. If I can't get them to work correctly, then I'm just stuck with the poor windows connection since it will read and write from them. And I don't get anything from the system logs that I can see... The hardware manager shows that its detected the disks and it says they are working normally.
Sounds like there might be an issue with either the drives or if it's both of them then that would seem unlikely and there might be a problem with the USB controller on your motherboard. Is it possible to try them on another PC to see if you're having the same problems? If your case has USB ports on the front and back then try the drives on the other side, my case is like this and the motherboard has two USB controllers (not uncommon), I had issues with my iPod when I plugged it into the front. I thought I had a huge problem with my mobo dying but if I plug it into the back it works great
Both drives do the same thing on multiple systems. One of our server 2003 systems won't even boot with the drive connected to it, the windows xp machines will all boot eventually and see the drive, but if we plug it in, it won't assign a drive letter until we reboot. There's only one usb plug on the drive.
Given that these USB drives cause problems on multiple comupters there is absolutely no point in going further. If there is any important data on them then boot Windows and copy the data to another storage device. Then purchase something else to replace these USB disks. Make sure that you get a different brand. Mainly be sure to purchase disks that were designed to be used externally on a USB connection. It's clear that this Coolmax enclosure/adapter isn't working or the disks aren't working. I would be inclined to blame the Coolmax enclosure/adapter. I've found over the years that adapters are often a problem. Whether it's SATA - PATA or SCSI-III to SCSI-II or thinwire Ethernet to UTP, adapters are always trying to do something that wasn't intended. Often you have problems with matching up data signals between the two protocols. I avoid adapters as much as possible. They're just a lot of trouble.
Well 2 things, 1, as I've said earlier I don't have the option to get rid of them and 2, I've got another drive using a coolmax enclosure and it works just fine, this drive was previously my laptop's main drive before it died, so I doubt its the enclosure since its the same as one I've already got. It could be the drive, but that's why I'm here trying to find a way to get the drive to work with the enclosure. Throwing them away and starting over is NOT an option. I either have to continue using them with a semi-screwy windows connection or get them to function all the way.
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