i'm having lately a very annoying problem with my external usb drive.

i'm running Gutsy on an amd64 Dell Dimension C521.
the external drive is a 100Gb Fujitsu, which for a very long time worked just fine.

now when i connect the device, it gets listed in lsusb:

sid@dev:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 008: ID 048d:8903 Integrated Technology Express, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp.
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0461:4d15 Primax Electronics, Ltd
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0424:2504 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Being the one on Device 008.

Up until here all is good.



sid@dev:~$ dmesg
[ 1778.851567] usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
[ 1788.965491] usb 2-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 1788.966097] scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 1788.966214] usb-storage: device found at 8
[ 1788.966216] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 1794.954509] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 1800.556329] usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
[ 1810.789815] usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
[ 1811.049356] usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
[ 1813.928228] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 1813.930457] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 117573378 512-byte hardware sectors (60198 MB)
[ 1813.934448] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[ 1813.934451] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1813.936443] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 117573378 512-byte hardware sectors (60198 MB)
[ 1813.940436] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[ 1813.940438] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1813.940440] sdb:<6>usb 2-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8


The reseting keeps going on and on and the drive never settles.

afterwards having
have done basically no substantial changes to anything but i got this from dmesg:


Dec 10 14:49:43 dev kernel: [ 953.335658] usb 2-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
Dec 10 14:49:53 dev kernel: [ 963.453723] usb 2-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Dec 10 14:49:53 dev kernel: [ 963.454072] scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Dec 10 14:50:05 dev kernel: [ 975.044859] usb 2-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
Dec 10 14:50:15 dev kernel: [ 985.270581] usb 2-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
Dec 10 14:50:15 dev kernel: [ 985.518138] usb 2-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.570765] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.572994] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.573278] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] READ CAPACITY(16) failed
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.573281] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_ABORT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.573284] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Use 0xffffffff as device size
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.573288] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 4294967296 512-byte hardware sectors (2199023 MB)
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.576987] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.578980] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.579107] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] READ CAPACITY(16) failed
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.579109] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_ABORT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.579112] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Use 0xffffffff as device size
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.579115] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 4294967296 512-byte hardware sectors (2199023 MB)
Dec 10 14:50:17 dev kernel: [ 987.582974] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
Dec 10 14:50:48 dev kernel: [ 987.582979] sdb:<6>usb 2-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6



also :
sid@dev:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5eff4ed2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9375 75304656 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9376 9726 2819407+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9376 9726 2819376 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I can't even try to mount it manually since it's nowhere.


sid@dev:~$ cat /proc/bus/usb/devices
T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#= 10 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=048d ProdID=8903 Rev= 2.00
S: Manufacturer=ITE TECH. INC.
S: Product=USB TO IDE
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr=100mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms



It's a few days i'm reading around basically in all sorts of forums about all sorts of trick such as removin ehci_hcd, which then gets replaced by ohci_hcd.
even read about disabling this last one which takes out my usb plugs so that's a no go.

basically i just need this device to run one more time , for me to back up the data.
don't really care about the disk itself.

anybody got any ideas?


thanks in advance .
sid

If that's the case, I'd suggest you just boot up with a livcd and see if you can get the device working with one of them and then copy over the files. You are likely to have a lot fewer problems with 32 bit versions by the way. The ones I'd try are sidux(debian based), PCLOS(mandriva based)and slax(slackware based). One of them should work unless external drive has some hardware issues.

hi there kilgoretrout.

i tried sidux on a 32bit machine.
the device it's not automounted, which i did not expect to happen anyways.
on the other hand no output is given from dmesg. it makes sense since it's a readonly filesystem.

will try a workaround on that , but i'm sincerely starting to lean
on the hardware issue option.

sid

I am having kinda the same issue with my Ext Hard Drive.
When I plug the drive in it says.
"Unable to Mount the Volume"

When I try to force the mount I get.

Usage: mount -V : print version
mount -h : print this help
mount : list mounted filesystems
mount -l : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount [-t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
mount -a [-t|-O] ... : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
mount device : mount device at the known place
mount directory : mount known device here
mount -t type dev dir : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
mount --move olddir newdir
One can change the type of mount containing the directory dir:
mount --make-shared dir
mount --make-slave dir
mount --make-private dir
mount --make-unbindable dir
One can change the type of all the mounts in a mount subtree
containing the directory dir:
mount --make-rshared dir
mount --make-rslave dir
mount --make-rprivate dir
mount --make-runbindable dir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using -L label or by uuid, using -U uuid .
Other options: [-nfFrsvw] [-o options] [-p passwdfd].
For many more details, say man 8 mount .

Not to mention I have No idea what I am doing to begin with.

I'm having the same problem as SpartanPrototype. I've posted a new thread on Linux Newbies though.
But if anyone is still viewing this post plz reply! Help us mount our ext hd! thanks in advance, Nis2k.