[solved]Trouble with External Hard Drive Adaptor (SATA/USB)

Convergence · 2014-08-24 01:33:25

My Seagate 2tb external HD reaches dangerous temps when it is in it's enclosure, my last one burned out, so I bought an enclosure with a fan: http://www.startech.com/HDD/Docking/Sup … TDOCKU3SEF

The drive works fine in the enclosure that it came with, but it won't mount in my fancy enclosure with a fan. Gparted identifies the drive, recognizes how big the partition is, but can't identify the FS. I should probably mention that this is the second aftermarket enclosure that I've tried (it had similar results, but I didn't really investigate it much, I just figured it was a dud, and returned it).

lsusb identifies the enclosure/bridge as:

Bus 009 Device 011: ID 152d:2509 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JMS539 SuperSpeed SATA II 3.0G Bridge

dmesg gives this after I plug in the device and turn it on:

[272520.761414] hid-generic 0003:046D:C216.0009: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.10 Joystick [Logitech Logitech Dual Action] on usb-0000:00:13.0-5/input0
[272570.528012] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[272570.832161] usb 2-2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[272570.850009] usb-storage 2-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[272570.850442] scsi12 : usb-storage 2-2:1.0
[272571.859663] scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Jmicron  Corp.            0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
[272571.863442] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] 3907029168 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)
[272571.865256] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
[272571.865269] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 28 00 00 00
[272571.867170] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] No Caching mode page found
[272571.867185] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
[272572.167748]  sdd: sdd1
[272572.170353] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk
[273302.595343] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, device number 4
[275451.688405] usb 9-4.3: new high-speed USB device number 11 using ehci-pci
[275451.792210] usb-storage 9-4.3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[275451.792648] scsi13 : usb-storage 9-4.3:1.0
[275452.804322] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Jmicron  Corp.            0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
[275454.343254] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdd] 3907029168 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)
[275454.344388] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
[275454.344401] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 28 00 00 00
[275454.345516] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdd] No Caching mode page found
[275454.345529] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
[275454.643927]  sdd: sdd1
[275454.648515] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk

Smartctl seems to work fine. I just ran a short 1 minute self-test, and it returned no errors.

smartctl -a /dev/sdd
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [x86_64-linux-3.15.8-1-ARCH] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 (AF)
Device Model:     ST2000DM001-1E6164
Serial Number:    Z1E81JQC
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 066ec60c9
Firmware Version: SC48
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Sat Aug 23 18:24:38 2014 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)	Offline data collection activity
					was never started.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
					without error or no self-test has ever 
					been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		(  600) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					No Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 ( 239) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x3081)	SCT Status supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   117   099   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       119149592
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   096   095   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       45
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   100   253   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       12885884199
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       308
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       44
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0 0 0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   070   048   045    Old_age   Always       -       30 (Min/Max 27/30)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       33
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1763
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   030   052   000    Old_age   Always       -       30 (0 24 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       239h+05m+50.791s
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       124549880
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       155227773

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       307         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       307         -
# 3  Conveyance offline  Completed without error       00%        78         -
# 4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        78         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

It's currently plugged into my computer through a USB 2.0 hub (for convenience), but I've tried it while plugging it directly into my USB 3.0 connector in the back of my case, and got the same results. I've also tried different USB cables, but I only have the one USB 3.0 cable, so I had to use USB 2.0 cables. I got exactly the same results. I've googled around and it seems like others have used the same jmicron bridge successfully in linux (I found unrelated problems in some forums that were using this same chip).

Any suggestions?

Edit: I changed the link, because somehow I was linking to the wrong device. I also edited in the fact that I've swapped out cables, but that didn't help.

Last edited by Convergence (2014-08-24 18:02:33)

Convergence · 2014-08-24 18:02:05

OK, I've figured it out. The problem was not the aftermarket enclosure, it wasn't the hard drive, it was the Seagate stock enclosure. The Seagate stock enclosure worked just fine (as evidenced by the fact that my drive was working just fine) but Seagate used some kind of technology to obscure the contents of the drive so that the data could not be accessed outside of their proprietary enclosure. I don't know why they would do this, maybe it has something to do with some security feature (like hardware disc encryption) that I never paid attention to because I wouldn't need it.

When I woke up, I had a hunch that something like this might be the problem, so I backed up all the data on the drive, took it out of the Seagate enclosure, put it in the Startech enclosure, reformatted it, copied the data back to the disc, plugged it back into my rbpi NAS (then I had to fiddle with ACLs a little) and it worked! Moral of the story: if you plan on using your own enclosure, just buy an internal drive, or at least don't use one of Seagate's external enclosures.

I will mark this as solved.

R00KIE · 2014-08-24 20:40:33

Convergence wrote:

Moral of the story: if you plan on using your own enclosure, just buy an internal drive, or at least don't use one of Seagate's external enclosures.

You can still buy external disks and use them with your own enclosure (it's probably cheaper than buying an internal drive), but do the change right away, don't wait until the drive is full.

I have a theory on what might cause the problem (not that it matters now). The controller on the seagate enclosure might be doing some kind of "translation" of sector addresses to get partitions to align properly, when you connect the disk to a different controller what is on the partition table and the location on disk don't match and things don't work.

I have a WD external disk where the controller will report a disk capacity slightly smaller than the real disk capacity, so who knows what kinds of insanity other controllers from other brands might be doing.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-08-24 01:33:25

[solved]Trouble with External Hard Drive Adaptor (SATA/USB)

#2 2014-08-24 18:02:05

Re: [solved]Trouble with External Hard Drive Adaptor (SATA/USB)

#3 2014-08-24 20:40:33

Re: [solved]Trouble with External Hard Drive Adaptor (SATA/USB)

Board footer