Arch Linux

navi_se

Member

Registered: 2015-07-06

Posts: 139

USB drive not detected

I am inspecting my sister's external HD.

Symptoms: on windows the drive goes undetected. Same on Arch.

 lsblk 

only shows my own HD and I cannot see the second device. The same goes for

 # parted --list 

 $ lsusb 

shows it as

Bus 004 Device 005: ID 18a5:0411 Verbatim, Ltd 

and

 $ dmseg 

has information on sdb device

[ 1414.741859] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 1414.756994] usb-storage 4-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 1414.757129] scsi host9: usb-storage 4-1:1.0
[ 1415.756448] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMT     2115             0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 1415.757825] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Spinning up disk...
[ 1416.760180] ....................................................................................................not responding...
[ 1537.020617] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
[ 1537.020626] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : 0x2 [current] 
[ 1537.020630] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] ASC=0x4 ASCQ=0x1 
[ 1543.976427] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[ 1550.932085] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Asking for cache data failed
[ 1550.932097] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1550.933862] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Spinning up disk...

I have read that the test WP failed etc.. is a fairly common msg and should not prevent the drive for working. Yet, I have not found a way to detect the device and  mount it. I am thinking this is probably a physical failure of the drive.

Or could it be some silly windows flag on the file system (file system should be NTFS most likely)?

Any suggestion appreciated, and if it cannot be salvaged, if you have any tip on recovering the content would be appreciated as well.

mich41

Member

Registered: 2012-06-22

Posts: 796

Re: USB drive not detected

It looks like the disk doesn't spin up (does it sound like it spins up?). This could be hardware damage or simply lack of power.

Try using different power adapter or a powered USB hub if the disk is powered from USB. Some USB-powered disks need this funny cable with two USB plugs for more power.

If nothing helps and the disk is out of warranty, open it. Inside you should find a normal SATA disk and some USB-SATA electronics. Take the disk, connect it to SATA port on motherboard and see what happens.

navi_se

Member

Registered: 2015-07-06

Posts: 139

Re: USB drive not detected

Mh..disk does make some spin noise for a little when I plug it in and it has exactly one of those funny looking double usb cables, on which it was working since a while ago.

I shall give a try and open it.

navi_se

Member

Registered: 2015-07-06

Posts: 139

Re: USB drive not detected

Putting it on a SATA port on my desktop PC yields no results. I cannot see it from either the boot menu, grub or ubuntu.

 sudo fdisk -l 

only shows my main hard drive.

I couldn't find any reference to it in dmesg.

tom.ty89

Member

Registered: 2012-11-15

Posts: 897

Re: USB drive not detected

Well,

dmesg | grep " ata\| scsi"

navi_se

Member

Registered: 2015-07-06

Posts: 139

Re: USB drive not detected

I actually did that.

The only thing I saw was a message about reducing ata speed to 1.5gbs, then the system waiting for response and then an errno=-16, then a message saying it was giving up on that port. (sorry, I have disconnected the drive from the sata now)

mich41

Member

Registered: 2012-06-22

Posts: 796

Re: USB drive not detected

I couldn't find any reference to it in dmesg.

The only thing I saw was a message about reducing ata speed to 1.5gbs, then the system waiting for response and then an errno=-16, then a message saying it was giving up on that port. (sorry, I have disconnected the drive from the sata now)

There is a subtle difference between nothing and "sorry, your disk is f**cked, I give up"

Anyway, it seems that your disk, or at least its controller PCB, is busted. Try googling for more information or contact some data recovery company.

navi_se

Member

Registered: 2015-07-06

Posts: 139

Re: USB drive not detected

Yeah, sorry for the misleading posts, but between the two I went back and tried again grepping ata, but did not save the error message. Thanks for the help so far, I might try and get the exact dmesg tomorrow.