TCL is not seeing my Western Digital 1TB usb hard drive

[docsulo]

Any suggestions?

It works fine on every other distro I have.

[maro]

Are you using boot code 'waitusb=n'? With 'n' a delay in seconds to ensure device recogition at boot time, typical values are 5, 10, etc. I'd suggest to first try it with a higher value and reduce it later (until it fails again).

Furthermore, please provide here the output of fdisk -lu and dmesg | grep -i usb for me to be able to "see" what's going on.

[docsulo]

Maro,

I'm not using the waitusb code.  I didn't think I needed to since I can plug in the USB after the system has booted (yes?)

Now that I did those two outputs (see below), I see the USB drive at /dev/sdb. However when I attempt to mount the device in rox-filer I get the following error:

Mounting /mnt/sdb1
mount: mounting /dev/sdb1 on /mnt/sdb1 failed: No such device
Mount failed

Done
There was one error.

Output of dmesg | grep -i usb

usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
usbcore: registered new device driver usb
ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver
uhci_hcd: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5
hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-alauda
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-cypress
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-freecom
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-isd200
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-jumpshot
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-karma
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-onetouch
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-sddr09
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-sddr55
usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-usbat
usbcore: registered new interface driver berry_charge
usbcore: registered new interface driver appletouch
usbcore: registered new interface driver bcm5974
usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
usbhid: USB HID core driver
usb 3-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
hub 3-2:1.0: USB hub found
usb 4-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-2.1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
input: Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-2/4-2:1.0/input/input3
microsoft 0003:045E:00F9.0001: input: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-2/input0
usb 3-2.1: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
scsi4 : usb-storage 3-2.1:1.0
input: Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-2/4-2:1.1/input/input4
microsoft 0003:045E:00F9.0002: input: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-2/input1
usbcore: registered new interface driver oss_usb





output of fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1   *          63      112454       56196  de Unknown
/dev/sda2          112455   143524709    71706127+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3       305235000   312576704     3670852+ db Unknown
/dev/sda4       143524771   268863839    62669534+  5 Extended
/dev/sda5       143524773   155814434     6144831  82 Linux swap
/dev/sda6       155814498   217375514    30780508+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7       217375578   268863839    25744131  83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/loop0: 0 MB, 8192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 16 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop0 doesn't contain a valid partition table
fdisk: can't open '/dev/ramzswap0': Permission denied

Disk /dev/loop10: 0 MB, 77824 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 152 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop10 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/loop20: 0 MB, 405504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 792 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop20 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/loop30: 0 MB, 53248 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 104 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop30 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track,

[gerald_clark]

You need to partition thedrive, and create a filesystem on the partition before you can use it.

[docsulo]

Why would I want to partition it?

It's a USB drive full of data.

I am loading tiny core from CD.  I have the TC folder on a linux ext 3 partition.

So everything is fine as far as running TCL goes.   I just can't seem to mount the USB drive and I need to because that is where all the data I use is located (if this operating system is to be of any use to me).

[maro]

I'm not clear whether the device in question was connected at the time when you ran those two commands. So let's be a bit more precise:
(1) boot TC, but keep the device disconnected,
(2) take a snapshot of 'dmesg' (e.g. via dmesg > dmesg_initial),
(3) connect your device and wait 15 seconds,
(4) take another snapshot and find out what has changed (e.g. via dmesg > dmesg_current ; diff -U 0 dmesg_initital dmesg_current),
(5) get some more information: fdisk -lu /dev/sd* ; blkid /dev/sd*,

Please report the result of (4) & (5) here.

If you want to get a better grasp of the timing of the recognition you could do what I just did:

dmesg > dmesg_prev
while [ 1 ] ; do
    date '+%T'
    dmesg > dmesg_now
    ADD=$( diff -U 0 dmesg_prev dmesg_now | sed -e '/^+[^+]/!d' -e 's#^+##' )
    [ -n "$ADD" ] && printf '%s\n' "$ADD"
    mv -f dmesg_now dmesg_prev
    sleep 1
done

In my case with an external USB drive it resulted in:

Code: [Select]

12:54:30
12:54:31
12:54:32
12:54:33
12:54:34
12:54:35
12:54:36
usb 1-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 10
scsi6 : usb-storage 1-6:1.0
12:54:37
12:54:38
12:54:39
12:54:40
12:54:41
scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Maxtor   OneTouch         0125 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 625142448 512-byte logical blocks: (320 GB/298 GiB)
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 2d 08 00 00
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sdb:
12:54:42
 sdb: sdb1
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
As I connected the USB drive at '12:54:30' this indicates to me that I'd have to allow for a delay of ca. 13 seconds to be reasonably safe for the detection to have succeeded. I'd imagine that for booting TC from such a device a lower value might work as well, as some of the time consumed up to the first message is just the spinning up of the disk, and that would go in parallel to the kernel and initrd extraction, hence the respective 'waitusb' value should be below 13 seconds (probably more in the order of 6-7 seconds).

[gerald_clark]

You want to partition the drive because TC does not recgnize unpartitioned drives.
You can manually mount sdb, but TC will not find the tce directory unless it is on a partition.

Why would anybod buy a 1T drive and then not partition it?

[maro]

I'm sorry for having posted reply #5. Who knows I might start having "senior moments".

The important information was already at the very end of reply #2 (I just overlooked it in the "noise" from the loop devices):

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track

Thanks to gerald_clark for keeping the "real" troubleshooting on track.

I'll leave reply #5 unchanged as it might be helpful in some other (possibly related) cases.

[tinypoodle]

docsulo,

On a sidenote, but not unimportant, the partition table of /dev/sda appears to be rather unorthodox in possibly more than one aspect. The impact of such might depend on software used to access the disk/partitions. 'testdisk' might possibly help to fix that.

[docsulo]

Why would anybod buy a 1T drive and then not partition it?

I bought the drive when I was running Windows XP and didn't feel the need to partition it.

In any case, I have nearly 1 T of data on the hard drive and would like to access it. 

Is there a way to mount the hard drive or not?

[tinypoodle]

As you claim

It works fine on every other distro I have.

have a look how exactly those other distros handle it...

You might be able to fix your partition table - or create one if there really isn't any or it is empty - with the help of any software which would be capable to do so, but as you say it is full of data, you could never totally exclude a risk of data loss in such cases.

If I were you I would do some serious in-depth research about software to fix such issues, IMHO this is not only an issue which goes beyond the border of competence of TC but even of Linux.

First thing I would look at would be 'testdisk' http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk and all its rather detailed documentation.

Most upper is also applicable to the partition table of your /dev/sda which looks wrong in more than one aspect.

[gerald_clark]

If this is an ntfs drive you will need to install the ntfs-3g extension.
Then:
mkdir /mnt/sdb
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb /mnt/sdb

[docsulo]

If this is an ntfs drive you will need to install the ntfs-3g extension.
Then:
mkdir /mnt/sdb
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb /mnt/sdb

Well that definitely moved things in the right direction.

Thank you.

Now I get this:

NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
mount: mounting /dev/sdb on /mnt/sdb failed: No such device

Note:  This is a 1TB removable USB hard drive.  It was formatted NTFS.  It works fine on Windows XP, Ubunutu and Puppy Linux 5.11.

[tinypoodle]

You could try 'ntfsmount' (contained in ntfsprogs.tcz) instead of ntfs-3g.

Not complying with standards in general has the consequence that it would be hardly predictable how any particular software would handle such a case.

[docsulo]

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb /mnt/sdb

Got it to work with this:
sudo ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb

I just changed /dev/sdb to /dev/sdb1 and removed the -t before the ntfs

Why did you have a -t in the command you used?  I see it in the manual at http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-manual - but can't find what it does.