Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

OPosum · 2014-05-25 20:56:27

Hello,

I upgraded my laptop with a new SSD and installed Crunchbang Linux (my first time with this distro).

I am trying to connect my old SSD to the OS to copy my personal files to my laptop. I use the Dynex USB converter where you basically plug in the hard drive on one end, and USB into the computer on the other end.

Once I plug it in, it opens initially as four different drives in four window managers (I had four partitions on the drive including swap) under /media, but before I have time to react and do something about it, they all disappear. Then the system tells me they were mounted automatically, however I can't find them anymore.

Any ideas how can I get my files back to my computer? Any advice would be much appreciated.

OPosum

damo · 2014-05-25 21:07:39

Easiest way for me is in a terminal...

Use the mount command to see if they are already mounted. If not then create mountpoints under /media or /mnt, or anywhere you like eg /media/part1, /media/part2 etc

Use the blkid command to get the names of those partitions, which will be something like /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2. With these examples (change the /dev/sdb1 to whichever your system has)...

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/part1
cd /media/part1
...copy the files...

They should also now show up in thunar under /media/part1 etc

You could also check out the thunar preferences (Preferences -> Advanced -> Volume management)

Last edited by damo (2014-05-25 21:08:46)

OPosum · 2014-05-25 21:16:56

Thanks for your response, blkid only shows me /dev/sda4, which in fact is a partition on my internal hard drive and already mounted where it's supposed to be.

damo · 2014-05-25 21:44:01

OPosum wrote:

Thanks for your response, blkid only shows me /dev/sda4, which in fact is a partition on my internal hard drive and already mounted where it's supposed to be.

AFAIK blkid should show all attached partitions/discs. Try it with sudo blkid?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2014-05-25 21:45:58

There's also lsblk -f... wink

OPosum · 2014-05-25 21:49:58

Strange ... lsblk -f shows me four partitions of my internal hard drive sda1 through sda4, but still won't show the external hard drive even though it is plugged in...

Head_on_a_Stick · 2014-05-25 21:53:54

Maybe a hardware failure --- can you check the Dynex USB convertor you are using?

OPosum · 2014-05-25 21:56:35

but I can see them mounted initially, I can even see my own files and folders and open them, but after few seconds they disappear. then does not matter how much I plug it in and out, nothing happens unless I restart the computer. After restart, it does the same thing.

damo · 2014-05-25 21:57:04

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Maybe a hardware failure --- can you check the Dynex USB convertor you are using?

That was going to be my next question smile I have an external drive caddy where the internal connection sometimes comes loose, so the drive may mount or not, quite randomly sad

OPosum · 2014-05-25 22:09:33

I just tried the 7200 RPM Hitachi hard drive and the same thing happens.

First, Thunar mounts it under network:/// and the separate window opens with folders in it
Then, I see a list of applications asking which application I want to use to open the files
Next, the separate window with folders disappears
Then (almost at the same time), in right upper corner I get the notification that the drive was mounted automatically
After this, what I see under network:/// (where there used to be my personal folders with my files) is just "media"

It is very reproducible with every restart of the computer so I don't think Dynex is not working.

damo · 2014-05-25 22:31:25

You haven't yet said what the output from the mount command is

OPosum · 2014-05-26 01:13:27

Below is the output of the "mount" command. After repeating the command few seconds later (after the icons disappear), the last three lines are missing from the output, the rest is the same

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=188221,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=1649212k,mode=755)
/dev/disk/by-uuid/46561287-5364-469c-a332-36850ae515c7 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=4079520k)
/dev/sda2 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/sda4 on /media/DISK type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/pos/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/89170b5f-65c6-496d-9b64-e289fe0f2c71 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb2 on /media/4b580793-bd98-46ef-bbeb-bca299b392d4 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb4 on /media/9497545a-7de2-47d6-85a9-581f24a022f7 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks)

OPosum · 2014-05-26 01:27:55

I also tried this command

lspci -v | grep HCI

and here is the output

00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])

OPosum · 2014-05-26 01:33:56

and here is another command

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 138a:003d Validity Sensors, Inc.
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 05c8:034b Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd (Foxlink)
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 8087:07da Intel Corp.
Bus 002 Device 108: ID 1f75:0621

damo · 2014-05-26 08:36:25

Your external partitions seem to be mounted on /media/...

/dev/sdb1 on /media/89170b5f-65c6-496d-9b64-e289fe0f2c71 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb2 on /media/4b580793-bd98-46ef-bbeb-bca299b392d4 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb4 on /media/9497545a-7de2-47d6-85a9-581f24a022f7 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks)

PS Please post output using code tags - it makes it MUCH easier to read and scroll through wink

Head_on_a_Stick · 2014-05-26 09:00:23

It must be a hardware issue --- as @damo says, a wire is loose in your convertor... hmm

OPosum · 2014-05-26 22:34:23

You guys were right, it was a hardware issue. I returned the Dynex adapter today in Best Buy and got a different one (Apricorn) which works works fine. By the way, the seller said that they have had this issue with Dynex adapters on multiple occasions.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2014-05-26 22:42:27

Ha! Bloody typical eh?
Glad you got it sorted smile
If you edit the title of your thread & put "[SOLVED]" at the beginning it will help others who have this problem...

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#1 2014-05-25 20:56:27

Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#2 2014-05-25 21:07:39

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#3 2014-05-25 21:16:56

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#4 2014-05-25 21:44:01

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#5 2014-05-25 21:45:58

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#6 2014-05-25 21:49:58

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#7 2014-05-25 21:53:54

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#8 2014-05-25 21:56:35

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#9 2014-05-25 21:57:04

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#10 2014-05-25 22:09:33

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#11 2014-05-25 22:31:25

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#12 2014-05-26 01:13:27

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#13 2014-05-26 01:27:55

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#14 2014-05-26 01:33:56

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#15 2014-05-26 08:36:25

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#16 2014-05-26 09:00:23

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#17 2014-05-26 22:34:23

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

#18 2014-05-26 22:42:27

Re: Mounting external USB hard drive (my old ext4 SSD)

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