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Why won't my 1 TB USB drive appear?

rated 0 times [ 1] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 2488 / 2 Years ago, wed, july 27, 2022, 12:14:09

I've been having some problems with getting an USB drive to appear. First I connected it to my Ubuntu laptop and the drive appeared and I could format it with the ext file system. Then I moved the drive to another computer that is also running Ubuntu and the drive won't appear in GParted or other tools. Could you recommend a way to proceed? Thanks

UPDATE. Here's the output from $ dmesg | tail

[245126.162668] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245128.122950] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245128.186959] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245128.554783] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245129.050730] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245132.522971] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245132.578123] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245133.466497] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245134.627949] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while unhiding cursor

[245135.574092] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: no space while hiding cursor

...

[257116.514694] scsi6 : usb-storage 2-6:1.0

[257117.545565] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       5000AAKB Externa l108 P

Q: 0 ANSI: 0

[257117.546254] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0

[257117.549423] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465

 GiB)

[257117.550426] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off

[257117.550430] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00

[257117.551416] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present

[257117.551422] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through

[257117.554039] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present

[257117.554043] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through

[257117.557055]  sdc: sdc1

[257117.559543] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present

[257117.559548] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through

[257117.559552] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk

And new output from $dmesg | tail

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ dmesg | tail

[  128.502416] usbcore: registered new interface driver usblp

[  130.703847] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

[  130.703909] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X

[  130.703935] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: setting latency timer to 64

[  135.755667] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

[11469.094303] EXT4-fs (sdc1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

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defendle

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3 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago herriail · Accepted Answer

Can you force mounting of the drive?

sudo mkdir /media/LaCie

sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sdc1 /media/LaCie -o force

A couple of pointers - ext4 is the drive format - if you formatted with ext2 or 3 then use "ext2" or "ext3" respectively.

Also "/dev/sdc1" is the device name linux sees your drive. You can see what device name is by running dmesg.

N.B. check that the drive is being seen - first boot without your drive - run dmesg - plug in your drive and run dmesg again.

If no output is displayed - then my strong guess is that you have a defective drive.

Your question had some initial dmesg trace - if you no longer have any output then my strong guess was that your drive was dying - and now has died.

Similarly - if Windows does not offer to format the drive when it is plugged in, this is another strong indicator that the drive has failed.

As to why - external drives are like other drives - if you moved/bumped the drive whilst in use it could cause corruptions. In rare causes - cause it to fail.

Drives are mechanical - any sort of weak mechanical link/electrical failure would cause what you are seeing.