[SOLVED] External HD Cannot Be Detected

[nujinini]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

Hello! Welcome 2010!

And for my first question for this year....

After I executed to try and wipe out an old IDE HD using the command above(planning to use it as an external storage bin), I noticed that my laptop cannot detect it anymore.

jun@debian:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for jun:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc5e3f820

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1555    12490506    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1556       15817   114559515    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           15818       30401   117145980    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5            1556        4768    25808391   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            4769        5558     6345643+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            9380       10144     6144831   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            6731        8285    12490506   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            5559        6730     9414058+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           8286        9379     8787523+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11          10145       15817    45568341   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
jun@debian:~$

This was how it looked like before wiping it out...

[jun@localhost ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for jun: 

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc5e3f820

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1555    12490506    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1556       15817   114559515    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           15818       30401   117145980    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5            1556        4768    25808391   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            4769        5558     6345643+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            9380       10144     6144831   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            6731        8285    12490506   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            5559        6730     9414058+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           8286        9379     8787523+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11          10145       15817    45568341   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa282a282

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1        9553    76734441    6  FAT16
/dev/sdb2            9554        9729     1413720    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            9554        9729     1413688+   6  FAT16
[jun@localhost ~]$

Can someone please tell me what's happening? I mean why my external HD cannot be detected even using Parted Magic? And I would appreciate it much if I can be guided on how to format it and be able to use it as an external storage bin.

Thank you in advance!

[devils casper]

Happy New Year !!!

Something has gone wrong with your HD. Have you tried to check in any other machine?
Execute 'tail -s 3 -f /var/log/messages' command while plugging it in and check if there is any useful info.

[nujinini]

New Years Greetings Casper!

Here is the output:

[jun@localhost ~]$ sudo tail -s 3 -f /var/log/messages
[sudo] password for jun: 
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=2338
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: Product: USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: Manufacturer: JMicron
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: SerialNumber: 832046226873
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
Jan  1 13:34:31 localhost kernel: usbcore: deregistering interface driver usb-storage

I tried it with my xp partition. It does not automatically detect but if I open My Computer, Manage, and then Disk Management, it shows me the 250 laptop HD (Disk 0) with all the partitions and the 80G (Disk 1) storage bin which I am given the option to format to either Primary or Logical. The problem is it does not detect automatically on my desktop like any other USB.

[MikeTbob]

I suggest that you try using a LiveCD, like Parted Magic just to make sure that your version of fdisk is not faulty....you never know. Plus this CD has more tools and useful functions than you can shake a stick at.
Downloads
Try formatting it with the LiveCD, if it works then do a thorough disk check on it.

[devils casper]

the 80G (Disk 1) storage bin which I am given the option to format to either Primary or Logical

.
Have you tried to create Primary partition and format it? Just create partition and format it in NTFS. Check if Windows OS and Linux recognize it after that.
If Linux recognize it, just delete that partition and create new partition structure according to your needs.

[nujinini]

.
Have you tried to create Primary partition and format it? Just create partition and format it in NTFS. Check if Windows OS and Linux recognize it after that.
If Linux recognize it, just delete that partition and create new partition structure according to your needs.

I formatted it as Primary just now. As NTFS. Windows was able to identify and mount as drive F:
It seems to be a healthy partitions since I tried to store some videos and was successful at that.

However, linux (fedora 10) cannot detect it as per my output:

[jun@localhost ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for jun: 

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc5e3f820

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1555    12490506    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1556       15817   114559515    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           15818       30401   117145980    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5            1556        4768    25808391   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            4769        5558     6345643+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            9380       10144     6144831   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            6731        8285    12490506   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            5559        6730     9414058+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           8286        9379     8787523+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11          10145       15817    45568341   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
[jun@localhost ~]$

[nujinini]

I suggest that you try using a LiveCD, like Parted Magic just to make sure that your version of fdisk is not faulty....you never know. Plus this CD has more tools and useful functions than you can shake a stick at.
Downloads
Try formatting it with the LiveCD, if it works then do a thorough disk check on it.

Hi MikeTbob! Happy New Year!

I tried my Parted Magic CD and it identified it with fdisk -l

However, when I opened it through my Fedora 10, it does not identify. Not yet well versed on Parted Magic. How do I do a thorough disk check please?

Thanks!

[MikeTbob]

Hi MikeTbob! Happy New Year!

I tried my Parted Magic CD and it identified it with fdisk -l

However, when I opened it through my Fedora 10, it does not identify. Not yet well versed on Parted Magic. How do I do a thorough disk check please?

Thanks!

That suggests to me that just maybe something is not right with Fedora, no big surprise there because it's basically an experimental distro.

For a disk check, since you have already formatted it as NTFS, then use Windows to check it....or format it as Linux partition and use fsck,,make sure you unmount it first!!

man fsck

So something like

 fsck -r /dev/sdx1

Substitute /dev/sdx1 with the correct partition values.

EDIT: Happy new year to you too buddy!

[nujinini]

Happy new year to you too buddy!

Thanks man!

I executed fsck -r /dev/sdb1 using Parted Magic. I got an error saying something like this...

fsck.nttfs-3g not found

The funny thing is that my openSUSE partition was able to recognize and mount the external HD. At first it said it cannot mount because it was not properly shutdown on windows. So I went back to XP and properly remove USB and after going back to openSUSE, was able to mount it and open my files.

jun@linux-1wqu:~> su -
Password: 
linux-1wqu:~ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc5e3f820

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1555    12490506    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1556       15817   114559515    5  Extended
/dev/sda3           15818       30401   117145980    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5            1556        4768    25808391   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            4769        5558     6345643+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            9380       10144     6144831   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            6731        8285    12490506   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            5559        6730     9414058+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           8286        9379     8787523+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11          10145       15817    45568341   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8a105d9d

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        9729    78148161    7  HPFS/NTFS
linux-1wqu:~ #

I am wondering why my Fedora 10, Debian Lenny, and even Mint 7 cannot detect like openSUSE. May I ask if you have any hunch what can be happening please?

Does it have anything to do with the "fsck.ntfs-3g" error report above?

Thanks!

[nujinini]

Hello!

I just realized that my external HD is now detected in my Mint 7, Debian Lenny, openSUSE, Mandriva, and xp.

So I guess this one is solved. I will just start a new thread in Fedora since only my fedora failed to detect the external HD.

Thanks a lot!