Problem with External HDD

[FSGfellow]

Hello all,
Since I haven't receive a solution in the freecom forums, I decided to post my topic here.

So...

Here is my setup:
I have all-in-one device from freecom, called "FSG WLAN"(ARM based) connected to Samsung Story 1.5GB external USB HDD having dedicated power supply, which seems to cause me problems from time to time.

The problem:
After several hours of transferring files over ssh and samba to the external HDD, suddenly the FSG generates an error and the external HDD gets remounted in read-only mode.
According to the logs, the reason for that error should be: "<6>sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00070000"
I have searched in google but I cannot find any feasible solution.

~ #  uname -a
Linux FSG 2.6.18 #174 Wed Mar 12 17:13:32 UTC 2008 armv5teb unknown

~ # mount
/dev/root on / type reiserfs (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
none on /ramdisk type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda4 on /home type reiserfs (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
/dev/sda4 on /opt type reiserfs (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
/dev/sdb1 on /home/Samsung_STORY_Station_-0000 type vfat (rw,sync,noatime,nodiratime,fmask=0000,dmask=0000,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1)
/dev/sdb2 on /home/Samsung_STORY_Station_-0000-1 type ext3 (rw,sync,noatime,nodiratime,data=ordered)

~ # dmesg
reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00070000
<4>end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2825376576
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00070000
<4>end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2825376576
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00070000
<4>end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2825784520
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00070000
<4>end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2825784536
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00070000
<4>end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2825784536
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
<6>sd 3:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00070000
......................
A lot of lines like previous ones....
......................
<2>ext3_abort called.
<2>EXT3-fs error (device sdb2): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
<2>Remounting filesystem read-only

I will appreciate any ideas.
If you don't the solution, but know a more proper place(forum), please share that infromation with me.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

<4>end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2825376576

Before trying any tool or suggestion, I would suggest you to check your Hard disk with tool provided by your Hard disk manufacturer. Those tools detect and rectify errors more efficiently than other tool/method.

[FSGfellow]

Unfortunately the tools which Samsung provides are only designed for Windows platforms. The 'problematic' partition is in EXT3 file system, therefore it could not be checked.
I have also tried to rub e2fsck tool on my home PC with external HDD attached to it. The tool finds and fixes some errors in the directory organization. I also performed some tests (by copying several gigabytes to and from the hard drive) and I did not get any problems.

[oz]

Unfortunately the tools which Samsung provides are only designed for Windows platforms.

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Most hard drive makers make a version of their diagnostics tool that will run from a liveCD so that you don't need Windows installed, but I'm not sure about Samsung. There are several online utility disks that come with a number of hard drive tools so one or more of them might include the Samsung tool that you seek. The Ultimate Boot CD might have it:

Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

[FSGfellow]

Hi Ozar,
which Linux program did you recommend to use for ext3 partition diagnoses?

PS: Samsung does not have a bootable partition or CD. They only provide a set of programs for Windows OS.

[oz]

which Linux program did you recommend to use for ext3 partition diagnoses?

If you want native Linux hard drive diagnosing apps, you can check out smartmontools or Gnome's Disk Utility.

[oz]

For repairing ext2 and ext3 filesystems, running fsck should work. Check the manual page for options on using it:

man fsck

[FSGfellow]

Yes, I connect the disk to my computer and I have run e2fsck to fix the errors. The tool fixes the journal information and recovers some files. The report at the end says that the disk does not have any bad sectors.
I also transfer several gigs from my computer to the external drive without any problems.

Later, I connect the Samsung disk to the all-in-one FSG box, it works fine for two days and during one of the file transfers through samba it gives again the upper mentioned errors.

This is the report of e2fsck:

sam@ubuntu:~$ sudo e2fsck -v -f /dev/sdb2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

    8715 inodes used (0.01%)
     530 non-contiguous files (6.1%)
       9 non-contiguous directories (0.1%)
         # of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 7958/1696/2
25013986 blocks used (7.34%)
       0 bad blocks
       4 large files

    8395 regular files
     311 directories
       0 character device files
       0 block device files
       0 fifos
       0 links
       0 symbolic links (0 fast symbolic links)
       0 sockets
--------
    8706 files

The gnome utility disk does not indicate any kind of problems or errors.

Therefore, I am sure that the problem is with the Linux USB drivers or the Linux support for the EXT3 file system.

The question is how to fix the errors.

[devils casper]

Have you checked same disk with LiveCD of any other distro? Does it throw same error?
Post the contents of /etc/fstab file here.

[FSGfellow]

The output in the last post is produced with a different distro. In my case, it is Ubuntu 10.10

this is the output of mount:

/dev/root on / type reiserfs (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
none on /ramdisk type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda4 on /home type reiserfs (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
/dev/sda4 on /opt type reiserfs (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
/dev/sdb1 on /home/Samsung_STORY_Station_-0000 type vfat (rw,sync,noatime,nodiratime,fmask=0000,dmask=0000,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1)
/dev/sdb2 on /home/Samsung_STORY_Station_-0000-1 type ext3 (rw,sync,noatime,nodiratime,data=ordered)