External HD not seen and internal HDD on /dev/sda2

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Since a few days i can no longer use my external hard drive (USB). During my quest i noticed the following things:
Running openSUSE 11.2 / KDE 4.4.3 / single boot

  • My internal HD is on /dev/sda2 (mounted /)
  • partition manager (YaST) or gparted don’t start up (they just hang during start-up)
  • I had to change permissions suddenly to read a CD (i was not in de cdrom group, but i have been using CDs for a while)

Thanks for your help!

> df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2            113306052  84757232  22793136  79% /
udev                   2052352      4140   2048212   1% /dev

> fdisk -l 

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41ab2316

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         262     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2   *         263       14593   115113757+  83  Linux
#2

Can you plug the disk in when logged in, then open a terminal window and issue command below, post output here


dmesg | tail -20
#3

Suddenly my KDE sees the disk, but does not mount it…perhaps this is a permission problem?

Is it not a problem that my internal hdd is on /dev/sda?

below is the output of df now (and further below the output dmesg

> df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2            113306052  84779084  22771284  79% /
udev                   2052352      1428   2050924   1% /dev
/dev/sdb1             38456308  13304600  23198208  37% /media/disk-1

 3281.645503] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
 3281.646158] usb-storage: device found at 3
 3281.646164] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
 3297.913270] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     FUJITSU  MHT2040AT        8423 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
 3297.913444] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
 3297.913695] usb-storage: device scan complete
 3297.919846] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 78140160 512-byte logical blocks: (40.0 GB/37.2 GiB)
 3297.920572] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
 3297.920575] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 2a 00 00 00
 3297.920578] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
 3297.924350] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
 3297.924355]  sdb: sdb1
 3297.956568] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
 3297.956572] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
 3298.353058] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 15 seconds
 3298.353624] EXT3 FS on sdb1, internal journal
 3298.353629] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
 3351.112069] usb 1-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
 3382.100089] usb 1-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
 3413.100107] usb 1-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
#4

But it is mounted:

/dev/sdb1             38456308  13304600  23198208  37% /media/disk-1

else it would not be seen by* df.*

You can see what is mounted with

mount

I do not see a mount problem here, you inserted the cable and it is mounted. As I suppose you do have a problem, can you please try to describe better what it is? E.g. (like all good problem descriptions):

  1. I did …
  2. I expected … to happen
  3. But what instead happened is …

BTW what you call your “internal hdd” is not sda1, it is sda. It has two parrtitions, sda1 for Swap and sda2 is mounted as the root partition (on /).
It is rather normal that sda is the disk with the ‘system’ partitions on it.

#5

I guess thinks have resolved themselves… i don’t know how or why. Indeed it’s mounted - it took Dolphin about 5 minutes to open the folder.

The problem was that it did not see the external USB HD (nothing in /dev/…; I though /dev/sd?# was used for USB devices.

Everything seems to work…thanks for your help

Raphael

#6

You are welcome. Nice it works again.

When you have time left for a read, this my be in support of your knowledge: SDB:Basics of partitions, filesystems, mount points - openSUSE