External hard drive keeps disappearing while copying

[luke]

Hi everyone,
I got my Bubba|2 in the post today and I must say, what a nifty little device. I'm very happy.
The bubba|3 was announced only a couple of days after I bought the bubba|2 though, how annoying!

Anyway I have about 100GB of music on a 1TB WD "My Book" hard drive and a decent amount of linux knowledge.

I plugged the external HD into one of the USB ports on the bubba, opened an SSH shell to it, mounted it to a directory, and proceeded to copy the contents of the music folder on my external hard drive into /home/storage/music

Here's where things get nasty - The copy process worked fine for a while, but then after a seemingly random interval of time, the external hard drive just doesn't exist anymore, there is no entry in /dev/ for it, and of course, the copy starts throwing errors saying that the files don't exist.

If I unplug the device and plug it in again, I can remount the drive and start again, but this happens every time!!!!

I had a search around the forums but was unable to find anything that fitted my issue exactly - can anybody help me here? Audio streaming is useless if I cannot copy my music to the device!

Cheerio

[luke]

Here's something else to add - Interesting entries from my /var/log/messages

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bubba:~# tail -n 50 /var/log/messages 
Sep 23 22:41:17 bubba kernel: generic-usb 0003:1058:1102.0004: input: USB HID v1.11 Device [Western Digital My Book] on usb-fsl-ehci.0-1.2/input1
Sep 23 22:41:22 bubba kernel: scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Book          1028 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
Sep 23 22:41:22 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
Sep 23 22:41:22 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
Sep 23 22:41:22 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
Sep 23 22:41:22 bubba kernel:  sdd: sdd1
Sep 23 22:41:22 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk
Sep 23 22:46:28 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: reset high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 12
Sep 23 22:46:58 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: reset high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 12
Sep 23 22:47:39 bubba last message repeated 2 times
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Unhandled error code
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Result: hostbyte=0x07 driverbyte=0x00
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] CDB: cdb[0]=0x28: 28 00 4a 7a 78 cb 00 00 f0 00
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Unhandled error code
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Result: hostbyte=0x01 driverbyte=0x00
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] CDB: cdb[0]=0x28: 28 00 4a 7a 79 bb 00 00 10 00
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, address 12
Sep 23 22:47:49 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 13
Sep 23 22:48:20 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 14
Sep 23 22:48:50 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 15
Sep 23 22:49:01 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 16
Sep 23 22:51:22 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 17
Sep 23 22:51:22 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Sep 23 22:51:22 bubba kernel: scsi8 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Sep 23 22:51:22 bubba kernel: input: Western Digital My Book as /devices/platform/fsl-ehci.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.1/input/input4
Sep 23 22:51:22 bubba kernel: generic-usb 0003:1058:1102.0005: input: USB HID v1.11 Device [Western Digital My Book] on usb-fsl-ehci.0-1.2/input1
Sep 23 22:51:27 bubba kernel: scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Book          1028 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
Sep 23 22:51:27 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
Sep 23 22:51:27 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
Sep 23 22:51:27 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
Sep 23 22:51:27 bubba kernel:  sde: sde1
Sep 23 22:51:27 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI disk
Sep 23 22:53:48 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: reset high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 17
Sep 23 22:54:18 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: reset high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 17
Sep 23 22:54:59 bubba last message repeated 2 times
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Unhandled error code
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Result: hostbyte=0x07 driverbyte=0x00
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] CDB: cdb[0]=0x28: 28 00 4a 9f 99 cb 00 00 f0 00
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Unhandled error code
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Result: hostbyte=0x01 driverbyte=0x00
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] CDB: cdb[0]=0x28: 28 00 4a 9f 9a bb 00 00 10 00
Sep 23 22:55:09 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, address 17
Sep 23 22:55:10 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 18
Sep 23 22:55:40 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 19
Sep 23 22:56:11 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 20
Sep 23 22:56:21 bubba kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 21
Sep 23 23:07:43 bubba -- MARK --
Sep 23 23:27:43 bubba -- MARK --
bubba:~# 

[RandomUsername]

OK, I'm not sure what's going on here but two tips.

1. It might work better if you mount the external drive via the web interface. This will mount it in /home/storage/extern.

2. Use rsync for the copy operation. At least then if it does go tits up again you can more-or-less resume where you left off.

[luke]

Hey, thanks for the tips!

I have tried mounting from the web interface and via command line, doesn't seem to make a difference.

I'm not sure how to setup svn to copy to/from the local machine... I'll do some googling.

In the mean time, I've plugged the hard drive into a windows box and I'm transferring over the network... It's VERY slow but it works.

I'll post when there's more news.

[RandomUsername]

Not svn, rsync. It's already installed on the server and very simple to use. Can't type more, I'm outside and my fingers are numb.

[RandomUsername]

I'm back inside now. Just do something like this:

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rsync -av (source) (destination)

[luke]

Yeah sorry I have no idea why I thought you said SVN instead of rsync, I was posting from my phone.

I'll give it a whirl.

[luke]

Okay, I installed rsync (it wasn't installed by default) and got the folders syncing nicely...

Until it started throwing this error for every folder:

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rsync: opendir "/home/storage/extern/My_Book-1/All Music/iTunes/Music/Buddy Rich" failed: No such file or directory (2)

And once again, the hard drive disappeared:

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bubba:/# ls /dev | grep sda
sda
sda1
sda2
sda3
bubba:/# 

Anyway I'll try doing this multiple times to see if it gets any further.

In the mean time, let me know if you think of anything else!

I'm pretty sure these drives are just dodgy when it comes to linux - very annoying!

Cheers

[luke]

Okay I managed to get this working (atleast it's looking good so far!)
It seems it was an issue with my hard drive. I plugged my hard drive into a windows machine and ran a chkdsk (it is a 1TB external USB hard drive so it took about 10 hours)... After I ran all this I plugged the external back into my bubba.

I'm running the copy now, so far I have had no errors and the hard drive has not disconnected itself yet.

I'll post back here if it fails again but I think this has fixed it!

Thanks for you help.

[kennethpnielsen]

Hi there

I'm running the copy now, so far I have had no errors and the hard drive has not disconnected itself yet.

I'll post back here if it fails again but I think this has fixed it!

So, did chkdsk on Windows solved the problem?

I have the exact same problem.

I've too tried mounting USB disks on the Bubba|2 which works fine, but then while copying files the USB drive just seems to disappear from /dev and I get the same errors as mentioned above.

I've tried copying via the interface, SSH shell and Dolphin/KDE, and it happens with both FAT and EXT formatted USB disks.

Does anyone else have suggestions to solve this?

Thanks

/Kenneth

[Cheeseboy]

Hi,

Just a thought...
Could it be that the bubba USB power supply is not enough to keep the disk up and running during the copy operation?
Do you get the same problem if you put a powered USB hub between the bubba and the disk?

Cheers,

Cheeseboy

[kennethpnielsen]

The one disk I've tried is a WD Mybook disk with external AC power supply so power shouldn’t be a problem on that. However it's formatted with FAT so chkdisk on a Windows machine might fix the problem as Luke described (I'm going to test it next week when I've access to a Windows machine).

The other disk is a LaCie Rug powered via an external USB cable. I'm going to test mounting/copying from the disk again while powering it from another USB source than the Bubba - just to make sure if power could be the problem.

/Kenneth

[kennethpnielsen]

I tried connecting the LaCie Rug disk and providing it with USB power from a laptop instead of the Bubba. After mounting the drive in the Bubba interface I could without any problems transfer 17GB from the disk, whereas powering it from the Bubba before I would loose the connection after a few GB.

So apparently power was the issue in that case - Thanks for the idea Cheeseboy.
/Kenneth

[kennethpnielsen]

Running chkdsk on the FAT formatted MyBook USB drive solved the problem.
It took quite a while to run it but afterward I had no more mounting/connection problems

Thanks Luke for this one.

/Kenneth

[aphex]

Here's another likely cause (and solution) of this problem;

http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f ... 27&start=0