Installed Arch on external usb drive: Drive errors after reboot

I installed Arch on my external usb hard drive and everything seemed to be working fine. After rebooting though, I had a bunch of filesytem errors (ext3) and the system was unstable. I am guessing that this has to do with the unloading of the usb modules at shutdown. If this happens to early, then the root drive doesn't have a chance to shutdown properly, hence the filesystem errors.
Anyone know how to solve this?
Thanks!

EtreCheck looks at your log files for any kernel I/O errors. That is what it is reporting. EtreCheck just reports what it finds and tries to avoid judgements exception the most extreme cases. The drive might be OK. I am seeing more reports of this than I would have expected. It may just be a problem with Yosemite. It really prefers SSD disks in all cases. On my own machine, I have seen a slow external drive exhibit classic failure symptoms and sounds when connected via USB2. But then when I switched to FW800, it was fine. Other people are reporting that when they downgraded back to Mavericks, their disk errors went away.
So, I don't have a good answer for you. The drive might be bad, and it might be fine. Yosemite is definitely having problems with it. You may experience performance problems with that drive attached.

Similar Messages

Installing from an external usb cdrom drive

I am able to boot an external usb cdrom drive but I cannot figure out how to mount that usb cdrom drive to complete the install.
My boot command is:
arch-scsi NEEDUSB=auto
I cannot run loaddisk, as it does not find the usb cdrom, so I cannot load the addon utilities (thus I cannot modprobe usb-storage).
I can run /arch/setup but when it gets to package selection, I am unable to select the CDROM source. This machine is not on the net, so I cannot do a ftp install.
Has anyone else installed ARCH using an external USB cdrom drive ?
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you Xentac for you help. I looked up the bug report and understand the problem. Now how do I proceed from here?
Any suggestions on a work around? Should I rebuild the 0.7 beta disk with additions to the initrd? Eventually, I will need to install Arch on about twenty standalone systems. They do not have cdrom's in them, and are not on a network. Sounds like I may have to open up the units and plug a cdrom in for the install
I was thinking of cloning the disk (i.e. open up unit, take hard drive out, put in another system and clone), but it has been pointed out that doing a basic install is a good way of testing the hardware. It doesn't take very long and we have to do testing of our software anyways.
I open to suggestions!

Problems Installing Win7 using External, USB DVD Drive

I have a mid 2010 15" i7 MBP which I upgraded to from 4GB to 8GB RAM courtesy of OWC. I recently upgraded the 500GB 7200RPM HD with a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 and using an OWC Data Doubler, I replaced the DVD SuperDrive with the 500GB Hard Drive.
I used an External USB DVD Drive to install OS X SL On the SSD without issues. Also, I got all my updates and software installed and working without any problems.
I've been running great for about 2 weeks now, so I decided to install Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. I ran Boot Camp Assistant and partitioned the 240GB SSD in half 120/120. Everything went fine with creating the partition. I selected to Install from the Win 7 DVD media in the USB DVD drive and rebooted. I got a grey screen. I turned the computer off and turned it back on. Holding down Option, I selected the Install DVD from the Boot Menu. I then got a screen with the Apple Logo flashing intermittently with a Circle/Cross Hatch. So I can't get the Windows Install to start to save my life. I know the External, USB DVD works since I used it to install OS X and I have no problems using it in OS X. I Know the media works because I tried a test install, without activation in a VMWare Fusion VM.
Any suggestions are appreciated?

So here is the answer. The Firmware on the MacBook Pro only supports installation of OS X from External Media and will not install operating systems from 3rd Parties. I tried to install Windows XP, Win7 Ultimate 32 & 64bit, and Ubuntu 11.04 but no success.
Supposedly, the MacBook Air does support installation of 3rd party operating systems from external media, but I have no way to confirm this.
I ended up reinstalling the internal DVD drive installing Win 7 and Ubuntu on the SSD. Using rEFI, I'm able to triple boot all 3 operating systems. Then removed the drive again and reinstalled the 2nd HD. Everything seems to be working fine.
I'm looking for someone who has experience in Mac EFI Hacking to see if there is a way to enable booting 3rd Party OSes from external media. I'm guessing someone could examine the MBA firmware and figure out how to hack that capability into the MBP.

Install Arch in an USB Flash drive from an existing image

I want to minimize the amount of writes to the flash drive by avoiding directly installing Arch into it.
I would like to know if it would be possible to install arch into an small partition, configure it, and then make an image of it and dump it at the USB drive(like when creating the USB install).
Does it worth the while doing so?
Thanks!
Last edited by cristian.rosa (2009-03-05 14:41:11)

Sure. You could do that, then just rsync or cp -ax it onto the Flash drive and set up GRUB.

Is it possible to install leopard from external USB DVD drive?

Hi all,
I've read through the various posts on the subject and there doesn�t seem to be a definitive answer on this. I've got a Lacie USB2 DL DVD drive which I'm trying to use to install leopard on an earlier MacBook Pro (core duo 2.0ghz). I've tried the various suggestions (hold c on boot, hold option key on boot, set dvd as startup drive), and so far been unsuccessful. The drive is just not recognized.
The DVD media is fine(I've got family edition of Leopard), I've successfully installed it on my G5. The Lacie drive recognizes it fine, when I'm in tiger on MBP and insert the disk it is mounted as I would expect. I did try dbl-clicking the install icon as well (in case you were wondering)
So, does anyone have any other ideas for me to try, or should I go and get a refund on the Lacie drive? The guys in the store (Apple authorized reseller, not Apple Store) assured me it would work, so I don't want to look like a clown if it is possible and I'm just doing it wrong
Anyway, thanks in advance for any replies.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Yes the MBP is currently running Tiger, I want to flatten this with a fresh install of Leopard. I can view the install DVD when in Tiger currently.
I haven't tried what you have suggested, but I have seen various posts suggesting this approach. I've also seen several posts explain how to create a partition on an external firewire Harddrive and this seems to have worked for various people.
This would however mean that I didn't really need the external Lacie drive at all, as I've got access to my G5s DVD drive over the network. The more I search on this, the more convinced I am the USB drive was a bad idea.
Once again thank for the response.

External USB Hard Drive Can't Be Safely Removed After Boot Camp 3.1 Install

I just wanted to report that I've done multiple installs of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit on my MacBook 4,1 and although I've had no problem using the cmd workaround ( http://www.zath.co.uk/how-to-install-windows-7-on-apple-mac-boot-camp/ ) to install the 64-bit Boot Camp drivers that come with the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard retail DVD, I have found that by installing the Boot Camp 3.1 drivers on the same system, under no circumstance can I click the the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray and not receive a message saying that ... "The device 'Generic Volume' cannot be safely ejected..." and that some program or service must be using it. However, a restart doesn't solve the problem any more than logging out does.
I read somewhere that part of the fix that Boot Camp 3.1 was intended to provide was to allow safe ejecting of the Macintosh HFS+ partition. Well, my external hard drive has three partitions: one NTFS, another NTFS, and a third HFS+ for Time Machine backups. I suspect, since I haven't seen anyone else reporting this issue, that it may simply be that the Boot Camp 3.1 drivers don't take into account the possibility of an HFS+ partition on external USB devices. Anyway, a System Restore to before Boot Camp 3.1 drivers were installed completely remedies the issue.
At this point, I'm not having any trackpad issues or anything else of note with respect to the original Boot Camp 3.0 drivers that came with the Snow Leopard retail disc, so I'm fine keeping those drivers installed and allowing Windows Update to update the Intel and Marvell drivers as it recommends. I just find it slightly amusing that the Boot Camp 3.0 drivers, which supposedly did not support Windows 7 (let alone the 64-bit version) work better than the 3.1 drivers which do supposedly support Windows 7. And the funny thing (or is it?) is that you have to install the original Boot Camp drivers with the cmd workaround before you're even able to update to the Boot Camp 3.1 drivers. Hilarious stuff there.
Proprietary gamesmanship is a big reason some of us prefer the Linux "share the ownership +for free+" model of computing. Just saying...
Anyone have any proper solutions (as in, other than "don't install the updates then!")?
bkadoctaj

I have a pair of external usb drives, one formatted for NTFS and the other for HFS+ connected through an external 7 port hub. I am running Windows 7 (64 bit) with bootcamp 3.1 on a late 2009 Mac BookPro. I share the same "safely remove hardware" issues you described. I always assumed it was because my external drives were connected through my external USB hub because of a similar issue I had running Vista (64 bit), but now I can confirm directly connecting the external USB HFS+ drive also yields the same "safely remove hardware" problem. Unfortunately for me, if I regress to the Bootcamp 3.0 drivers, my audio drivers, at times, fails to load. I would need to regress to Windows Vista (64 bit), the last environment where my iSight camera, internal speakers and all other hardware performed correctly. I would gladly, at this point, live with the "safely remove hardware" issue in exchange for a working iSight camera, the one and only hardware device lost to me in the move to Windows 7.

External USB hard drive won't reformat, won't appear in Finder, error: Unable to write to the last block of the device message

So I just got a new MacBook Air and since I had an external USB hard drive (TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 1TB) lying around, I decided to use it for back-up. Since I only have just the one hard drive, I decided to partition it into two - one for Time Machine backups, and one for general files (formatted FAT so I could use it with Windows). However, the partitioning failed and I ended up with a partition named disk1s2. Plus, it won't appear on Finder anymore, but it appears in Disk Utility.
I have tried to reformat it, but I always get the message "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
Here's the info about my drive:
Name: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Media
Type: Disk
Partition Map Scheme: GUID Partition Table
Disk Identifier: disk1
Media Name: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Media
Media Type: Generic
Connection Bus: USB
USB Serial Number: 1220069C
Device Tree: IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/XHC@14
Writable: Yes
Ejectable: Yes
Location: External
Total Capacity: 1 TB
Disk Number: 1
Partition Number: 0
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Not Supported
And here's for disk1s2:
Name: disk1s2
Type: Partition
Disk Identifier: disk1s2
Mount Point: Not mounted
File System: Mac OS Extended
Connection Bus: USB
Device Tree: IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/XHC@14
Writable: Yes
Capacity: 999.86 GB
Owners Enabled: No
Can Turn Owners Off: Yes
Can Be Formatted: Yes
Bootable: Yes
Supports Journaling: Yes
Journaled: No
Disk Number: 1
Partition Number: 2
Here's what it says when I run diskutil in Terminal:
Device Identifier:        disk1
Device Node:              /dev/disk1
Part of Whole:            disk1
Device / Media Name:      TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Media
Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)
File System:              None
Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
OS Can Be Installed:      No
Media Type:               Generic
Protocol:                 USB
SMART Status:             Not Supported
Total Size:               1.0 TB (1000204884480 Bytes) (exactly 1953525165 512-Byte-Units)
Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
Read-Only Media:          No
Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
Ejectable:                Yes
Whole:                    Yes
Internal:                 No
OS 9 Drivers:             No
Low Level Format:         Not supported
I didn't have any data in it prior to the failed partitioning attempt, so there aren't any worries of data recovery. But I'd really like to be able to use this drive again, and save some money (external hard drives are expensive where I live). Anyone with any ideas?

I'd also like to add that repairing the disk using Disk Utility does nothing but tell me to reformat the drive. So I'm stuck in a loop here.

[SOLVED] Kernel panic when using external USB hard drive

I have a desktop PC with a 64 bit arch install, on a Core2 Duo 6320 CPU. I have been using (and continue using right now) a 500 GB "Iomega Desktop Hard Drive" external USB hard disk without problems. But I have just bought a 3 TB "Seagate Expansion" external USB hard drive and I'm unable to use it from my Arch install. Each time I try to format it or to copy data from the PC, Arch freezes with a kernel panic. Sometimes it freezes faster and I cannot see anything, but others I am able to see the following kernel messages, repeating several times:
[11701.205071] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13380 tag 29, inflight: CMD
[11701.221297] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.221313] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.221323] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13500 tag 30, inflight: CMD
[11701.237550] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.237567] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.237576] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13680 tag 31, inflight: CMD
[11701.253922] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.253936] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.253956] sd 3:0:0:0: uas_eh_device_reset_handler
[11704.252182] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: LOGICAL UNIT RESET timed out
[11704.252196] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler start
[11704.252443] usb 5-6: stat urb: killed, stream 0
[11704.358882] usb 5-6: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[11704.483206] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler success
Strange enough, the drive is listed by lsusb command as a 2TB but I don't think this is related to the problem (as the OS sees the 3 TB). This is the lsusb output:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bc2:3312 Seagate RSS LLC SRD00F2 [Expansion Desktop Drive 2TB]
I have tried the drive on other PCs and it works flawlessly. Also tried booting Windows 8 on the same PC I have Arch installed in, and in Windows it also works perfect. I have tried using ext2 and NTFS filesystems. Tried also changing the USB cable without success. And right now I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?
Last edited by doragasu (2014-07-03 11:06:25)

looks like it could be the UAS module , check https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=183190

External USB hard drive not being recognized

Hello! I'm sure this has been posted before, but excuse my naivety with this sort of thing...
I have a mac mini 10.5.6 (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and I run the Time Machine function to an external usb hard drive. The hard drive worked fine (plugged into the usb port on an older keyboard), but I went out and bought a new aluminum apple keyboard (because they look so cool ^_^ ) - I plugged the external usb drive into the keyboard and it wasn't recognized, so I tried plugging the external drive directly into the mac mini, but it is still not recognized. It is not showing up in Disk Utility or in System Profiler
Help? I'd hate to have to give up this fancy keyboard...
Thank you!
Dr. E

I believe I had my external drive plugged into the (old) keyboard because with the old mac that I had didn't have a free usb port for it - so when I got the mini I just plugged things back in where they were. But I have always had the Time Machine back up to this drive (connected to the keyboard) though it has been slow (another reason I thought the new keyboard was a good idea).
I tried restarting the computer without the alu keyboard plugged in, but same problem of no drive showing up.
Here is what System Profiler has to say about my drive:
USB2.0 Storage Device:
Capacity: 93.16 GB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Product ID: 0x6830
Vendor ID: 0x04b4 (Cypress Semiconductor)
Version: 0.01
Serial Number: DEF107920F07
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Cypress Semiconductor
Location ID: 0x3d130000
Current Available (mA): 100
Current Required (mA): 0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
USB:
Capacity: 92.84 GB
Available: 53.14 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s2
Mount Point: /Volumes/USB
I don't know the brand or model as it has 'always' been in the case that in which it currently resides and I didn't physically buy the thing :\ I do know that no software was installed with the drive as I assumed that when I put all the old info from the original mac to the mini that it was the sort of thing that would carry over.
Sorry I'm not terribly helpful - Thank you!
Dr. E

HP external USB DVD Drive not recognized by computer.

Have HP Mini-210 and HP external USB DVD Drive. When attached, the DVD drive lights and spins but computor will not recognize it. When checking Device Manager, it says no driver for DVD drive.. I try to reinstall the driver, and then it says I have the best one already. Device Manager continues to indicate that this drive has a problem. Tried to download a driver from HP support and it was not available on line.
Copied install disk that came with drive thru dropbox cloud to move it onto the computor. Was able to install the programs but still have no driver and unable to use DVD drive.

Try this wayne
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929461/en-us

(SOLVED) Full install on a 2gb USB flash drive?

So here's the deal, I am not sure if this is the best place to post this. I am a newbie so I am just thinking out of my %^& here.
I love Arch more than any other distro, and I want to bring it with me. As of now I use Arch on my laptop and desktop. However it's missing on my work computer. It would be best if I didn't mess with the work computers, so I am curious about installing Arch on a USB.
If I went with a minimal install, keeping things around 1.5gb with most applications and whatnot installed, would I be able to boot it and work with it and not have any problems?
How could this be done, would it be possible to:
- Partition the USB, one partition for the boot (ext 2, primary boot) and another partition for / and home etc.
If this does in fact work, would it be slow as death running completely off a USB? If that's the case how difficult would it be to copy the system to RAM but keep /usr running off the USB so configs and files could be saved?
I know there are other distros that work well off a USB like Puppy Linux (which supports saving configs and files etc.). I have been using lubuntu live because it is similar to my Arch setup, but doesn't support saving onto the USB. I would prefer to stick with Arch the whole way.
Last edited by Google (2010-06-24 14:34:06)

running from USB for me has been WAY worth the learning of grub2 and all the other things. I run a 16 gig stick and an 8 gig stick. standard installs and have grub 2 doing double duty to boot other ISOs when desired. The 8 gig stick has 2 partitions and arch boots sweetly off partition 2. I have gotten good enough at manually modifying the grub2 cfg file. I don't use any of the errr, clever stuff that's spread out in /etc for grub2. heck with that I thought!
Also: I just mount some other drive to save bigger files. Have a vbox file on the internal drive that can esily be moved around as well. Totally totally ARCH works fantastic as a stock install on USB. I figured why complicate/dilute my learning (as I'm only approaching advanced ability) by even thinking about other distro. If there's wasn't ARCH I'd go BSD, which would be very challenging due to drivers, flash, vbox etc. Just My brief though here.
UPDATE: forgot the point somewhat. Thinking to add here: I get (regular install of) ARCH to run on a 1 gig flash stick which coincidentally I'm creating right now. In fact it has a vfat partition 1 and an 800 meg ext2 partition 2. Lots of ways to trim stuff out after install. There's a couple of threads about deleting locals and stuff here. Can save, I think it was 2 or 3 hundred meg quickly.
One thing is running a windows manager and not a desktop environment of course/obviously.
best wishes to all!
Last edited by yvonney (2010-06-27 18:32:20)

Transfering iTunes files to new computer using external USB hard drive

Thought this could be useful:
If you want to transfer your complete iTunes library to a new computer preserving all your playlists and library information, but without using your iPod as a hard dive, or without burning a CD or DVD, you can do it by using an USB external hard drive following these easy steps:
1) Quit iTunes
2) Connect your USB external hard drive to your computer and acccess it thru My PC or Windows Explorer.
3) Create two new folders in your external hard drive (you can name them LIBRARY Backup and PLAYLISTS Backup).
4) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder.
5) Open another Windows Explorer or My PC window; open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
6) Copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the LIBRARY Backup folder you created in your external USB Hard Drive.
7) Close both the LIBRARY Backup folder from your USB external hard drive and the iTunes Music folder.
8) Open the PLAYLISTS Backup folder from your USB external hard drive
9) From your iTunes folder, copy the iTunes Music Library.xml to the PLAYLISTS Backup folder.
10) Close all the windows and extract your USB external hard drive from your PC ()
11) Install iTunes in your new computer.
12) Using Windows Explorer open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
13) Connect the USB hard drive to your new computer and open it using another Windows Explorer window.
14) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder and copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the iTunes Music folder in your new computer. After the copying is complete, close this folder.
15) Copy the PLAYLISTS Backup folder to you new computer’s desktop.
16) Close Windows Explorer and extract USB hard drive.
17) Open iTunes
18) From the File menu, choose Import. Navigate to the iTunes Music Library.xml file on the Desktop and click Choose. The imported playlist will show only songs located on the computer's hard disk or external media.
19) You can now delete the xml. file from your new computer’s desktop if you wish.
PC Windows XP Owner of 5th Generation iPod

Type "move itunes library" into the Google search bar.
Type "ipod touch not recognized by itunes" into the search bar at the top of this page by "Support"

HOWTO: Use hdparm on an external USB hard drive

I have an external USB hard drive 3.5" that is placed into a enclosure. I want to set the standby (spindown) timeout for the drive to disabled. I know that it can be done using following command:
hdparm -S 0 /dev/sdb
but previous to do it I would like to know which is the current setting for standby (spindown) timeout. How to do this?
Also, when retrieving detailed information from device by using:
hdparm -I /dev/sdb
I am getting below error:
/dev/sdb:
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Bad address
HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed: Invalid argument

No answer.

In start disc mode can I use a external USB flash drive on MAC Book Pro

In start disc mode can I use a external USB flash drive on MAC Book Pro?

To do what? Yes you can connect a USB flash drive to the system and if it has the Recovery HD files on it you can boot from it. If it has the OS X install files on it you can boot from it. If it is large enough to contain a Time Machine backup on it you can restore your system from it.
So what do you want to do with the USB thumb drive?
Roy02649 wrote:
In start disc mode can I use a external USB flash drive on MAC Book Pro?

Mounting external USB CD drive on Mac Book Pro

Hi all,
Hoping you can help.
My late 2008 MacBook Pro has been near bulletproof for me however the one weakspot (besides old OS) is the CD drive.
It can function, intermittantly, but not reliably enough for me to install my new Snow Leopard CD and upgrade the IOS.
So I have been trying to mount an external USB CD Drive - the MacBook Air Superdrive.
I can see it in the System Profiler, it draws 500 mA current, which apparently is all it requires.
However I cannot see it in Disk Utility.
I hear it move and power up on reboot, but the CD drive simply never mounts. It should mount, there is a CD I've accidentally left in there.
'tis very annoying.
Is there any way to get this external CD drive mounted properly?
Appreciate any assistance you can offer.
Many thanks...

Which drive?
In the built in drive, I can occasionally insert a CD and it will mount and read okay, but most of the time it simply spits the CD out - it also does this with CDs it has played happily with for a while (such as my Snow Leopard CD which I've been trying to install from ;P )
In the external drive, yes, there is a CD in there, however it was in there from when I had the CD drive plugged into my Mac mini server (server now broken, so ejecting CD is difficult - that's a whole other kettle of fish...)
I don't understand why Apple System Profiler can see the external CD drive, and it reports no issues, but yet Disk Utility does not.
Do I need to find a way of disabling the built in drive somehow before OS X will recognise a different CD drive?

Installed Arch on external usb drive: Drive errors after reboot

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for