[SOLVED] External USB HDD drive gets disconnected randomly

Hi,
I'm encountering problem with external HDD drive. Recently I've installed a new drive and reinstalled Arch. I use my old disk as external one connected by USB. Unfortunately it get's disconnected randomly. This is what I found in journal:
journalctl
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 kernel: usb 2-1: USB disconnect, device number 2
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 udisksd[346]: Cleaning up mount point /run/media/kuba/ExtStorage (device 8:19 no longer exist)
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 systemd-udevd[165]: error opening USB device 'descriptors' file
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb3, logical block 33062912, lost sync page write
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 kernel: JBD2: Error -5 detected when updating journal superblock for sdb3-8.
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 udisksd[346]: Cleaning up mount point /run/media/kuba/ea5c6a7b-1f73-4527-b99c-29920084bd42 (device 8:17 no longer exist)
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 5275648, lost sync page write
lut 22 17:06:39 t61 kernel: JBD2: Error -5 detected when updating journal superblock for sdb1-8.
lut 22 17:06:40 t61 kernel: usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
uname -a
Linux t61 3.18.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Feb 7 08:44:05 CET 2015 x86_64 GNU/Linux
smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [x86_64-linux-3.18.6-1-ARCH] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Scorpio Blue Serial ATA
Device Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-00A23T0
Serial Number: WD-WXG1AB002023
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2054a2f6c
Firmware Version: 01.01A01
User Capacity: 320,072,933,376 bytes [320 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is: Sun Feb 22 20:46:13 2015 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 7800) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 93) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x7037) SCT Status supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 1
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 152 147 021 Pre-fail Always - 1375
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 4249
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 087 087 000 Old_age Always - 9983
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 4032
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 113
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 162 162 000 Old_age Always - 114798
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 115 096 000 Old_age Always - 28
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 7530 -
# 2 Short offline Aborted by host 90% 7530 -
# 3 Short offline Aborted by host 90% 6969 -
# 4 Short offline Aborted by host 90% 5007 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 5006 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 3168 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 1270 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 944 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
So it's like I want to continue watching a movie from external drive and then player crashes because my hard disk partitions got unmounted...
I'm wondering if it can happen because disk is underpowered (it's connected only to one USB port because I lost my original USB cable which had two USB plugs). Anyway it would be strange as problem occurs also when disk is 'idle' so then the power consumption is also lower I assume. I can only say this disk was working just fine when used as internal drive. Any ideas?
Last edited by jakub (2015-02-22 20:08:50)

Your recommendation to check cable was just - a good recommendation I played a little bit with the B connector and disk immediately stopped working. OMG it was so simple ;p Thanks. I have to buy a new cable (I hope the case is all right).
EDIT:
Confirmed with portable mp3 player. Cable (B connector) is damaged.
I just won't delete this thread as it's a perfect example to show that basic stuff and simplest things should be always checked first !
Last edited by jakub (2015-02-22 20:28:26)

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Hey coby,
Well thanks for the star. Not sure I deserve it.
i then tried connecting the drive to each USB port again, and voila! i have found one it works in. I guess my computer's ports must be a little worn.
Hmm well try looking inside and see if there's some smutz in there, if the contacts are dirty or bent or worn.
i was starting to think i would have to go out and get a USB hub to give it some more power.
Is it powered off the USB? If so that actually might be a good idea since that puts a lot of strain on the connectors. Even if it's self powered it might be a good idea since it would take the strain off an obviously flakey USB.
richard

[SOLVED] External USB HDD drive gets disconnected randomly

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