USB hard drive no longer mounting

[cliverlong]

Software
XBian version: 1.0 Beta 2
XBMC version: Gotham 13.0
Overclock settings: Default

Hardware
Power supply rating: 1.5 A
RPi model (model A/B 256mb/512mb): B 512Mb
SD card size and make/type:Sandisk 8GB
Network (wireless or LAN): Ethernet LAN
Connected devices (TV, USB, network storage, etc.): TV HDMI, powered USB hub with keyboard and occasionally hard disk to hub

Logfile
Link to logfile(s): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32576758/2014-07-13-Xbian-debug-log-connect-disk.txt

Problem description:

Hello,

I have been using a 250GB laptop hard drive in a USB caddy to "serve" video files to the Rpi/xbian and this has worked well. I have the automount setting on in the configuration (confluence> Settings) and until recently the disk mounted within a second or so and was visible under xbmc "videos" or "file manager". I could then select any of the video files on the device and it would start playing without stuttering. In the past week the device is no longer visible when connected to the rpi. I have plugged the disk into the usb port of two different laptops running Windows 8.1 and the disk mounts within a few seconds and various video files play without error under media player or VLC.

I haven't purposely changed any setting or upgraded any software on the raspberry pi but maybe something has updated in the "background"? I could just reinstall xbian but I would appreciate any suggestions on how to fix this without going that far. I have attached to this post a public link to a xbian log file. I can't see any log file entries that suggest a sub drive has been detected. I have looked at the system settings when the usb disk is plugged into the rpi and I think the only detected device is the SD Card. However, my technical knowledge is limited so I may be missing something. I can ssh into this rpi so I can run any diagnostic commands anyone suggests.

How to reproduce:

Plug the disk in and unplug any number of times, via the hub. The hub works fine as that is how the drive was attached in the past and remains the "route" to attach the keyboard to the rpi. If I try to plug the usb dsk directly into the rpi it causes the device to crash - I guess from drawing too much power.

Regards,

[IriDium]

Can you first check that dbus is running
a) Via xbian-config -> Services
b) ssh ps -ef|grep dbus
also that the drive is possibly mounted.
a) ssh df -h
b) ssh mount
If still no luck, can you post the output of ssh dmesg via http://pastebin.com

[cliverlong]

Thank-you for your swift response.

I did the following actions:
Events
Started xbmc debug logging
Plugged in USB SD Card reader
2GB card was mounted and visible in xbmc file manager
2GB SD card unmounted from xbmc file mananger using context (?) "C" option
USB card reader unplugged then USB hard drive plugged in
USB hard drive not visible in xbmc file manager
unplugged usb hard drive
Stopped xbmc debug logging

Links to files: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32576758/2014-07-14-xbmclog.txt

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32576758/2014-07-14-xbmc-dmesg.txt

[IriDium]

I would check your hard disk on another machine (Windows chkdsk) and see if it reports any errors. It's difficult to deduce what was mounted at the time, but if you have a look in dmesg @ 970 you will see I/O errors. This could be the reason it is not mounting.

If all looks fine, plug in the POWERED USB hub with the HDD, boot the RPi and when loaded, repost the dmesg output, along with "df -h" and "mount"

[cliverlong]

(15th Jul, 2014 01:40 AM)IriDium Wrote:  I would check your hard disk on another machine (Windows chkdsk) and see if it reports any errors. It's difficult to deduce what was mounted at the time, but if you have a look in dmesg @ 970 you will see I/O errors. This could be the reason it is not mounting.

If all looks fine, plug in the POWERED USB hub with the HDD, boot the RPi and when loaded, repost the dmesg output, along with "df -h" and "mount"

Hello,

As you suggested (thanks) I ran chkdsk on Windows (no errors - see attached log). Windows sometimes says there is a problem with the disk but goes ahead and mounts it and files seem fine. Maybe some flag (somewhere) is not being reset when the disk is disconnected from the laptop ??

I then did the power cycle on the rpi with the usb disk attached at rpi start up.

A key comment in the attached log seems to be

[ 4.270798] FAT-fs (mmcblk0p1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck

I tried to run fsck but maybe that isn't possible if the disk isn't mounted - limit of my knowledge.

Results from commands are in following text file:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32576758/2014-07-14-xbian-usb-disk-attached-at-boot.txt


I could reformat the disk and try again ?? Is it possible there is a problem mounting a 250Gbytes FAT32 disk since a 2GB SD card in a USB attached card reader mounts on the rpi without problems? I have used the 2GB "external" SD card to copy a video file to the rpi and that works fine and the copied video plays with no errors - so the USB hub connection to the rpi is all ok.

Thanks,

[IriDium]

Well everything seems fine this time around. Apart from the HDD not being recognised.

The hub is recognised (3 port) , attached to it is 1) Ethernet dongle, but then it seems another 4 port hub is attached which has the keyboard attached??

Can you explain what your physical connections are and what is attached.

FAT-fs (mmcblk0p1): Volume was not properly unmounted: Is normal, it relates to the /boot directory (Which is FAT) on the SD card.

You need to be root and the disk unmounted, before you can perform disk utils on it.

FAT32 will only cause problems if you have any file > 2G (Most HD movie files are greater than that)

250GB should not be a problem - I use 2TB (NTFS) without issues.

If anything, it could be your caddy - try plugging it directly into the RPi (If powered).

I think that if you move your USB connections around, it may just work

[cliverlong]

(15th Jul, 2014 07:20 AM)IriDium Wrote:  Well everything seems fine this time around. Apart from the HDD not being recognised.

The hub is recognised (3 port) , attached to it is 1) Ethernet dongle, but then it seems another 4 port hub is attached which has the keyboard attached??

Can you explain what your physical connections are and what is attached.

The rpi has a 5V 1.0A power supply
The USB keyboard is directly attached to one of the USB sockets on the rpi
The powered hub is attached to the other USB socket on the rpi
The hub has 4 usb ports
The usb hub has a 5v 1.6A power supply
The USB disk is attached via a cable with two USB plugs into the hub - I think this is necessary when you have a device that draws a lot of power. I have tried a traditional USB cable with no effect
The USB caddy has a label that states it draws 500mA
The keyboard works if plugged into the hub
A USB card reader and SD card mounts as an external disk if plugged into the hub - so the hub is ok.
So .. looks like to me there is sufficient power all round.

Quote:FAT-fs (mmcblk0p1): Volume was not properly unmounted: Is normal, it relates to the /boot directory (Which is FAT) on the SD card.

You need to be root and the disk unmounted, before you can perform disk utils on it.

Seeing as the disk never mounts is must be , err, unmounted. But what device do I put in the fsck command?

Quote:FAT32 will only cause problems if you have any file > 2G (Most HD movie files are greater than that)

250GB should not be a problem - I use 2TB (NTFS) without issues.

I decided to give NTFS a go. I fully formatted the usb disk to NTFS on Windows, rather than a quick format. The format took an hour. The usb disk still works fine on Windows, in that I can copy large video files and play them, and does not mount on the rpi.

Quote:If anything, it could be your caddy - try plugging it directly into the RPi (If powered).

Tried that. No effect.

Quote:I think that if you move your USB connections around, it may just work

Have tried all sorts of configurations and still same outcome.

Latest xbmc log after usb disk formatted as NTFS.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32576758/2014-07-15-xbmclog-disk-ntfs.txt

Regards,

Clive

---

The point of doing a full format was to see if this would reveal any drive errors.

[IriDium]

This certainly looks like a power problem to me, but I have no idea why it used to work but not now.

A 4 port USB hub should have at least a 2Amp rating 500ma * 4. So your 1.6Amp PSU means that each port is only getting 400ma.

If the caddy is trying to draw 500ma it could only be getting 400ma.

A "normal laptop 2.5" HDD is about 2 watts, so ~400ma. A 3.5" HDD can be 7 watts, so about 1amp.

USB flash drives only consume ~100ma which could be why they are being mounted.

Do you hear the HDD spinup when connected?

Do you have the equipment and skill to test the power requirements? E.g amperage when the HDD is connected?

Try booting the RPi without the ethernet dongle connected - if that works it is power, as a Wifi dongle can draw 400ma if it has a low signal. Also try powering the caddy with another USB PSU - like a phone charger > 1amp. Try swapping USB cables around, some are better than others.

If you have a spare SD card, try installing Xbian and see if that works. If it does, then "something" has changed which is causing your issue.

I'm afraid, it's now a process of elimination as it certainly doesn't (Famous last words) seem like a S/W issue.

If still no luck, post the make and model of the caddy and HDD. Might show something up.

Also post just output of "dmesg", "df -h" and "mount". xbmc.log is no use at this stage.

[cliverlong]

(17th Jul, 2014 02:22 AM)IriDium Wrote:  This certainly looks like a power problem to me, but I have no idea why it used to work but not now.

A 4 port USB hub should have at least a 2Amp rating 500ma * 4. So your 1.6Amp PSU means that each port is only getting 400ma.

If the caddy is trying to draw 500ma it could only be getting 400ma.

A "normal laptop 2.5" HDD is about 2 watts, so ~400ma. A 3.5" HDD can be 7 watts, so about 1amp.

USB flash drives only consume ~100ma which could be why they are being mounted.

Do you hear the HDD spinup when connected?

Do you have the equipment and skill to test the power requirements? E.g amperage when the HDD is connected?

Try booting the RPi without the ethernet dongle connected - if that works it is power, as a Wifi dongle can draw 400ma if it has a low signal. Also try powering the caddy with another USB PSU - like a phone charger > 1amp. Try swapping USB cables around, some are better than others.

If you have a spare SD card, try installing Xbian and see if that works. If it does, then "something" has changed which is causing your issue.

I'm afraid, it's now a process of elimination as it certainly doesn't (Famous last words) seem like a S/W issue.

If still no luck, post the make and model of the caddy and HDD. Might show something up.

Also post just output of "dmesg", "df -h" and "mount". xbmc.log is no use at this stage.

This all seems plausible to me

Would the following hubs have enough oomph?

https://www.modmypi.com/New-Link-4-Port-USB-Hub-(USB-2.0-with-Mains-Adaptor)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DR8QSQ2/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

I have a digital multimeter but don't know how to use it to check the current drawn by the caddy. Are there instructions online on youtube?

Thanks

Clive

[cliverlong]

Hello,

It was a power supply problem.

I found a power supply that delivers 5V , 2.5A to the 4 ports hub, therefore 600mA per port.

I moved the hub and disk to my Home Hub router so I now have two USB disks attached to the router and visible (for read/write) on my home network. I have only the keyboard plugged into one USB port on the rpi. The two USB disks are "mapped" to xbian-xbmc File Manager and video>files. Now I can see all the files on both usb disk drives, on both xbmc and other network attached devcies such as windows pc, and I can back up one disk to the other (which was the original aim). I might plug the hub back into the rpi when I am doing the disk backup as this will probably support much faster data transfer (the router won't be part of the path of the data flow).

Regards,

Clive