[SOLVED] External HDD power down

[rodrigomendoza]

Hello,

I have a B Model connected through 5V @ 1.2A power supply from here and a Western Digital My Passport 1Tb USB 2.0 HDD.

The problem I'm experience is randomly I get this error:
ls: reading directory .: Input/output error
When trying to read a directory from the HDD.

If I do a df -h I see the drive mounted.

If I try to mannually unmount/mount the drive I'll get this error:
xbian@raspberry ~ $ sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/usb0
Error opening '/dev/sda1': No such device or address
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': No such device or address
Either the device is missing or it's powered down, or you have
SoftRAID hardware and must use an activated, different device under
/dev/mapper/, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1) to mount NTFS.
Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for help.

Can someone help me?
Will a USB Hub with external power solve this issue?

Thanks in advance

---

A little bit more data:

xbian@raspberry ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp. LAN9500 Ethernet 10/100 Adapter / SMSC9512/9514 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1058:071a Western Digital Technologies, Inc. My Passport 1TB

xbian@raspberry ~ $ sudo smartctl -i /dev/sda1
smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [armv6l-linux-3.6.11+] (local build)
Copyright © 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Smartctl open device: /dev/sda1 failed: No such device or address

[f1vefour]

Are you certain the drive is not /dev/sdb1

[Fred]

The WD Passport drives are meant to be powered through the usb port right? If that's the case, the raspberry pi is probably not able to supply enough power. A externally powered usb hub should solve this, but I have no experience in this because I am using a disk that has it's own external power supply.

[rodrigomendoza]

(24th Apr, 2013 02:41 PM)f1vefour Wrote:  Are you certain the drive is not /dev/sdb1

Completely sure is /dev/sda1

Thanks

---

(24th Apr, 2013 06:38 PM)Fred Wrote:  The WD Passport drives are meant to be powered through the usb port right? If that's the case, the raspberry pi is probably not able to supply enough power. A externally powered usb hub should solve this, but I have no experience in this because I am using a disk that has it's own external power supply.

Yes it uses power from the same usb that is connected to the RPi. What wonders me the most is that it works for some time and then starts to fail. I don't know if there some kind sleep function on the drive or something like that.
I already place an order for this hub. I'll comment on the results once i get it.

Thanks.

[f1vefour]

It definitely needs a hub, it's surprising the pi doesn't shutdown as it's not designed to power external accessories that draw much power.

[rodrigomendoza]

(24th Apr, 2013 11:15 PM)f1vefour Wrote:  It definitely needs a hub, it's surprising the pi doesn't shutdown as it's not designed to power external accessories that draw much power.

Could it be because of the power supply that is 1.2A?

Thanks.

[f1vefour]

The USB ports only supply a certain amount of power regardless of which power supply you're using on the Pi.

I use a 1 amp Pi power supply with a powered USB drive and it works great. The Pi ports can run a flash drive without any issues as I have my root filesystem on an 8 gigabyte PNY Attachè plugged into the other USB port.

[rodrigomendoza]

I finally got the hub and everything works perfect, thank you all.

[sundoo]

Hi ! I have the same issue. The difference is that i've tried 3 different usb drives.
One 3.5" with an external power supply, connected via an USB hub, which is also powered by a 1.5A power supply.
And 2 seagate usb drives 500gb and 1tb, that don't have external power supply, but are connected to the powered USB HUB.
I've tried different combinations:
- only one at a time
- the 3 of them in the same time
The problem is the same. There comes a moment when the drive(s) give(s) I/O error. The worked perfectly for about 3 hours and then, suddenly - the 3 of them at the same time became unavailable with I/O error.
The thing is that when you look into /dev/sd* ... you see sdd, sde, sdf. Like if it'd had been a brief disconnection and reconnection of the 3 drives in the same time.
Any idea ?

[mk01]

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:20 AM)sundoo Wrote:  Hi ! I have the same issue. The difference is that i've tried 3 different usb drives.
Any idea ?

what version of xbian you have? when you look into /boot/cmdline.txt, do you have parameter "nohdparm" or don't ?

[sundoo]

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:28 AM)mk01 Wrote:  

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:20 AM)sundoo Wrote:  Hi ! I have the same issue. The difference is that i've tried 3 different usb drives.
Any idea ?

what version of xbian you have? when you look into /boot/cmdline.txt, do you have parameter "nohdparm" or don't ?

I've installed the 2013-07-26-wheezy-raspbian
And here's the output from cat /boot/cmdline.txt:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /boot/cmdline.txt
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 oot=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait

[f1vefour]

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:57 AM)sundoo Wrote:  

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:28 AM)mk01 Wrote:  

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:20 AM)sundoo Wrote:  Hi ! I have the same issue. The difference is that i've tried 3 different usb drives.
Any idea ?

what version of xbian you have? when you look into /boot/cmdline.txt, do you have parameter "nohdparm" or don't ?

I've installed the 2013-07-26-wheezy-raspbian
And here's the output from cat /boot/cmdline.txt:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /boot/cmdline.txt
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 oot=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait

Your running Raspbian?

[sundoo]

(3rd Aug, 2013 08:03 AM)f1vefour Wrote:  

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:57 AM)sundoo Wrote:  

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:28 AM)mk01 Wrote:  

(3rd Aug, 2013 07:20 AM)sundoo Wrote:  Hi ! I have the same issue. The difference is that i've tried 3 different usb drives.
Any idea ?

what version of xbian you have? when you look into /boot/cmdline.txt, do you have parameter "nohdparm" or don't ?

I've installed the 2013-07-26-wheezy-raspbian
And here's the output from cat /boot/cmdline.txt:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /boot/cmdline.txt
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 oot=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait

Your running Raspbian?

Yes. Sorry. Just realized i'm on the wrong forum. It's just that the problems are so similar. I really don't think that this is a software issue

[f1vefour]

Even though you think it's not software (it certainly could be) you would need to install Xbian so we can provide support.

Your kernel and most everything else is totally different.

[Skywatch]

Try another USB hub.

I had problems with random disconnects and slow network speed. Both were fixed by using a different USB hub (less than £5 delivered off the ebay).

It could also be that the PSU is heating up and dropping the voltage. If you can, test the pi's voltage across TP1 and TP2 on the pi itself. If it slowly drops over a few hours of normal use then you need a better power supply (try and get a quality 2A one, but shop carefully as there is a lot of junk PSU's out there). It should be 5V DC. Anything below 4.8V would be entering the problem zone. The usb power should also be 5V, but might be trickier to test under load (use an old cable and look on the net for diagrams of where/how to do this).

And FWIW my old usb drive never powered down, it was too old and did not support this function (didn't have SMART either!).

skywatch