External hard drive not detected or recognised

[br1anstorm]

I have a 'new' Iomega 320GB USB2 portable hard drive, bought some time ago and not used - I kept it as a spare.  Recently I thought to try it out - initially on an old Windows laptop.  The power light illuminated and the drive seemed to hum and vibrate (ie it seemed to be spinning).

Windows said it had 'found new hardware' and after a moment said it was 'ready to use'.  But it did not appear on the 'My Computer' screen - nor in the Windows 'disk management' screen, although it was listed under 'device manager' alongside the laptop's internal drive.

To cut a long story short, I tried connecting this external drive to other USB ports, and using another known-good USB cable.  No joy.  I then removed the actual drive (made by Seagate) and put it into a spare caddy which has a known-good USB PCB interface.  Still no joy.  I then reassembled it in its original Iomega enclosure.

Not wanting to risk a dodgy drive on my normal Linux laptop (I use Lite and Mint...)  I thought I would explore it using GParted in a Live CD session of Linux Lite on my older spare computer. I happened to have an .iso of Lite 1.08, so I ran that.

Under Linux Lite, in "System Info", the external drive does not appear as a USB device.  Under the Storage heading, the external drive does show up - listed as ST932032 SAS, vendor Seagate, SCSi Controller scsi2, Channel 0, ID 0, LUN 0 (I don't know what these details signify....).

But in GParted, the external drive does not appear at all:  only the internal laptop ("C") drive is shown, as dev/sda.

I'm not familiar with command-line working so have not ventured down that route.  But if GParted cannot see it , what does that indicate?  Is this portable hard drive just dead or faulty despite the various clues that it is running?  Is it a driver problem?  Or something else?

As I have no data on it, the fact that it doesn't work is not a disaster.  I don't want to spend ages investigating it - I am no IT expert.  But it is frustrating that I cannot seem to see, far less cure, the problem.  Before throwing this HDD away as a useless paperweight, is there anything further (and not too complicated!) I can do to diagnose or resurrect this new, unused portable drive?

[torreydale]

After connecting your external hard drive, perhaps:
(1) In Linux Lite (2.6 and above) use the Disks program.  Menu > Settings > Disks.
(2) Within GParted, from its menu, go to GParted > Devices to see if another device is available.

[br1anstorm]

Thanks, Torreydale.  Have tried both routes. 
In Disks, the external drive simply does not appear at all.  And when GParted scans the drives, it finds only the internal hard drive /dev/sda1.  Under "Devices" in GParted, there are no 'other' devices shown:  the only options listed are "Create Partition Table" and "Attempt Data Rescue".  In GParted under View>Device Information, again only details of the internal drive are shown.  The external drive is totally invisible.....

[richtea]

Unfortunate as it may be, it looks like a dud. Some statistics re: reliability are quite appalling; viz. latest data on HD failure rates:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-driv...s-q1-2016/

Moreover, Seagate:

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/22226...lure-rates

Commodity products do suffer from these issues - if that is a consolation.

[Jocklad]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2CrJfvVPQc

On this video the drive had disconnected from the sata port in the enclosure.

Was just a matter of clicking it back in.

Might help.

Jocklad

[merlin]

check your external harddisk with command fdisk -l
if your device detect, try create a new partition with this command cfdisk /dev/sdX (sdX is your drive on result from fdisk -l)
try to mount your harddisk, this is step:
1. Open your terminal and create folder usb in directory /media
# mkdir /media/usb

2. Then, try mounting your harddisk with below command:
# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdX /media/usb

3. If success, try open directory /media/usb

Hope this help!

Regards

[trinidad]

G-parted only shows one disk at a time in the side menu when using external drives. You have to open the disk menu to select the other external disk. Click on the disk name (somewhere in the top menu I forget where, or maybe menu>device>) but you need the action that will produce a dropdown menu with every device listed. The first file you posted is a correct looking disk path for an external USB connected disk so the device is operable and must be listed. It may not show up in USB menu because it configures as SCSI.

TC

[trinidad]

I'm sorry. The disk path is correct looking for a windows naming convention. It still should show up and be accessible from any newer Linux Lite live CD.

TC

[firenice03]

Just a couple thoughts...

Plug in the drive then launch GParted after its launched and has located drives, in the upper right is a drop down (typically defaults to internal /dev/sda) can you drop this to the external? If so, does it list the disk possibly as all unallocated?

I ask as you mention it spins up in Windows but nothing shows - possibly this disk has not been used/configure and doesn't have a partition yet??? or not active of sorts?? Might just need to create a partition and format...


Or if you find yourself in WINDOWS - from a command prompt try..

Code:

diskpart

once it comes up to DISKPART> type:

Code:

list disk

This should list the disks attached (0 should be internal) and if the disk is active and size..

Again just a thought

[br1anstorm]

Thanks to all who have offered thoughts.  I'll respond to the various comments in roughly the same order.

richtea - I think you may eventually be proved right.  I'm ready for the possibility.  But I want to try and check beyond doubt that the patient is definitely dead, and not just sleeping or hiding!

Jocklad - thanks for the link to that video, which I had in fact already seen as well as a lot of other clips all about various possible reasons for a drive's failure to show.  In my particular situation, I have already disassembled the drive (the connections to the PCB were good);  I have fitted the hard drive itself into another enclosure with a different PCB interface (and it still didn't show on screen);  so I have reassembled it into its original casing again.  I don't think there is a physical/connection issue.

Merlin - I haven't yet tried that command line route.  But to be honest, I'm not optimistic that fdisk - l will reveal the drive (see below - I tried to do it via command line in Windows and got no joy). If it isn't listed, there's no point in going on to other commands.

trinidad - I understand what you are saying.  In GParted, on the top right of the screen there is indeed a dropdown box which should list and show all drives.  The problem is that it only shows the internal hard drive of my laptop (as /dev/sda - or what would be the 'C' drive in Windows).  There is simply no listing for my portable external drive:  so there is no disk name which I can click in order to highlight it and get details of the device.  But I'd be interested if you could explain/clarify the matter of a disk path, and the significance of an SCSI-configured connection.  Is this a clue as to where I should look, or what I could to, to track down the drive and make it "visible" on screen?

firenice03 - as mentioned above, the dropdown in upper right of GParted screen shows only internal/dev/sda.  Clicking on the dropdown does not list any other drives/disks.  This "invisible"  portable disk hasn't been used:  it is brand new, but will have some OEM Iomega software on it so should be initialised, formatted and maybe partitioned.  My other - identical - Iomega portable drive certainly was ready to use out of the box and I have been using it successfully for years...

In fact although I did not mention all the details in my original post, when I plugged the drive into a Windows laptop, it said "found new hardware" but the drive did not appear in the My Computer screen.  It did show up in Device Manager, but not in Disk Management. It was also listed in the "Safely Remove Hardware" popup.  So I did exactly what you suggest:  went into command-line, did diskpart and list disk.  Only the internal laptop ("C") drive showed on the list.  No sign of the external drive.

So I'm still baffled.  How come in Windows this portable external drive is listed in Device Manager but not in Disk Management?  How come in Linux Lite under System Info>Storage the drive shows up (with SCSI2 as controller), but is not seen - at all - in GParted?

I wonder what to try next - before consigning this un-used HDD to the bin....