Iomega external drives: one automounts, the other doesn't

[dex Otaku]

I'm experiencing a rather bizarre problem with an Iomega external hard disk.

I have two of these drives - same enclosure, same hardware revision, same drive inside them - and one [call it #1] will automount predictably every time it's plugged in [whether by USB or firewire] while the other [call it #2] won't. Each is formatted as one large FAT32 partition [for lowest common denominator use as they're both used on Windows, OS X, and linux]. Mounting #2 manually works fine but is inconvenient.

Both drives identify themselves identically as either "Removable USB Disk" when plugged in via USB or "Disk STxxxxA" [where xxxx is the drive model from Seagate] when plugged in via firewire.

I thought this might be because of one being plugged in first and linux misidentifying the second as the same drive and not knowing what to do [especially if they're both plugged in at the same time] but I've since had the opportunity to plug #2 into the notebook I use [also with Kubuntu 8.04 on it] and it behaves the same way.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Snowhog]

Re: Iomega external drives: one automounts, the other doesn't

...but I've since had the opportunity to plug #2 into the notebook I use [also with Kubuntu 8.04 on it] and it behaves the same way.

When you say "...and it behaves the same way." what do you mean? Do you mean that when it's plugged into your laptop it doesn't automount or that it does?

On your main PC, what happens if you plug this 'problematic' drive in first, and the other one in second? Does the problem drive now automount and the other not?

[dex Otaku]

Re: Iomega external drives: one automounts, the other doesn't

When you say "...and it behaves the same way." what do you mean? Do you mean that when it's plugged into your laptop it doesn't automount or that it does?

When I say, "it behaves the same way," I mean the notebook and the desktop both handle the two drives identically [as in - drive #1 behaves the same on both, and drive #2 behaves the same on both].

On your main PC, what happens if you plug this 'problematic' drive in first, and the other one in second? Does the problem drive now automount and the other not?

It makes no difference what order they're plugged in or whether it's with other drives before or after - I have 2 more USB hdd's and several flash drives that get used between, all of which automount consistently; #1 always automounts, #2 never automounts, on both 8.04 installs.