USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

[cdupree]

I have an external USB drive that doesn't automount with my new 9.10 system. I once managed to get it to mount by plugging in other USB devices, but that only worked once and hasn't since. I can unplug and plug it back in, and the device notifier doesn't see it.

It was working fine yesterday with 8.04, and once I got the system to recognize it I was able to get to the data no prob.

Any suggestions?

[Snowhog]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged it

See if you have usbautomount installed.

[cdupree]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged it

Hi again ...

KPackageKit doesn't find usbautomount, and "which usbautomount" returns nothing. Where should I look? Oh, and I've done the basic expansion of software sources in KPackageKit. Synaptic found a "usbmount", but so far I haven't been able to make it do anything. Is this the package you were referring to?

[Snowhog]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged it

Sorry. That came from a statement here in KFN. I didn't 'check' it out. I do not find any package named usbautomount either.

There have been some posts on this issue in KFN. I'm searching now.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged it

Do you have the Device Notifier widget installed?

[cdupree]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged it

Yes, the device notifier is in the task bar, and it pops up when I insert my flash drive.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged it

By chance, do you have the USB HD listed in your /etc/fstab file? I have two USB HDs, neither listed in /etc/fstab (by choice). When I plug them in, the Device Notifier pops up and shows that they have been connected. You don't get this behavior at all?

[cdupree]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged it

The USB drive is not listed in my /etc/fstab. When I plug in my flash drive, the device notifier pops up. When I plug in my [re]drive 1TB USB HD, nothing.

[cdupree]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

Okay, slept on it and fiddled with it again. Installed something called "usbmount" which seems to work (it creates mount points, e.g.) but doesn't help.

It's hard to believe that no one can plug in an external USB drive. What could be weird about mine? It does have that label on it that includes square brackets ("[re]drive"), maybe I should use, I dunno, GPartEd to rename it?

The USB drive has all my media files on it, and I'm really missing my music :P...

Thanks again for the suggestions!

[tnorris]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

Try this. I had the same problem a while back and it fixed it:

sudo mv /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-storage-methods.fdi ~/20-storage-methods.fdi
sudo restart hal

Note, after I did this I was then able to move the fdi file back and the usb continued to auto-mount. Not really sure why.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

What file system was the USB HD formated to?

[cdupree]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

It's a 1TB drive with four partitions, 200GB for NTFS, 10GB for an external OS if I decide to use one, plus one gig for swap, with the rest Ext3.

I've just tried tnorris's suggestion, but nothing happened. Precisely what I did was

1. Remove "usbmount", which apparently isn't meant to work with hal.
2. Restart with the USB drive plugged in.
3. Do the two commands tnorris suggested. They worked, but appeared to produce no effect.
4. Unplug the USB drive and plug it back in. Nothing.
5. Plug my BlackBerry in through a USB port; the device notifier pops up quickly, but shows only the BlackBerry.

Also, I have tried switching to a different USB port for the drive, but nothing changed.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

Okay. What manufacture and model for the USB HD, and is it by chance, e-SATA?

[cdupree]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

It's a "SimpleTechnology 1TB [re]drive Turbo USB 2.0 External Hard Drive". Dunno what e-SATA is, and a cursory web search didn't tell me enough to answer for sure. Gotta go to therapy now, will resume my search for the e-SATA stuff in about two hours. Thanks again!

[Snowhog]

Re: USB drive doesn't automount or mount when plugged in

I can't find any useful information on this drive via Google. Specifically, I can't find the drive specs. I did find, that this drive has 'software' installed - controller software? - and that "might" be an issue.

So, with Hardy 8.04, you got it to mount, but with some difficulty? Do you have a Gparted LiveCD you can boot into? It would/might be helpful to see if Gparted can 'see' this HD (ensure that it is plugged in before booting Gparted).