External HDD Showing Up As Loop Device

[aforwood]

If you haven't tried them, can you give us relevant output from

inxi -Fxz #(with the drive plugged in)

micky@base-one:~$ inxi -Fxz #
System:
Kernel: 5.19.0-46-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: GNOME 42.5
Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 7466 v: N/A
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 0JP3R1 v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
v: 1.9.0 date: 07/26/2021
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 3.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 3.7/56.0 Wh (6.7%)
volts: 16.2 min: 15.2 model: BYD DELL 63K706A status: Full
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Core i5-6300HQ bits: 64 type: MCP
arch: Skylake-S rev: 3 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2829 high: 2845 min/max: 800/3200 cores: 1: 2826
2: 2845 3: 2826 4: 2822 bogomips: 18399
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:02.0
Device-2: NVIDIA GM107M [GeForce GTX 950M] vendor: Dell driver: nvidia
v: 530.41.03 bus-ID: 01:00.0
Device-3: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo
bus-ID: 1-12:3
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa gpu: i915
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2)
v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.5-0ubuntu0.1~22.04.3 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Dell
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.19.0-46-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Dell driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Wireless 3165 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 5.69 TiB used: 99.55 GiB (1.7%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLV256HCHP-000L2
size: 238.47 GiB temp: 44.9 C
ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: Western Digital
model: WD My Passport 2665 size: 4.55 TiB
ID-3: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST91000430AS
size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 233.18 GiB used: 62.86 GiB (27.0%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.3 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C pch: 65.5 C mobo: 48.0 C sodimm: SODIMM C
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2680
Info:
Processes: 311 Uptime: 11h 27m Memory: 15.36 GiB used: 5.6 GiB (36.5%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: N/A Packages: 2439 Shell: Bash
v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13
micky@base-one:~$

It still doesn't appear to be showing up.

 

[Brickwizard]

ok so the system is seeing all 3 of your drives,
on Ubuntu desktop, you should have an icon for computer [click and open] it should be showing all drives on the system, find your ext drive right click and select open, if the first option is mount then click on it, you can then right click and open then you can explore your files or copy any of them to another drive.

 

[osprey]

@aforwood, here is a summary, so far as I can make it in this thread, from the problem of not being able to detect the 4G Samsung disk:

In post #1 there are these disk drives detected:
256 GB Samsung
5TB Western Digital
1TB Seagate <---- correction made

In post #18 and #19 there are these disk drives detected:
/dev/nvme0n1 Samsung (256G)
/dev/sda Western Digital (My Passport 5TB)
/dev/sdb Seagate (Externa 1TB)

In post #21 there are these drives detected:
/dev/nvme0n1 Samsung (256GB)
/dev/sda Western digital (5GB)
/dev/sdb Seagate (1TB)

There is no 4GB samsung detected.

Here is a list of some of the major disk drive detection tools in linux usable as ordinary user ($)
or root (#). Some work in both users.

$ ls -al /dev/disk
$ ls -al /dev/disk/by-id
$ ls -al /dev/disk/by-label/
$ ls -al /dev/disk/by-path/
$ lsblk
$ inxi -D

# blkid
# fdisk -l
# gdisk -l /dev/sd#
# hwinfo --disk
# lshw -class disk
# hdparm -I /dev/sd#
# udisksctl info -b /dev/sd#

Speculatively, if the 4GB Samsung disk was in the system it would likely have the device name /dev/sdc.

I don't fancy the chances of mounting a partition from it blindly with with something like:

mount -t auto /dev/sdc1 /mnt

and then progressively trying to mount other partitions like sdc2 etc., but one can try I suppose.

The absence of detection from any of the above approaches of the 4GB Samsung looks ominous to me. No amount of what I say will affect anything of course on your system, but with continued failure to have the drive detected, if you wish to save the data on that 4GB Samsung, you could consider professional data retrieval expertise.

 

[KGIII]

you could consider professional data retrieval expertise.

I haven't followed the thread as well as I could have, but that's a pretty expensive solution and it kind of sucks. It shows the importance of backups, even for what might already be seen as a backup.

3, 2, 1...

(My site is temporarily down due to some giant dumpster fires, a (insert vulgarity of your choice) person, a massive overhaul, and then complicated by an IP address change due to said vulgar person.)

So, here it is in a nutshell...

3 copies of your data.

2 on different media (which is where this thread fell off the rails, at least).

1 copy off-site, in a geographically different location.

Then, you decide how much data you want to preserve by time, meaning that how often do you back that all up and send it off site. In an ideal world, this would be done as data is created. In the real world, it means going out to your garage once a week to swap out the external drive with a new one and you risk losing a week's worth of family pictures at a time.

 

[wizardfromoz]

@osprey

In post #1 there are these disk drives detected:
256 GB Samsung
5TB Western Digital
1TB Samsung

That last entry should be 1 TB Seagate and that is detected by inxi.

@aforwood can you please give us the output from

cat /etc/fstab

Wiz

 

[Condobloke]

OK lets go down the silly route

Seeing we are on that route....do you have a neighbour/friend/relative etc etc whose PC you can plug that drive into ?

 

[osprey]

@osprey



That last entry should be 1 TB Seagate and that is detected by inxi.

@aforwood can you please give us the output from

cat /etc/fstab

Wiz

Thanks wiz for that correction ... now made in post #23.

@KGIII wrote in reference to professional data retrieval:

I haven't followed the thread as well as I could have, but that's a pretty expensive solution and it kind of sucks.

Certainly engaging professional data retrieval people I would see as a last resort and a non-preferred option. I guess it's going to depend on the the value a user places upon the data on a drive which can't be seen.

There are some tools that users in my experience have been able to use for file recovery on disks that couldn't be mounted. These are:
testdisk at http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
sleuthkit at http://www.sleuthkit.org/
photorec at https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

There are others mentioned here:

Top 20 Best Linux Data Recovery Tools to Recover Deleted/Corrupted Files | DigitalOcean

Technical tutorials, Q&A, events — This is an inclusive place where developers can find or lend support and discover new ways to contribute to the community.

www.digitalocean.com

 

[aforwood]

@aforwood, here is a summary, so far as I can make it in this thread, from the problem of not being able to detect the 4G Samsung disk:

In post #1 there are these disk drives detected:
256 GB Samsung
5TB Western Digital
1TB Seagate <---- correction made

In post #18 and #19 there are these disk drives detected:
/dev/nvme0n1 Samsung (256G)
/dev/sda Western Digital (My Passport 5TB)
/dev/sdb Seagate (Externa 1TB)

In post #21 there are these drives detected:
/dev/nvme0n1 Samsung (256GB)
/dev/sda Western digital (5GB)
/dev/sdb Seagate (1TB)

There is no 4GB samsung detected.

Here is a list of some of the major disk drive detection tools in linux usable as ordinary user ($)
or root (#). Some work in both users.

$ ls -al /dev/disk
$ ls -al /dev/disk/by-id
$ ls -al /dev/disk/by-label/
$ ls -al /dev/disk/by-path/
$ lsblk
$ inxi -D

# blkid
# fdisk -l
# gdisk -l /dev/sd#
# hwinfo --disk
# lshw -class disk
# hdparm -I /dev/sd#
# udisksctl info -b /dev/sd#

Speculatively, if the 4GB Samsung disk was in the system it would likely have the device name /dev/sdc.

I don't fancy the chances of mounting a partition from it blindly with with something like:

mount -t auto /dev/sdc1 /mnt

and then progressively trying to mount other partitions like sdc2 etc., but one can try I suppose.

The absence of detection from any of the above approaches of the 4GB Samsung looks ominous to me. No amount of what I say will affect anything of course on your system, but with continued failure to have the drive detected, if you wish to save the data on that 4GB Samsung, you could consider professional data retrieval expertise.

Just for the record, t's not a Samsung that's not being detected. It's a 4TB Seagate Backup Plus.(I might have mistakenly said it's a Passport Plus earlier.)

There's a set of diagnostic toolscalled SeaChest that I found on Seagate's website that can send signals/commands to Seagate drives, and although Seagate didn't adapt them to Linux systems (only Windows and Mac), there's a similar set of tools they put out called SeaTools that has a Linux version.

I've just downloaded it and will go over the documentation carefully before I try anything.

I know that the hardware system uses a signal to check USB ports and waits for a coded response in order to know if something is plugged in, what it is, and how to deal with it, so knowing if it gets a response would be the first step in diagnosing my problem. Using the usual Linux commands aren't going to help.

If professionals have tools to fix drives or retrieve data that can't be done with the tools and commands normally used, then it's just a matter of having similar tools to theirs and knowing how to use them. I'll save my money and learn something in the process.