Re: Problem with accessing external USB HDD
On 23/03/2015, Bret Busby <bret.busby@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I have an external USB HDD connected to a system running Debian 6 LTS.
>
> I have tried to transfer data from the desktop intenal HDD, to the
> external USB HDD.
>
> The file manager shows as being "Nautilus 2.30.1".
>
> From time to time, as in this instance, I forget (until too late) that
> Debian 6 can not cope with transferring data more than about 1GB at a
> time; in this instance, I had tried to transfer about 3GB, to make
> room in my /home partition.
>
> The transfer had seized up, after transferring about 1.1GB of the
> 3.2GB that I had tried to ransfer, so, after a couple of days of it
> apparently doing nothing, I stopped it, and, as the system monitor
> showed a system load of around 43 (whatever that means - if it was as
> a percentage of system capacity, it could be more meaningful, to me).
> The system monitor currently shows a system load average of about 35.
>
> As I could not then save any files, due to the interaction with the
> external USB HDD, I tried to unmount the external USB HDD.
>
> I then got a dialogue box, that is still displayed, which displays
>
> "
> Writing data to "hp hard drive"
>
> To prevent data loss, wait until this has finished
> befopre removing media or disconnecting the device.
> "
>
> That dialogue box has been present, with its little bar thing flying
> backward and forward, for about thre or four days, now.
>
> After about a day, the external USB HDD unmounted.
>
> I have thence been able to save files to the system internal HDD, and,
> to move files on the system internal HDD.
>
> The external USB HDD does not show as being mounted, but, shows in the
> file manager, when the "Computer" icon in the file manage toolbar is
> selected.
>
> While the external USB HDD is displayed on that screen, in trying to
> mount the external USB HDD, to allow the write action to complete, I
> get the error message
>
> "
> Unable to mount location
>
> A job is pending on /dev/sdf1
> "
>
> If I try to select the option, from the non-dominant mouseclick menu,
> "Safely remove drive" (as the external USB HDD is unmounted), I get
> the error mesage
>
> "
> Unable to stop drive
>
> One or more partitions are busy on /dev/sdf
> "
>
> so I can not mount the external USB HDD, to complete the write action,
> to write whatever data is waiting to be written to it, and, I can not
> safely remove the drive, as the data is waiting to be written to it.
>
> Whilst it may be said that I could simply unplug the external USB HDD,
> to terminate the connection, and, end the problem, from memory, in so
> doing, in the past, external USB HDD's are thence rendered unusable -
> written off, as is the data that has been written to them.
>
> So, is a way available, to solve this, without writing off the
> external USB HDD, and the data that has been written to it, and, the
> data that is "floating in the ether", waiting to be written to it?
>
> Thank you in anticipation, for a solution.
>
The dialogue box with
"Writing data to "hp hard drive" "
has disappeared overnight, and the System Load Average, as displayed
by the System Monitor in the panel, shows the System Load average to
now be less than one.
If I select "Safely Remove Drive" from the file manager menu obtained
by clicking on the drive with the non-dominant mouse button, I get
"
Unable to stop drive
DBus error org.gtk.Private.RemoteVolumeMonitor.Failed: An operation is
already pending
"
and
"
Unable to stop drive
DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a
reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a
reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply
timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
"
And then the icon for the external USB HDD, disappeared, from the
display for "Computer", so I unplugged the external USB HDD, and then
plugged it in again, and it displays in the File Manager, and I can
access files on the external USB HDD, which files, I believe, were
part of the files transfer that apparently took about a week.
So, after about a week, the files transfer appears to have completed,
as much as it did complete (about 1.1GB out of an about 3.2GB transfer
of files), and the system appears to have returned to its "normal"
state.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
....................................................
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