[ltp] External hard drive failing?

[Stefan Monnier]

> Yes this is a spinning rust drive.  Should have mentioned the hard drive has
> its own power supply.

Aha, so my theory is out.

I'd suggest you dig deeper.

When you plug it in, the lights turn up, but what does `journalctl -f`
or `dmesg` report?

Also, if it does get recognized as a drive and a `/dev/sdX` device
shows up (where `X` is likely something like `b` or `c`), do partitions
show up (i.e. are there things like `/dev/sdX1`, `/dev/sdX2`, ...)?
If so, what happens when (as root) you try to mount them manually with
something like `mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt`?
If that signals an error, you might want to check `journalctl -f`
or `dmesg` to see if they report more details about that error.

While at it, you can try `smartctl -a /dev/sdX` to see if it reports
anything interesting (it may report nothing at all, also, depending on
the quality of the SATA<=>USB bridge that's used internally).


        Stefan