I'm trying to connect some storage (250GB USB HDD, 2.5 inch format) to my Efika MX Smarttop, but the disk can't be mounted. Dmesg:

[ 304.568469] usb 2-1.2.2: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 8
[ 304.682804] usb 2-1.2.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 304.699737] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 304.700897] usb-storage: device found at 8
[ 304.700910] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 309.698851] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 309.742460] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access WDC WD25 00BEVT-00ZCT0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
[ 309.768640] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[ 309.841166] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 488397168 512-byte logical blocks: (250 GB/232 GiB)
[ 309.842803] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 309.842880] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 34 00 00 00
[ 309.842935] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 309.854315] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 309.855311] sdb: sdb1
[ 309.873587] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 309.874595] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 317.338502] usb 2-1.2.2: reset high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 8
[ 325.338588] usb 2-1.2.2: reset high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 8
[ 356.280058] sd 4:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
[ 356.280198] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code
[ 356.280252] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=0x05 driverbyte=0x00
[ 356.280335] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2048
[ 356.281227] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 0
[ 356.282665] sd 4:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
[ 356.283952] sd 4:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
[ 356.285260] sd 4:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
[ 356.286618] sd 4:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
[ 356.287637] usb 2-1.2.2: USB disconnect, address 8

This disk has no bad blocks or errors, I even tried to fully format it to FAT or EXT4 and then reconnect to Efika - no effect, the behavior is still the same. This disk works perfectly on my laptop Acer 3810TG through USB - no problems. I have the same second disk - it doesn't work on Efika too with the same effect. Both disks are WD Scorpio Blue 250GB. I tried to connect with external USB hub with additional power - not working. USB flash drives work well.

Please, help me to solve the problem, I'm googling for a week now, but no luck. I really need some more storage than 8GB SSD :)

This is just a shot in the dark but are the drives you are using powered by the USB bus? or do they have their own power connector? perhaps the USB bus can't push enough power to the drive? I would see what happens when you plug it into the efika using a powered USB hub.

I have a 500GB Sata disk plugged into mine using an external USB 2.0/Firewire/eSATA drive enclosure and it works great. (but it has its own power)

Drives are powered by the USB bus, they are in SATA-to-USB enclosures (one is AgeStar and other is Transcend). I also tried to connect them (not both at the same time, separately) using a powered USB hub - no success.

When the disk is connected, I hear the sound of initialization, it spins up, but then system becomes unstable, freezes, the disk tries to mount and than goes offline. It repeats until I unplug it.

"blkid" shows only SSD partitions, and "fdisk -l" too.

For more information, any of the disks works great with ASUS HDP R1 multimedia player, which has exactly the same power unit as Efika Smarttop.

I know it's weird, and I have no idea what to do further...

That they're powered by the USB bus - root hub or externally - is probably exactly why it fails. Both the Smartbook and Smarttop USB ports are the external ports of a powered USB hub which provide the same power so there is no difference really.

In the end, a rotating metal platter takes more power than a single USB port should be able to provide. It is a fluke of the boost converter on the Asus board that it works, not the DC power supply powering it, so the fact they are identical means nothing..

You are at the mercy of the converters on the board and the ones in your powered USB hub. It both needs to somehow create a 6-8W spike on disk spinup *and* do it on a 12V bus which is not what USB provides.

Your Asus system is probably designed with a freakishly flexible boost converter powering the USB bus. I've got an Asus motherboard myself (pretty old actually) that can power 10W from a single USB port, and a Via Nano which will supply so much power on the USB bus that it actually burned my Beagleboard before it blew out the power supply. It seems some PC vendors rely on devices not drawing past the maximum current, and the overvoltage/overcurrent protections aren't implemented. This might be bad for your disk.

Go buy a power supply for your disk, if you can. This isn't so much an Efika problem as a problem of trying to use magnetic media from USB bus power and happens all over the place.

_________________
Matt Sealey

FYI: There are USB devices, which work fine with the smartbook/smarttop:
- I have most of my files on a 2.5" 500GB Toshiba USB drive, and I never had any problems with it.
- I also have a slim Samsung USB DVD writer, which is powered by two USB ports, and that also works fine.

_________________
CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

It really seems your 2.5" HD draws more power from USB slot, than it is allowed to. I've just checked my NTFS formatted 2.5" 500GB USB harddrive (WD Elements) and it worked fine.

_________________
Michal Schulz

Thanks for the answers. Now I really think, that this is not Efika MX hardware problem. And not disk. I suspect old JMicron SATA-to-USB controller, that presents in both disk enclosures (i bought them 3 years ago). I googled that Linux kernel had some issues with JMicron earlier because of the controller's incompatible firmware. It seems I should try another disk enclosure, something modern.

Aha :)

I have a couple JMicron controllers here that work reliably, though. One of them is a really old silver enclosure from CompUSA, and another is a "bare bones" SATA to USB adapter (literally is a little black dongle with desktop ATA, laptop ATA, SATA, you are expected to use the supplied AC adapter-to-ATA-power and ATA-to-SATA-power widget to hack up a desktop rat's nest).

Okay so they are not SUPER reliable, but they do work. Both of them are powered by external bricks though.

_________________
Matt Sealey

I have a Conceptronic SATA HDD 3.5'' enclosure connected always with the Smarttop and i haven't had any issue with it. Obviously it comes with its own power supply.

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 152d:2329 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp.

The problem is solved. I bought a new disk enclosure and it works just perfect on Efika smarttop with the same WD 250GB. Even with no need of external power. I knew it was JMicron controller!