[SOLVED] USB 3.0 external HDD problems

[xtz]

I have WD My Book Essential 3.0 USB disk and I've been having some problems with it.
I want to rule out other problems, before returning the drive as defective. Already tried a different USB cable and on a different port - same results.

This is a dmesg output from plugging the drive in, creating a partition on it and started formatting it (used -cc with mkfs.ext4 to force IO):
http://pastebin.com/qfj1f3bT

lsusb:

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# lsusb
###
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1058:1140 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. My Book Essential USB3.0
###

lsusb -v:
http://pastebin.com/yUywKEzD

kernel version and USB modules:

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# uname -a
Linux Xecutor 3.13.6-hardened-r3 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Apr 19 02:10:43 BST 2014 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3740QM CPU @ 2.70GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
# grep -i usb /usr/src/linux/.config | grep -v 'is not set'
# USB Network Adapters
CONFIG_MOUSE_SYNAPTICS_USB=m
# USB HID support
CONFIG_USB_HID=m
CONFIG_USB_OHCI_LITTLE_ENDIAN=y
CONFIG_USB_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_USB_COMMON=m
CONFIG_USB_ARCH_HAS_HCD=y
CONFIG_USB=m
CONFIG_USB_ANNOUNCE_NEW_DEVICES=y
# Miscellaneous USB options
CONFIG_USB_DEFAULT_PERSIST=y
# USB Host Controller Drivers
CONFIG_USB_XHCI_HCD=m
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=m
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_ROOT_HUB_TT=y
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_TT_NEWSCHED=y
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_PCI=m
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD_PLATFORM=m
CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD=m
CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD_PCI=m
CONFIG_USB_UHCI_HCD=m
# USB Device Class drivers
# NOTE: USB_STORAGE depends on SCSI but BLK_DEV_SD may
# also be needed; see USB_STORAGE Help for more info
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE=m
# USB Imaging devices
# USB port drivers
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_GENERIC=y
# USB Miscellaneous drivers
# USB Physical Layer drivers
CONFIG_USB_PHY=y
CONFIG_SAMSUNG_USBPHY=m
CONFIG_SAMSUNG_USB2PHY=m
CONFIG_SAMSUNG_USB3PHY=m

[NeddySeagoon]

xtz,

Try smartmontools to get at the drive SMART data.
Be warned that not all USB enclosures will pass the required low level commands to the drive, so it may not help.

dmesg suggests a problem with the drive or data cable. Can you try with other UBS cables?
USB2 should too work but be slower.

[Anon-E-moose]

As Neddy says see what smartmon reports.

Having said that, I know that when I was shopping around for usb3 external drives, I wasn't impressed with the number of people that had problems with WD's offerings.

You might check to see if WD has a firmware update for that enclosure.
Also check to see if the MB manf has a bios update for usb3 problems.

And what is the USB3 chipset on the MB?

[xtz]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

@NeddySeagoon, I did try a different cables and different ports - pretty much the same results.

However, I believe smartctl was able to pinpoint the problem:

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=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART STATUS RETURN: incomplete response, ATA output registers missing
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
See vendor-specific Attribute list for failed Attributes.

Full output of smartctl -x:
http://pastebin.com/H72d8T47

@Anon-E-moose, to answer your questions - it's a Thinkpad W530 and the USB chipset:

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00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)

I know that when I was shopping around for usb3 external drives, I wasn't impressed with the number of people that had problems with WD's offerings.

Ironically, googling around for NAS drives this week it appears WD Red drives are the most recommended. It's not the Green series, as in my case, but I'm now really disappointed with WD as the drive is about a year old and frankly, wasn't used that much.

[Anon-E-moose]

I actually have two of the WD red 2TB drives in a usb3 raid box. Work well so far.
They do stay on all the time but the red are designed (supposedly) for 24x7 operation.

What I said about WDs in general was about their My Book line of enclosures/drives.

I bought my WD reds from B&H photo, reasonable price.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/8 ... D_Red.html

I'm not sure what kind of warranty goes with the WD greens.
But dieing after a year pretty much sucks.

You might run their software to zero out the drive and see what it shows.
And I would make sure that the internal connections to the disk are good,
if they loosened up then that could cause problems.

If you have a spare sata connector on your MB, you might take the drive out and see if it works plugged into the sata.
That would tell you whether it's really the drive or the enclosure.

Anyway good luck

[xtz]

Thanks again.
Marking as solved.

[NeddySeagoon]

xtz,
Its dead.

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ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAGS    VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   PO--CK   138   138   140    NOW  2621

THRESH >= lowest of VALUE or WORST.

Going to the WD site and checking the warranty, says its good until 10/12/2014 ... thats 12 October. Do the RMA, and include the smartmon output.
If you give them a credit card number, they will ship the replacement before you dud is returned.

I had the misfortune to have 2 out of 5 WD Greens fail in the raid5 in my media server. They failed within 15 min of one another after 9 months 24/7 operation, so I've been through the WD RMA dance. I'm also in the UK. For me, the service was good but I went the ship the replacement first route because
a) I wanted to try data recovery (ripping 1500 DVDs again was going to be a PITA)
b) I wanted their packaging for the return to avoid "damaged in transit discussions"
c) I didn't want to wait while they confirmed the diagnosis and disagreed then shipped the dud back to me.

If that reads as if I'm old and cynical, well I am.

-- edit --
For completeness sake

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ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAGS    VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
197 Current_Pending_Sector  -O--CK   199   198   000    -    599

so the drive knows about another 599 sectors it would like to relocate but can't for one reason or another.