# problem mounting WD Element (640GB) on FreeBSD 7.0



## kingu (Mar 18, 2009)

I have just purchased a WD external HDD for a backup job, but having problem getting it hook up to my FreeBSD 7.0 box. I have tried both with GENERIC and custom kernels already but nothing really help. Here is what I got from dmesg when I plug in the drive and that's it.


```
umass0: <Western Digital External HDD, class 00, rev 2.00/1.75, addr 2>on uhub0
```
Any ideas of what I should try. Thanks much. 

PS

FAT32 is the current format on the drive and I have followed http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/usb-disks.html as I custom build my kernel already too, but same result.


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## SirDice (Mar 18, 2009)

Does *camcontrol devlist* show anything?


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## kingu (Mar 18, 2009)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Does *camcontrol devlist* show anything?



Nope, took me right back to command prompt.

Thanks!


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## SirDice (Mar 18, 2009)

Do a *tail -f /var/log/messages* then plug the drive in. Any error messages should show up. 

It looks like it somehow doesn't detect the hd, we just need to figure out why.


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## kingu (Mar 19, 2009)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Do a *tail -f /var/log/messages* then plug the drive in. Any error messages should show up.
> 
> It looks like it somehow doesn't detect the hd, we just need to figure out why.



'Unknown USB device: vendor 0x1058 product 0x1003 bus uhub0' is what I got. Does it matter at all the fact that it's a sata type of interface drive. 

Thanks again.


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## trev (Mar 23, 2009)

You haven't really provided sufficient information, but I'll take a wild guess that the volume label for the drive contains at least one space. If I'm right, relabel the disk so that there are no spaces, and it should work.


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## kingu (Mar 23, 2009)

trev said:
			
		

> You haven't really provided sufficient information, but I'll take a wild guess that the volume label for the drive contains at least one space. If I'm right, relabel the disk so that there are no spaces, and it should work.



Trev-

This is my first time having this kind of problem. I also have two other external drives and not a problem at all hooking them up. The only different is that they are both ata instead of sata and are smaller drives (160GB). Don't know exactly what info I should provide here so that you may be able to help me with. Please advise. However, what I can provide you now is that the drive is currently format as FAT32 (WD Element External HDD 640GB) and the only messages I got are as mentioned above in my previous posts when trying to plug in the drive and nothing else.

Thanks much.


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## SirDice (Mar 23, 2009)

The filesystem shouldn't matter, the problem is that the disk itself isn't even recognized.

I'm not sure if this is due to the external drive being SATA. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with it's size. I have a 1TB USB HD that works perfectly.


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## trev (Mar 24, 2009)

Does your disk volume label contain any spaces? You didn't say


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## kingu (Mar 24, 2009)

trev said:
			
		

> Does your disk volume label contain any spaces? You didn't say



I modified the volume label already which contain no spaces now but still not working. Same mssg as before. Not sure if I have done it right but I used windows to rename the label instead. Volume label is now 'elements'. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks


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## SirDice (Mar 24, 2009)

If the filesystem or the volume labels were the problem the disk would need to be recognized first.


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## trev (Mar 25, 2009)

What's in dmesg? (attach a text file)


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## kingu (Apr 1, 2009)

Trev-

All I got on dmesg is as follow and nothing else. And like SirDice said the drive is not being recognized at the first place. Pretty little info on the log file which makes it hard to pinpoint exactly what the problem is. Thanks.

umass0: <Western Digital External HDD, class 00, rev 2.00/1.75, addr 2>on uhub0


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## Carpetsmoker (Apr 1, 2009)

IIRC I've used these drives on FreeBSD.

Is this one of those black drives with the rubber bands at the ends? If so, then I have a few ling at work .. I can test tomorrow ...


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## kingu (Apr 2, 2009)

Carpetsmoker said:
			
		

> IIRC I've used these drives on FreeBSD.
> 
> Is this one of those black drives with the rubber bands at the ends? If so, then I have a few ling at work .. I can test tomorrow ...



Yup. see if you could get it to work and appreciate if you could let me know of the result.

Thanks!


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## Carpetsmoker (Apr 16, 2009)

Tried the hard disks, works without problems out of the box.
I did have to use the _-o large_ options for mount_msdosfs.
I didn't try UFS, but I see no reason why it would not work if FAT32 does -- Filesystem is media independent.

I used FreeBSD 7.2 BETA1, liveFS CD from FreeBSD FTP.

dmesg entry:
da0: <WD 6400AAV External 1.75> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-4 Device

Entry for umass0 is the same as yours.


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## kingu (Apr 20, 2009)

hmmm....

Yours seems to recognize the drive at least and eventually give you the da entry, but mine didn't. All I got is just the umass0 and that's it... Weird. This is why I couldn't try mounting or anything. The box i'm testing on now is 7.1. Might have to try 7.2 like what you have done and see what happen. Thanks by the way.


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## Carpetsmoker (Apr 20, 2009)

I also used this drive once with 7.0 or 7.1 -- But I'm not 100% sure if it was this exact drive or a different model (But it was a WD Elements).


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## paulie5 (Apr 23, 2009)

*Same Problem in FreeNAS*

I have installed the latest version of FreeNAS (V0.69) and have the exactly the same issue. I have another USB HDD (HP Pocket Drive) and it work perfectly. Any further ideas?


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## zemmekkis (Jul 1, 2009)

I am also seeing the same issue.

I am using the whole generic kernel with a few more options:

```
options DUMMYNET
options DEVICE_POLLING
options HZ=1000
options IPDIVERT
options IPFIREWALL
options IPFIREWALL_VERBOSE
options IPFIREWALL_VERBOSE_LIMIT=20
options IPFIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT
options IPFIREWALL_FORWARD
device lagg
```


```
FreeBSD7.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE #1: Sun Jun 28 01:21:46 PDT 2009
```


This is a Western Digital 1TB black USB external drive.

dmesg:


```
umass0: <Western Digital External HDD, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.75, addr 2> on uhub0
```

/var/log/messages:

```
Jul  1 16:29:36 root: Unknown USB device: vendor 0x1058 product 0x1003 bus uhub0
```

How do you troubleshooting from here?


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## kiyolee (Jul 2, 2009)

A few experience which I hope may help:
1. Are you sure the USB port where you plug in the portable HD is capable to supply enough current to power the drive? You may rule this out if your HD already has separate power supply.
2. Portable USB HD may not work for some USB hub. Are you plugging in the HD directly to the computer? If so, rule this out as well.
3. Does the HD work for other OS running on the same computer? You may just try some L***x Live CD.


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## kingu (Sep 21, 2010)

solutions anybody? Thanks much!


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