Problems with NTFS external USB drive in Kubuntu (update)

[Billie Walsh]

Art Alexion wrote:
> On Friday 19 December 2008 11:31:10 am Billie Walsh wrote:
>   
>> I don't play with external drives and such all that much, but on both my
>> 8.04/3.5.10 machines [ one 64 and one 32 ] I don't have the problem.
>> Whenever I plug one in it works just fine.
>>     
>
> Same with other drives and usb sticks.
>
>
>   
>> I seem to recall that HAL is what sees and mounts new drives etc. that
>> are plugged in [ could be - and probably am - wrong about this ]. 
>>     
>
> I thought the same, but wouldn't hal-Ubuntu 8.04 be the same as hal-Kubuntu 
> 8.04?
>
>
>   
>> Could 
>> it be that somehow HAL got broken. 
>>     
>
> Unlikely broken the same on two different machines, unless some other Kubuntu 
> 8.04-only update broke it.
>   

You would have to ask someone _MUCH_ smarter than me. About all I know 
about it that I was using OpenSuSE with KDE 3.x and somehow HAL got 
broken and wouldn't do S___. That's what made me wonder if that might be 
a problem.

>
>   
>> Does it only happen with this one drive? 
>>     
>
> This is a 2.5" IDE hard drive from a laptop, in a usb enclosure.  The 
> particular enclosure does not have its own power supply, but gets power from 
> the USB port.  The other magnetic drives that do work fine are 3.5" from 
> desktops with separately powered enclosures.  Would that make a difference?  
> I don't know.  
>
> I just know that I don't want to upgrade my kubuntu on this machine until at 
> least 4.2, while I have finally found something that KDE 4.1 seems to do 
> better than 3.5.
>
>
>   

If some drives work fine I would think HAL must be working.

My only suggestion would be to figure out a way to externally power the 
drive and see if that made a difference. Maybe a five volt wall wart and 
a home made USB connector. If I remember correctly the data uses the two 
center connections and the power is on the two outer connections [ I 
think I found that information on Wikipedia ]. I don't know if Rat Shack 
[ Radio Shack for the uninitiated ] has USB connectors for experimental 
use but that might be a choice if they do. Otherwise carefully remove 
the outer covering from an old USB cable and figure out the wiring and 
splice in a power connection after you cut the leads to the computer end.

Come to think of it, something like that might come in handy for other 
uses also. May have to build one just for fun.

-- 
Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.