No /dev/sda created for USB Detachable Disk

[das]

On Wed, 2007-05-02 at 14:16 +1000, Peter Bonifacio wrote:
> I've just installed Feisty Fawn ( replacing a Debian install ). In the
> process a removable usb hard disk /dev/sda does not seem to be
> recognised. In fact there are no /dev/sd* devices at all. 
> The disk seems to be seen by the kernel - but /dev/sda is not created.
> I
> thought of using mknod to explicitly create the device but I'm not
> sure
> of what the parameters should be. Can I derive this from the
> information
> below? 

I had the same problem too. I reported it to launchpad. 

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal/+bug/109563

And another related question to launchpad was:

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/5685

Now, in my case the solution came pretty stupidly. I am giving you the
steps. 

The thing was getting discovered by 'dmesg' and 'lsusb' on both my Acer
Laptop (Sempron) and Desktop (Athlon), both running on Feisty 7.04. But
it was not getting mounted, or even as root I could not mount it
anywhere. 

The first problem was, most probably DRM, and so the USB HD was not
getting mounted. I brought the contraption to a friend's MSW-XP box, and
disabled the password-enabling option. Now it got working on the laptop,
but still it was not giving any result on the desktop. Getting
discovered but not working.

The second thing was suggested by one of friends who knows a bit of HW.
He said, the electricity supply on the front-panel USB ports are
somewhat lower than the ones on the back of the cabinet. And, as I
attached it to one of the USB ports on the back, it worked on the
desktop too. 

I don't know if it would be of any help to you. 

---
das