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RausH
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Post subject: SOLVED: can not write on WD Elements 1TB
Posted: 29.09.2010, 17:12
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Joined: 2010-09-29
Posts: 3
Status: Offline
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dear all,
i can not write on my WD Elements 1TB (vfat) external HD. But i am sure in the past it has been possible.
i tried in KDE using the mounting capabilites of dolphin or using the "Geräteüberwachung" (sorry i don't know the english term). additionally i tried "mount -rw /dev/disk/by-label/Elements /mnt/usb" which also resulted in read only access to the HD.
alternatively i downloaded the latest aptosid install CD (2010-02, KDE light i386) and booted a different computer into this environment. also in this case the situation was the same. only read only access.
my primary system is an old sony vaio and up to date (d-u today). the other system is a dell latitude D520, not very new too.
in my despair i tested it on a win xp system where i got read and write access to the disk.
thanks in advance
kind regards
RausH |
Last edited by RausH on 01.10.2010, 11:38; edited 1 time in total
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dibl
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Post subject: RE: can not write on WD Elements 1TB
Posted: 29.09.2010, 19:41
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 302
Location: Dayton, Ohio, USA
Status: Offline
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Google turns up many hits like this: http://www.fixya.com/support/t4650883-w ... ected_help
and this: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/other- ... s-1tb.html
I don't see a common solution, unfortunately. If you have a WD diagnostics disk, or something like Parted Magic to run SMART diagnostics on it, (or use smartmontools in the terminal) that would be the first thing to check. If there's no indication of physical media damage or other faults, I think I would copy off all data, and try re-partitioning, and use a Linux filesystem (ext4) if possible, or else NTFS if it has to be shared with Windows. VFAT is not very reliable, and not designed for such a large filesystem. |
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Post subject: RE: can not write on WD Elements 1TB
Posted: 29.09.2010, 19:55
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Moderator

Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 469
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RausH
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Post subject: RE: can not write on WD Elements 1TB
Posted: 29.09.2010, 21:38
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Joined: 2010-09-29
Posts: 3
Status: Offline
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thank you for your suggestions. however they did not solve my problem.
dibl:i tried and tested the HD with the WD tools, SMART seems to be ok. but still no write support in aptosid/KDE. since i have no spare space of 500GB i can not reformat the disk right now. i will do more google search.
@muchan: i don't see connections to my problem (however i checked my fstab). moreover i even can not mount it directly and get read and write support (mount -rw ..., results in read only).
additionally i'd like to say that a 500GB noname external HD functions as intended, thumb drives as well. and i do not have any problem with reading and writing CDs. |
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dibl
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Post subject:
Posted: 29.09.2010, 22:38
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 302
Location: Dayton, Ohio, USA
Status: Offline
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I have several hard drives that I use for backup, and connect via a USB interface kit, to my aptosid system. This includes several WD hard drives (WD 740, WD 3000), and Samsung Spinrite. So I have no reason to suspect any problem with the aptosid kernel -- I think you have to look at the drive and the filesystem, or partition table, as the likely problem. |
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ikeinthai
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Post subject: WD upto 1.5T w/ext4.
Posted: 30.09.2010, 05:59
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Joined: 2010-09-22
Posts: 119
Location: bigannastybkk
Status: Offline
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dibl wrote:
I have several hard drives that I use for backup, and connect via a USB interface kit, to my aptosid system. This includes several WD hard drives So I have no reason to suspect any problem with the aptosid kernel -- I think you have to look at the drive and the filesystem, or partition table, as the likely problem.
+1
vfat on a 1T drive sounds like trouble. |
_________________ aptosid: magic in action, the point of the spear. bleedin pearls before swine? lets hope not. freesoftware/freedomsoftware=a chance at freedom. participants, engage your vehicle. . . avatar by zenren
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DeepDayze
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Post subject: Re: WD upto 1.5T w/ext4.
Posted: 30.09.2010, 21:58
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Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 616
Location: USA
Status: Offline
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ikeinthai wrote:
dibl wrote:
I have several hard drives that I use for backup, and connect via a USB interface kit, to my aptosid system. This includes several WD hard drives So I have no reason to suspect any problem with the aptosid kernel -- I think you have to look at the drive and the filesystem, or partition table, as the likely problem.
+1
vfat on a 1T drive sounds like trouble.
Think the max size for vfat is about 512GB...correct me if I am wrong. If there are any files on it copy them off then reformat it |
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RausH
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Post subject:
Posted: 01.10.2010, 11:37
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Joined: 2010-09-29
Posts: 3
Status: Offline
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solved: your suggestions lead me to check the file system. after i corrected those fs errors my hd is writeable in aptosid again.
according to wikipedia the max volumesize in vfat is 2TB.
thank you for your help!
kind regards RausH |
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DeepDayze
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Post subject:
Posted: 01.10.2010, 14:42
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Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 616
Location: USA
Status: Offline
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Nice you got it working again, RausH, but I'd recommend not using that drive to store a lot of data due to the risks of FAT32 on such a big drive. You could partition it, but that may cause issues with sharing data with Windows systems as Windows hates USB drives with multiple partitions
If you just want to use it with Linux only, then why not reformat it to ext2/3?
I see...with LBA max volsize for FAT32 is 2TB while without using LBA it is 127GB |
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