It's possible that your enclosure for your hard drive isn't passing information about the hard drive correctly.
You didn't indicate what product your enclosure was, but I think it was this Rocketfish™ - 3.5" Serial ATA Hard Drive Enclosure:
In the product description, the enclosure offers two additional USB ports, a memory card reader, and a kind of button that magically takes backups. These aren't standard USB mass storage device features, which means that you might need additional drivers to support this enclosure. (Most proprietary drivers are written for Windows, unfortunately, which doesn't help your Linux-formatted drive.)
Troubleshooting
Determining how the USB device is recognized
We can determine definitively whether Linux can work with this enclosure.
- Unplug your enclosure's USB cable.
- Since you are on Ubuntu, run this command to get a live stream of kernel messages:
sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog
- Plug in your USB enclosure.
- Look for "
kernel" messages with "usb" following on the same line.
Example output:
deltik@workstation [~]# sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.624834] usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.753643] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0000, idProduct=0000
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.753647] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.753649] usb 1-4: Product: NA
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.753651] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: NA
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.753653] usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 20030775011600033F73
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.754266] usb-storage 1-4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation kernel: [16197.754488] scsi host3: usb-storage 1-4:1.0
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 13: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4"
Jun 9 03:38:19 workstation mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 13 was not an MTP device
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.755022] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access NA NA 1.26 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.755445] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.756638] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] 31266816 512-byte logical blocks: (16.0 GB/14.9 GiB)
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.757620] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.757622] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.757855] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.766125] sdc: sdc1 sdc2
Jun 9 03:38:20 workstation kernel: [16198.768140] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
The above output shows that a "USB Mass Storage device" was detected, meaning that the device could be used as a flash drive, almost exactly like an internal hard drive.
If your output doesn't look like the above, then most likely, you won't be able to interface with the enclosure.
Here's a different example showing a device being recognized as a keyboard:
deltik@workstation [~]# sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15922.756034] usb 1-4: new low-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15922.944965] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=1050, idProduct=0010
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15922.944972] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15922.944975] usb 1-4: Product: Yubico Yubikey II
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15922.944978] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: Yubico
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15922.945174] usb 1-4: ep 0x81 - rounding interval to 64 microframes, ep desc says 80 microframes
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15922.948270] input: Yubico Yubico Yubikey II as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4:1.0/0003:1050:0010.0006/input/input26
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation kernel: [15923.004567] hid-generic 0003:1050:0010.0006: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Yubico Yubico Yubikey II] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4/input0
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 11: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4"
Jun 9 03:33:45 workstation mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 11 was not an MTP device
Determining if the USB device can be used for block storage
If the kernel log shows that you can use the Rocketfish enclosure as a storage device, then follow these steps:
- Unplug the USB cable from the enclosure.
- Run this command:
cat /proc/partitions
- Plug in the USB cable again.
- Run this command again:
cat /proc/partitions
If the USB device was recognized as block storage, then you will see at least one new line added to the output from cat /proc/partitions.
If not, then unfortunately, the kernel doesn't support your Rocketfish device, and my only recommendation for you left would be to get a new, simpler enclosure that doesn't have any extra fancy features.
If the enclosure is recognized as a block device...
There might be some hope, but I wouldn't recommend trying to interface with the drive through the Rocketfish enclosure because the enclosure is returning data about the hard drive in an unusual way that could lead to data corruption if you try to use it.
Best Answer
How new is this laptop? Does it have an eSata port? eSata (external sata) is the same as a regular internal SATA port, except that it has a internal connector. eSata has the same data protocols as internal SATA, and may yield different results.
updated:
Powershare eSAta port
internal sata --> eSata Cable
You will still have to find a way to power the drive. You can get a "toaster". OR if you have an old desktop computer, you can use a simple pin adapter. I have a SATA dock from Vantec, it hasn't worked yet, and it has great reviews.
Another option to power it would be, if you can salvage an old hard drive or CD/DVD enclosure.