[SOLVED] External HDD doesn't wake up from idle

[Kinc4id]

I have an external HDD connected to a Raspberry Pi. A few days ago I noticed that the drive wasn't mounted anymore, it didn't show up in the list of connected drives either. I connected the drive to a windows pc and it wasn't initialised. Trying to initialise the drive resulted in a serious hardware error. I disconnected the drive from it's power supply and after reconnecting it came up normal again. I connected it back to my Pi and everything worked normal again. I had the Pi running over night and the next morning the drive was gone again. Rebooting the drive fixed it again. I moved the most important files to another drive and ran chkdsk /f /r. This took a couple of hours and the drive stayed accessible during this time, that's why I think the problem is waking the drive up from idle. Chkdsk didn't find any issues. I also ran CrystalDiskInfo:

After I moved the files I tried to recreate a folder a moved but when I clicked create new folder and entered the name nothing happened. I tried this two times, both times it failed. Then I connected it to the pi again and tried creating the folder from there which gave me an Input Output Error. Then I tried to delete the parent folder which gave me three I/O Errors, one for the drive I tried to delete, one for "New Folder" and one for "New Folder (2)". Those folders where not visible on windows or the pi. This issue was solved by formating the drive, but the problem that the drive doesn't come back from idle still exists. (I'm just adding this second issue because I don't know if it is in any way related.) Every time I actively use the drive it stays active but if nothing writes or reads from the drive for some time it's gone and needs a reboot. I have other drives of the same model here, I'll try connecting a power supply from one of these drives to the one with the issue to see if this is the problem. Does anyone have any idea what causes this problem and if this can be fixed somehow?

 

[Grobe]

After I moved the files I tried to recreate a folder a moved but when I clicked create new folder and entered the name nothing happened. I tried this two times, both times it failed.

Is this when you use USB casing or connected internally ?

What is the full brand/model name of your external disk?

From what I can see from the s.m.a.r.t. values, there is no direct fault to the hdd itself.

Unfortunately your post is unstructured so I can't work out your exact steps and what works and what does not work, but I'll guess it is something wrong with the usb/sata controller on the hdd external case.

 

[Kinc4id]

Is this when you use USB casing or connected internally ?

Not sure if I understand you correct here, the drive is always in it's case and connected via USB cable.

What is the full brand/model name of your external disk?

Western Digital 4TB Elements Desktop
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00JT8AJZ0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Unfortunately your post is unstructured so I can't work out your exact steps and what works and what does not work

I'll try again: The main problem that still exists is that the drive is unavailable when nothing reads from or writes on that drive for some time. As long as I access the drive somehow it seems to work perfectly fine. If the drive is idle for some time it completely disappears from the explorer, It shows as not initialised in Windows and can't be initialised because of a serious hardware error. (My system is german, so I'm not sure if that is how it's actually called in english.) If I try "sudo lsblk -o UUID,NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL,MODEL" with the drive connected to the raspberry pi the drive doesn't show up in the list. Disconnecting the power supply and reconnecting it fixes it on both systems, but only until the drive is idle again for some time.

What I tried:

• formatting the drive with quick format unchecked
• ran chkdsk /f /r which didn't report any errors
• checked the disk with CrystalDiskInfo which also didn't report any errors

Hope this makes it more clear.

I'll guess it is something wrong with the usb/sata controller on the hdd external case.

How could I verify this? Open the case and connect it internally? Is there a standard SATA Disk in the case? Would this even be fixable without special skills?

Edit: I opened the case and connected the drive to an external dock and let it run over night. I guess this is the part you think might broke?

 

[Grobe]

How could I verify this? Open the case and connect it internally? Is there a standard SATA Disk in the case? Would this even be fixable without special skills?

I'd not heard of a way to verify it (e.g. also rule out everything else), but from what you have written so far, this is the more likely reason why it fails.

Edit: I opened the case and connected the drive to an external dock and let it run over night. I guess this is the part you think might broke?

And I was about to suggest you to RMA the drive if it's new, but after opening you may have broken the warranty or something.

But since you've already open it, it cannot hurt to test the drive further. If the HDD itself (without the usb/enclosure) work then I cannot see that there could be anything else than the usb/sata controller of the hdd enclosure.

 

[Kinc4id]

It isn't new, so no problem here.

If the HDD itself (without the usb/enclosure) work then I cannot see that there could be anything else than the usb/sata controller of the hdd enclosure.

Could it still be the power supply unit? Maybe I should test this too if the drive does work know that it's connected to the hub. If it's the power supply I could easily replace that, if it's the controller I guess all I can do is using the drive as an internal hard drive.

 

[Kinc4id]

Update: I had the drive connected over night and it was still up this morning. I reconnected the controller and tested and now it didn't power on at all. I plugged in the psu from one of the other drives and it worked, so looks like the psu is gone. Interesting is that two of my three drives (all the same model) have the same psu and these two work, the one that broke is the only one that's different. I'll test the drive now with another psu to verify the psu was causing my initial problem.

 

[Kinc4id]

So, the drive worked with the other psu, I'll have to get a new one.

What's strange though is, after connecting everything back to the pi it didn't boot. I connected my second monitor to the pi to see if anything happens at all and I got to the white screen you get shortly before you see the four raspberries in the upper left corner but it was stuck there. Mouse didn't move also. The strange thing is that the drive that had the problems wasn't connected to the pi, only the other three drives that were working perfectly fine until earlier today. I narrowed it down to one specific drive that stopped the pi from booting, without this one connected the pi booted normally. I connected the drive while the pi was running and it was listed in the connected drives. I rebooted the pi and it booted normally, all three drives were detected and mounted. I connected my second monitor back to my windows pc and the pc didn't detect the monitor, not even after a reboot. I connected my first monitor through the cable of my second monitor and it worked, so cable and port of the graphics card are fine. I connected the cable back to my second monitor but this time to hdmi2 and this worked too, it looked like the hdmi1 port of my second monitor broke. To verify this I connected a Fire TV Stick to hdmi1 and I saw the splash screen of the stick but then just black. I see the stick in the remote app and can connect to it and if I connect the stick to hdmi2 of the second monitor I get the picture. And the monitor doesn't give a message that there is no input. It looks like it gets an input, it just doesn't display it.

How in the world did I damage the hdmi1 port of the monitor in a way that it shows only the splash screen and then black just by plugging it to another device and back? Could this be in any way related to my problems with the external drives? I don't know, some kind of short circuit in the pi that puts current on its ports or something like that? I really don't get it. Everytime I fix one thing another breaks and I have no idea how these issues could be connected. Or just some really strange coincidence?

 

[fzabkar]

If you have a device that is powered by a 2-pin AC adapter, then the DC output floats at about half the AC voltage, albeit through a high impedance. This sometimes results in a slight tingle when you touch the DC barrel connector, and this can also cause a slight spark which may damage a port which is tied to ground in the PC or monitor.

I suggest you measure the voltages at the HDMI pins with respect to the ground pin in your mains socket. In the EU, where the mains supply is 230VAC, you could see 115VAC at the HDMI connector.

That said, many HDMI ports have ESD protection circuitry, so it could be that a protection diode has shorted rather than the HDMI IC, but that doesn't help you if you are not a component level tech.

 

[Kinc4id]

Just an update: The drive is running without a problem with the new psu for a couple of days now. Problem is solved, thanks for the help.

This sometimes results in a slight tingle when you touch the DC barrel connector, and this can also cause a slight spark which may damage a port which is tied to ground in the PC or monitor.

But in my case the damaged part was the psu of the external drive and the damaged port is the one on my monitor. And both where never connected to the pi at the same time and the pi as well as the drive work without issues now that I replaced the psu. Unfortunately I don't have tools to measure voltages.