Odd. Cannot get new drive to recognize or mount.

1st Official Post

    A bit of a preface. I was just recently running OpenElec, but tried to do an upgrade. I ended up having to do a clean install and while doing so I added a new internal drive into the mix via a SATA 2 port adapter. So I have 4 data drives in total, 3 currently recognized, along with a SSD for my OS and temp download area.

    So my first concern was that LibreElec was just not recognizing it via the expansion card. So I took two data drives out, and had the same experience. I put the drives back in, and compared a dmesg | paste of the events and at least it is initially seeing it in both instances. So right now I have all 4 drives back into play.

    The drive in question is a "WD60EFRX-68L" which I formatted as ext4 on a windows machine.

    Code
    LibreELEC:~ # blkid
/dev/sda1: PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="4fd32b78-ea97-11e8-b33b-4c327591f63e"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="System" UUID="5f1e3b31-12cc-4f36-975d-e3dd9ac8ba59" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="07bbedc4-01"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="Storage" UUID="445eacdb-2179-4421-9b96-2d900f10ce33" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="07bbedc4-02"
/dev/sdc1: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="31254f7f-ee32-4c9f-90d8-a8e143d70ed1"
/dev/sdc2: LABEL="Media-3TB" UUID="96C4A4B6C4A49A4F" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="d0f7541e-4d22-4974-bf3b-59b33bd1c2cb"
/dev/sdd1: LABEL="Media-6TB" UUID="c57850e2-86c0-44ee-b3d5-97631ceed99c" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="primary" PARTUUID="7bdeaeb1-1d17-4c3f-a490-8cc01936d784"
/dev/sde1: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="df8dcd83-cd54-4e12-a613-50ab6bf215da"
/dev/sde2: LABEL="Media-4TB" UUID="FE1CB8AF1CB86475" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="2cb726ff-2490-4404-a3f8-2719566b04a2"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"

    Results of dmesg | paste: http://ix.io/1sf5

    When I took some other drives out so this new drive would be on the board's controller I got this result: http://ix.io/1sf2

    Given it was formatted ext4, and I ejected the disk, it should have been clean.

    Any thoughts?

    • Official Post

    Sorry but I'm not too sure what the issue is.

    At first your title suggests you cannot get a drive to be recognised nor mounted but later on you say

    Quote

    "So right now I have all 4 drives back into play."

    But then later on you say

    Quote

    Given it was formatted ext4, and I ejected the disk, it should have been clean.

    So I have no idea what you are trying report.

    Also you didn't even advise what image you are using.

    When I meant there are 4 drives back into play I meant that after troubleshooting demsg, it seemed at least the bios was recognizing the 4th drive that it should not be a factor in me getting LibreElec/Kodi to mount it. This is further troubleshooted when I took two of the other drives out and demsg indeed saw the new drive.

    What I am trying to report is this:

    I've acquired a new 6TB drive.

    I formatted the drive on a windows machine as a ext4 partition.

    The BIOS is at least recognizing it (WD60EFRX-68L) as it's indicated in the demsg log.

    I am not seeing it when running df in LibreElec/Kodi.

    So I am trying to find out why I am not seeing it in LibreElec/Kodi, and what steps I can take to get it to mount. This is installed from the 8.2.5 image that I downloaded 72 hours ago on a generic x86 build.

    Edited once, last by LTParis (November 19, 2018 at 3:57 PM).

    • Official Post

    This is what I see in the first dmesg:

    ata1.00 = link down

    ata2.00 = 6Gb/sec = WD60EFRX = /dev/sda

    ata3.00 = 3Gb/sec = Samsung 840 = /dev/sdb

    ata3.01 = 3Gb/sec = ST3000DM001 = /dev/sdc

    ata4.00 = fail to resume link / link down

    ata4.01 = fail to resume link / link down

    ata5.00 = 3Gb/sec = WD60EFRX = /dev/sdd

    ata6.00 = 3Gb/sec = WD40EFRX = /dev/sde

    This is what I see in the second dmesg:

    ata1.00 = link down

    ata2.00 = link down

    ata3.00 = 6Gb/sec = Samsung 840 = /dev/sda

    ata3.01 = 3Gb/sec = ST3000DM001 = /dev/sdb

    ata4.00 = failed to resume link / link down

    ata4.01 = failed to resume link / link down

    ata5.00 = link down

    ata6.00 = 3Gb/sec = WD60EFRX = /dev/sdc

    I'd start by updating the BIOS/firmware on whatever kind of x86 device it is you're using .. including any third-party SATA controller cards and check that everything is set to allow 6Gb/sec operation - I can see several drives that flip between the two which either indicates bad settings or bad cables or an insufficient power supply. Check the cables and jumper settings on drives. Then i'd start rebuilding with the SSD and get that on a 6Gb/sec channel. Then I'd add the two 6TB drives and ensure those come up. Then i'd add the 4TB .. then 3TB.

    As a general comment: each time I see someone struggle with cables/connectors and drives like this I think "get a NAS box" .. because media collections are so much easier when you make the HTPC a dumb/simple/cheap client device and use a decent NAS for storage.

    I am considering going with a NAS since I am getting into a larger collection of media, and right now there is no RAID in play. Considering the DS918+ since I can expand up to 9 drives.