Large files on USB hard disk - continued with /var/log/messages

[Jonathan Berry]

On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 15:45:59 +0100, Davor Herga
<davor.herga at guest.arnes.si> wrote:
> This is from /var/log/messages if it will be of any help:
> 
> Starting when USB hard drive was attached:
> 
[snip]
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 kernel:  sda1 sda2 sda3 < sda5 >
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 kernel: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel
> > 0, id 0, lun 0
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 fstab-sync[3371]: added mount point
> > /media/NEW_VOLUME for /dev/sda1
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 fstab-sync[3375]: added mount point
> > /media/NEW_VOLUME1 for /dev/sda2
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 fstab-sync[3388]: added mount point
> > /media/New_Volume for /dev/sda5
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 kernel: NTFS driver 2.1.20 [Flags: R/W MODULE].
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 kernel: NTFS volume version 3.1.
> > Dec 11 15:21:39 lan-2 kernel: NTFS-fs error (device sda5):
> > load_system_files(): Volume is dirty.  Mounting read-only.  Run chkdsk
> > and mount in Windows.
> > Dec 11 15:23:52 lan-2 kernel: application mplayer uses obsolete OSS
> > audio interface

Um, if this drive has NTFS partitions, you are not going to be able to
write to it very well in Linux.  There is some write support, but not
much.  Basically, you can change a file that is already there, without
changing its size, but you cannot create or delete a file, or change
the size of an existing file.  Also, your drive has errors on it
(assumedly from previous attempts) which will make things worse. 
Though, it says it was mounted read-only (perhaps only sda5 was).  Try
this, plug in the drive, then type "mount" (no quotes) in a terminal
and see how the drive is mounted.

> Starting when large file was trying to be copied on /media/NEW_VOLUME2
> 
> > Dec 11 15:27:07 lan-2 kernel: usb 1-2: reset high speed USB device
> > using address 2
> > Dec 11 15:28:22 lan-2 kernel: usb 1-2: reset high speed USB device
> > using address 2
> > Dec 11 15:29:36 lan-2 kernel: usb 1-2: reset high speed USB device
> > using address 2
> > Dec 11 15:30:50 lan-2 kernel: usb 1-2: reset high speed USB device
> > using address 2

Wait, /media/NEW_VOLUME2 was not listed above as one of the mount
points.  Which partition did you think this was?  How are you trying
to copy the files? (with a file manager like nautilus, or with command
line cp)

[snip]
> 
> After this the system rebooted.
> 
> Any ideas?

If you want to write to a disk from Linux, you should format it as
FAT32 or Ext3 or another Linux partition.  If you want to read/write
from Windows too, use FAT32.  NTFS partitions should probably be
mounted read-only for now since (as mentioned above) write support is
very limited.  I don't know why you are simply getting hangs instead
of some kind of error saying that you cannot write that way to an NTFS
partition.

> ENjoY!
> 
> Davor.

Jonathan