USB HD FAT32 problem

[Styno]

I've had troubles with my USB HD for some time:
I can read directories and files but I can't create direcotries or files anymore. I've tried several firmware version (official and customized) but was unable to determine the problem, exept that a 'ls' on the root directory on the HD showed a lot of garbage.

Now I've installed the latest firmware (1.7.5.6 customized by Oleg) and it contains a lot more debugging information in the systemlog. This is what is shows:

Jan 1 01:00:22 WL500g user.warn klogd: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x5e3/0x702) is not claimed by any active driver.
Jan 1 01:00:27 WL500g user.warn klogd: Vendor: SAMSUNG Model: SV1604N Rev: 0811
Jan 1 01:00:27 WL500g user.warn klogd: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Apr 5 00:20:22 WL500g user.warn klogd: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Apr 5 00:20:22 WL500g user.warn klogd: SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
Apr 5 00:20:28 WL500g user.warn klogd: Filesystem panic (dev 08:01).
Apr 5 00:20:28 WL500g user.warn klogd: FAT error
Apr 5 00:20:28 WL500g user.warn klogd: Directory 291: bad FAT
Apr 5 00:20:29 WL500g user.warn klogd: Filesystem panic (dev 08:01).
Apr 5 00:20:29 WL500g user.warn klogd: FAT error
[...]

Do more pleople have these errors or am I the only one? In case I'm the only one, I could try to format the HD again to check if this clears the errors...

PS. The datetime indication is a bit confusing, but I'm certain all the messages were created within a few second from each other.

[erik_bies]

Well, no
It does give some strange errors for me

Jan 1 01:00:27 WL500g user.warn klogd: usb.c: USB device 4 (vend/prod 0x409/0x6a) is not claimed by any active driver.
Jan 1 01:00:32 WL500g user.warn klogd: Vendor: IC25N020 Model: ATCS04-0 Rev: CA2O
Jan 1 01:00:32 WL500g user.warn klogd: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jan 1 01:00:32 WL500g user.warn klogd: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jan 1 01:00:32 WL500g user.warn klogd: SCSI device sda: 39070080 512-byte hdwr sectors (20004 MB)
klogd: FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
Apr 5 00:18:53 WL500g user.warn klogd: VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:02.
Apr 5 00:18:55 WL500g user.warn klogd: FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
Apr 5 00:18:55 WL500g user.warn klogd: VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:03.

But it seems to be operating just fine. I will be formatting the disc once more to see if it will go away. I guess the second 2 errors are because these are not FAT partitions.

My recommendation. format the disc once again. writing dir's is normally no probs

BTW. The strange time is because the box did not yet synchronise the time.
You won't see real time untill this entry Apr 4 23:24:58 WL500g user.emerg NTP client: time is synchronized to 131.107.1.10

[Antiloop]

yes try reformating first please

my log just shows me this.. no more no less about the hdd

Jan 1 01:00:24 WL500g user.warn klogd: usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x4b4/0x6830) is not claimed by any active driver.
Jan 1 01:00:28 WL500g user.warn klogd: Vendor: Maxtor 6 Model: Y160P0 Rev: 0 0
Jan 1 01:00:28 WL500g user.warn klogd: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jan 1 01:00:28 WL500g user.warn klogd: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jan 1 01:00:28 WL500g user.warn klogd: SCSI device sda: 320173056 512-byte hdwr sectors (163929 MB)

[Styno]

I've been thinking about is some more and I think its caused by the non-standard formatting procedure of Windows XP. I will try to do a reformat using Linux or Partition Magic today and report here is this clears the error.

[Antiloop]

Originally posted by Styno
I've been thinking about is some more and I think its caused by the non-standard formatting procedure of Windows XP. I will try to do a reformat using Linux or Partition Magic today and report here is this clears the error.

Windows XP does not support formatting FAT32 partitions greater than 32gb.

and yes use partition magic instead, that's working for me

be sure to erase partitions from harddisk in windows 'computerbeheer' first and after that create partition in Partition Magic

could send you a screenshot if u want to.. when i'm back from work

[Styno]

Originally posted by Antiloop
Windows XP does not support formatting FAT32 partitions greater than 32gb.

and yes use partition magic instead, that's working for me

be sure to erase partitions from harddisk in windows 'computerbeheer' first and after that create partition in Partition Magic

could send you a screenshot if u want to.. when i'm back from work

Thanks this confirms my own suspicion. Its Micro$oft shitty software again which is causing the problems . I'm familliar with Partition Magic so screenshots won't be nessesary, but thanks for the offer anyway .

Perhaps a howto could address these 'Windows formatting vs FAT32' problems? Because I don't think I'm the only one running into this problem.

[Antiloop]

Originally posted by Styno
Thanks this confirms my own suspicion. Its Micro$oft shitty software again which is causing the problems . I'm familliar with Partition Magic so screenshots won't be nessesary, but thanks for the offer anyway .

Perhaps a howto could address these 'Windows formatting vs FAT32' problems? Because I don't think I'm the only one running into this problem.

don't know.. my windows XP refused to format a 160gb partition at all.. that's why it sounded strange to me you were able to format it at 160gb..

[Styno]

Originally posted by Antiloop
don't know.. my windows XP refused to format a 160gb partition at all.. that's why it sounded strange to me you were able to format it at 160gb..

The partitioning was done by SwissKnife (freeware partitioning program) because Windows XP did not want to create partitions larger then 36 Gb. I was amazed by the speed SwissKnife was able to format the 160Gb HD (few seconds). So now I guess it doesn't create or format the partition the right way. Perhaps Windows uses some sort of on-the-fly formatting of large drives

[Antiloop]

Originally posted by Styno
The partitioning was done by SwissNife (freeware partitioning program) because Windows XP did not want to create partitions larger then 36 Gb. I was amazed by the speed SwissNife was able to format the 160Gb HD (few seconds). So now I guess it doesn't create or format the partition the right way. Perhaps Windows uses some sort of on-the-fly formatting of large drives

to inform you, creating a partition and getting it formatted (quick) with Partition Magic/Windows takes like 1 minute approx. so that doesn't say anything about the program..

just try Partition Magic, and eventually do a FULL format to be sure

[Styno]

Ok, now its getting even worse. I've tried several firmware versions and the all give the same 'neg fail' error for the usb device:

[...]
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xb8004000, IRQ 2
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:04.0, PCI device 14e4:4715
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb.c: registered new driver usblp
printer.c: v0.11: USB Printer Device Class driver
Linux video capture interface: v1.00
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
lp driver: get device ID
neg fail
Register User Space Key Handler : 726 0

Looks like Linux isn't able to recognise the HD anymore. I can't find anything for 'neg fail' on google except that it's an negotiation error on the scsi bus. This suggests perhaps that the drive isn't OK anymore. However, with Windows there are no problems mounting the HD...

[Styno]

After a 60Gb FAT32 partition had been created using Windows 98 SE the router mounts the partition as read-write. Finally the drive is working properly.

Thanks for all the support!

[Styno]

After days of trying I was finally able to use the entire 160Gb available on the external USB drive in a single FAT32 partition and to mount the harddrive read-write on the router.

Here's what I needed to do to get things going:
- Updated the bios version on my pc to support 48bit addressing.
- Install Windows 98SE with latest drivers (Intel Application Accelerator in my case).
- Connect the HD to an IDE controller on the pc.
- Create a single FAT32 partition to use all available disk space with Ranish Partion Manager. No need for 'Formatting with surface test', 'Quick format' is good enough.
- Reinstall the HD into the external casing and hook it to the router.

[Antiloop]

Originally posted by Styno
After days of trying I was finally able to use the entire 160Gb available on the external USB drive in a single FAT32 partition and to mount the harddrive read-write on the router.

Here's what I needed to do to get things going:
- Updated the bios version on my pc to support 48bit addressing.
- Install Windows 98SE with latest drivers (Intel Application Accelerator in my case).
- Connect the HD to an IDE controller on the pc.
- Create a single FAT32 partition to use all available disk space with Ranish Partion Manager. No need for 'Formatting with surface test', 'Quick format' is good enough.
- Reinstall the HD into the external casing and hook it to the router.

i can't make it up out of your posts, but did you try to do this too with Partition Magic in Windows XP ? or just not at all

[Styno]

Originally posted by Antiloop
i can't make it up out of your posts, but did you try to do this too with Partition Magic in Windows XP ? or just not at all

Yep, tried it:
- Windows XP Professional (all service packs/updates installed)
- Partition Magic 8.0

The result was a 160Gb partition which I could use with Windows XP, but not with the router. I'm not sure if the drive was just read-only accessable or not at all, but the log showed a line where the SCSI driver complained about an illegal sector count (0).

So, until now, the only successful method for me was using Windows 98SE.

/edit
@NJS:
You are right! My conclusion should be:

So, until now, the only successful method for me was connecting the HD to an IDE controller and then format the drive using Ranish Partition Magic in a native DOS environment.

[njs]

Originally posted by Styno
Yep, tried it:
- Windows XP Professional (all service packs/updates installed)
- Partition Magic 8.0

The result was a 160Gb partition which I could use with Windows XP, but not with the router. I'm not sure if the drive was just read-only accessable or not at all, but the log showed a line where the SCSI driver complained about an illegal sector count (0).

So, until now, the only successful method for me was using Windows 98SE.

You don't need to use Windows 98SE for that, Ranish runs from a bootable floppy disk..