Unable to mount transcend external HDD

> Permission denied

Try 'sudo'.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DrivesAndPartitions

Yes, you need to use sudo when making a directory under /media or /mnt because you do not own the parent directory.

Does the USB hard drive work OK on other computers?

Can you use other USB devices such as a memory stick?

Have you tried a different USB port such as one on the back of the computer?

Chris

1. Does the USB hard drive work OK on other computers?

2. Can you use other USB devices such as a memory stick?

3. Have you tried a different USB port such as one on the back of the computer?

1 and 2, yes, I'll try nr. 3, thanks for your concern. Well now it's a 2.0/3.0 USB port device and I've been attending the 2.0 USB ports...

Nope, it doesn't work. The manufacturer gave (yesterday) this support:

"Please ensure you connect both large ends of the USB Y-cable to active USB ports.
Please avoid using USB hubs for sufficient power supply.

No drivers are required for Linux?Kernel 2.4, or later.
Ubuntu can mount FAT32 StoreJet disk automatically.
If your system does not mount itself, please enter Terminal and follow these instructions:

1.
First create a directory for the StoreJet 25.
Example: mkdir /mnt/Storejet

2.
Then, mount the StoreJet 25.
Example: mount   msdos /dev/sda1 /mnt/Storejet"

But immediately I attach it to the computer it stops.

I'm thinking it's a hardware problem, because there's no way plugging in a hard drive should cause this sort of problem. In addition to the manufacturers support answers, make sure you plug the drive in in following order:

Have the cable plugged in to the drive.

Next plug the second flying lead into a USB port (this is usually power only) If the machine hangs at this point the you have power issues with the power supply, the motherboard, or the USB ports themselves.

Now that the extra power is plugged in, next plug the first (data+power) plug into the computer. This is the straight one that carries data and should cause the drive to spin up.

If you plug in the other way around, and there's power problems somewhere, then nasty things can happen - but normally just that the drive fails to start up.

Just for reference, the instructions given by support to mount the drive are incorrect. In the first part they failed to take into account that sudo has to be used for root access. The command should be:

sudo mkdir /mnt/Storejet

In the second part not only did then forget that root access is required, but they've got you trying to mount the main computer hard drive again, and msdos is not required by the mount command, and would possible fail if the drive is formated ntfs. This line should be:

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/Storejet

if you only have one hard drive in the computer. If you've got two hard drives (or other drives already mounted) then you change sdb1 to sdc1 and so on. The third letter is the number of the physical drive, the last number is the partition that you are mounting.

Chris

Thanks Chris for your suggestions and ideas. However I get a question. The hard drive might be partitioned in four segments. When running

henning@henning-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for henning:

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xecddecdd

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3416 27432440+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3416 4864 11636737 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 3416 4797 11095040 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 4797 4864 540672 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I get the result above. Is this to be considered as one hard drive but does it affect the way the last line should be written?

(sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/Storejet)

Yes, sda is one disk divided in 3 partitions (two logical ones are inside the extended one).
But if external drive was plugged, fdisk should have displayed it also.
The external disk is sdb1 if any another disk is connected. This can includes unused sockets for memory card. E.g.

delance@delance-desktop:/var/log$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for delance:

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 243201 cylindres, total 3907029168 secteurs
Unités = secteurs de 1 * 512 = 512 octets
Taille de secteur (logique / physique) : 512 octets / 512 octets
taille d'E/S (minimale / optimale) : 512 octets / 512 octets
Identifiant de disque : 0x0007491f

Périphérique Amorce Début Fin Blocs Id Système
/dev/sda1 2048 25176063 12587008 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 25176064 630362111 302593024 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 630362112 3907028991 1638333440 5 Étendue
/dev/sda5 630364160 1152604159 261120000 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 1152606208 2023006207 435200000 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 3890644992 3907028991 8192000 82 partition d'échange Linux / Solaris
/dev/sda8 3870164992 3890642943 10238976 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 3665364992 3870162943 102398976 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 2641364992 3665362943 511998976 83 Linux

Les entrées de la table de partitions ne sont pas dans l'ordre du disque

Disk /dev/sdf: 500.1 GB, 500105740288 bytes
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 60801 cylindres, total 976769024 secteurs
Unités = secteurs de 1 * 512 = 512 octets
Taille de secteur (logique / physique) : 512 octets / 512 octets
taille d'E/S (minimale / optimale) : 512 octets / 512 octets
Identifiant de disque : 0x00029aa0

Périphérique Amorce Début Fin Blocs Id Système
/dev/sdf1 2048 762159103 381078528 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2 762159104 976769023 107304960 83 Linux
delance@delance-desktop:/var/log$

The external drive is sdf because I have 4 unused memory card sockets.

As Delance said, the fdisk you ran is showing the main hard drive in the computer. sda1 is your windows boot disk, sda2 is an extended partition made by the Ubuntu installer (this is simply an "envelope" partition to put the logical partitions on - this is done for compatibility reasons), sda5 is your Ubuntu boot partition, and sda6 is the Linux swap partition.

The external hard drive should have been mounted as /dev/sdb1 but it's not showing here. Did you try the plug-in procedure I suggested? It seems that drive has not spun up successfully.

Chris

When I plug in the cable with thinner insulation (second lead). The LED lights up. When I plug in the cable with the thicker insulation there is a small buzz in the HDD that soon ceases, after a few seconds.

But then generally immediately when I try to do something, for example, just moving the mouse the computer stops. When I unplug the HDD the screen turned black and I had to reboot.

sudo mkdir /mnt/Storejet25
[sudo] password for henning:
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/Storejet25': File exists

(I might have created the directory for the Storejet while it was unplugged.)

Starting #5

henning@henning-laptop:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/Storejet
[sudo] password for henning:
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/Storejet': File exists
henning@henning-laptop:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/Storejet
mount: special device /dev/sdb1 does not exist
henning@henning-laptop:~$

What would you say the 'cannot create directory, File exists' be a sign of?

Could you plug the disk and run command
   sudo fdisk -l
The external device could be assigned to another device as /dev/sdb.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3416 27432440+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3416 4864 11636737 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 3416 4797 11095040 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 4797 4864 540672 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Which is the same as #6, thanks

I presume sda is the internal disk and I see any external one.