Troubleshooting External Hard Drive Power Issues on Linux Mint: A Case Study
External hard drives are essential for data storage, backups, and transferring files across systems. However, users may occasionally encounter issues where a drive fails to power back on after being powered down via software commands. This article explores a real-world scenario involving a Western Digital MyPassport external HDD and provides insights into diagnosing and resolving similar problems.
Scenario Overview
A user connected a 5TB Western Digital MyPassport external drive to a mini PC (NucBox G3) running Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon. The drive was actively being used for file transfers, but to reduce wear and noise, the user decided to safely disconnect it. Instead of physically unplugging the drive, they used Linux Mint’s Disks application to power down the drive through the GUI.
Unexpectedly, after issuing the power-off command, the drive refused to power back up on any device, including Windows machines. Although the drive’s LED remained lit, the internal platter did not spin or respond. The drive had originally been formatted as NTFS for compatibility across Windows and Linux platforms.
What was attempted
The user undertook several troubleshooting steps:
- Tested multiple USB cables to rule out faulty connections.
- Switched between different USB ports on the devices.
- Performed a clean reinstallation of Linux Mint.
- Connected the drive to various Windows 10/11 Pro devices, where it was recognized but displayed error code 43 indicating it was not recognized properly.
- Ran Windows’ hardware troubleshooter, which detected USB errors but did not resolve the issue.
Despite these efforts, the drive remained unresponsive, raising suspicions that the software command to power down the drive might have caused a hardware state issue.
Understanding the Issue
While Linux Mint’s Disks utility allows users to safely power off external drives via software, it appears that in some cases, this command may inadvertently cause the drive to enter a state from which it cannot recover without manual intervention. Although this behavior is rare, it highlights the importance of understanding hardware control mechanisms and their potential impacts.
Potential Causes and Recommendations
- Software-Induced Power State Reset
Some external drives or their controllers might not support being powered down via software in certain configurations, leading to hardware lock-ups.
- Hardware Damage or Firmware Lock
In rare cases, issuing a power-off command could cause firmware issues, especially if the drive was in the middle of operations or
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