External HDD Enclosure won't mount EXT4

[azrael4h]

I just bought a 3TB NAS drive to replace a 4 year old 1TB drive I was using as a media streamer. I basically ran out of room, and the 1TB refused to die like a normal hard drive would after 4 years of 24/7 use.

At any rate, the 3TB drive works fine. I have it hooked up to the spare SATA cable in my computer, and can browse files and play movies off it without issue. In fact, I did just that for greater speed in transferring files from my backups to the drive. When I place it in the enclosure I've been using, it refuses to mount. It cannot be detected in my Pi2 Kodi box at all, and it will not mount but is detected in Mint 17.3,

Code: Select all

Error mounting system-managed device /dev/sdc: Command-line `mount "/mnt/usb-WDC_WD30_EFRX-68EUZN0_000000000024-0:0"' exited with non-zero exit status 32: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdc,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

Filesystem is again EXT4, so if that was an issue I would really have troubles since my desktop's main drives are also EXT4. So is the old WD 1TB drive that was in the enclosure. Can't be a block issue since it will mount fine without the enclosure. I don't know what the rest would mean, but again, they should have the same issue mounting it from SATA as well, and yet it does not. .

The enclosure works with the old 1TB drive, also formatted as EXT4. Both are Western Digital, the 3TB is a Red NAS drive, the 1TB is a Blue Desktop drive.

I am not reformatting. Period. It took more than an entire day to copy everything over and verify it, and I'm not doing that again. That said, is there some way to tell why the enclosure refuses to operate with the 3TB drive? It's a https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0065 ... UTF8&psc=1, and is specifically noted to work with drives up to 8TB in size. It's also powered by a brick directly connected to the enclosure, so it's nothing to do with the power supply being an issue.

So there is literally no reason for this drive to refuse to mount, at least on my desktop, while in the enclosure. It makes no sense whatsoever.

*EDIT* I tested it on another machine as well, also running Mint 17.3. Same error.

*EDIT 2*
Gparted acts as if the drive is unformatted entirely, even though it was, and is accessible when hooked to the computer without the stupid enclosure. There's no partition table listed. Since I know there is one, so long as I'm not using the enclosure, I'm beginning to believe that Viewsonic simply falsely advertises the enclosure being able to run drives up to 8TB is size. That's the only thing I can think of.

*EDIT 3*
After returning the 3TB drive to the SATA cable inside my desktop, GParted shows nothing wrong with the drive; it's formatted properly, and has a partition table.

[idiotkiwi]

Check that the enclosure is not earthing the drive (screws too tight or similar)
Probably not likely, but i overtightened a motherboard once and had a similar problem.

[Mute Ant]

"bad superblock on /dev/sdc" Something (an /etc/fstab entry created by the Disks accessory?) has told Linux to mount the whole drive which is not reasonable if there's a partition table...I would expect to see /dev/sdc1 for example.

[Mute Ant]

"Why would it do that only while it's in the enclosure though?"
[guess]
You or someone else with root privilege told it...

"When you see device 'WDC_WD30_EFRX-68EUZN0_000000000024-0:0' mount the whole drive on /mnt/usb-WDC_WD30_EFRX-68EUZN0_000000000024-0:0"

...instead of...

"When you see device 'WDC_WD30_EFRX-68EUZN0_000000000024-0:0' mount the first partition on /mnt/usb-WDC_WD30_EFRX-68EUZN0_000000000024-0:0"

[/guess]

If it was the Disks Accessory, and it looks like it was, you can clean it up from there. In any case you could look for (and remove) a defective specification in /etc/fstab so it doesn't try to auto-mount.

[TooMuchTime]

The only thing I can think of is that there is something about the enclosure that is causing Linux to read the enclosure as if it still had the 1TB installed. Can the enclosure be recognized if there is no drive installed? I don't know what to do after that but let's find out.

[Mute Ant]

I got this on Mint18 from an external set-of-four-32GB USB sticks in a 4-port hub...

Unable to mount fourpack
Error mounting /dev/sdd at /media/mute/fourpack2: Command-line `mount -t "btrfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid" "/dev/sdd" "$
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so.
...
[34490.133239] BTRFS info (device sdd): disk space caching is enabled
[34490.133252] BTRFS: has skinny extents
[34490.178240] BTRFS: failed to read the system array on sdd
[34490.193289] BTRFS: open_ctree failed

Like your enclosure, the automatic mount is trying to connect the whole drive /dev/sdd and I have no fstab entry for that! It appears to be a built-in action (if the partition table makes no sense, maybe?)