External USB Hard Drive Does Not Mount

[Nuxian]

It's a WD 1TB My Passport. It will not mount using USB 3 sockets despite my trying formats with different file systems (using the Disc Utility). However if I use a USB to USB C adapter cable it will mount into the USB C socket? USB sticks mount OK in the USB sockets. PC is a Lenovo ThinkPad T480, Intel i5, 16Gb, 256Gb Storage.
A bit of a nuisance as both USB C sockets were in use hence I wanted to use it with a USB 3 socket. If anybody could help solve this issue it would be appreciated.
By the way I also have a 4TB drive of the same type described above. This is a USB C device though but mounts OK into the USB C sockets.

Thanks
Nuxian

[SprinterDriver]

Try to reboot, and after you've logged in to desktop you try to connect it again.

[Nuxian]

No Luck I'm afraid.
Nuxian

[Nuxian]

AN UPDATE
Very Strange. I tried a Toshiba 320Gb (Intenso) drive which is normally hooked up to my Hi-Fi Music streamer. This mounted and worked OK. I then tried the WD 1TB My Passport again. Hey Ho it mounted and worked OK! Then had to close down for a few hours. After powering up again and inserting the WD 1TB My Passport I then found it would not mount or work again in the USB 3 sockets but was again mounting OK into USB-C with the adapter cable.
I later tried a 5" 3TB Seagate drive which needs mains power this mounted and worked OK into the USB 3.
I'm a Linux beginner so not yet knowledgeable about the File System and Terminal. I did notice however that in the File System MNT folder there was a file or directory "usb_WD_My_Passport-_25E1_then a long alphanumeric string-0:0-part1". This is there whether the drive is connected or not. I cannot delete it.
I am assuming there is some problem with the WD 1TB My Passport such that it only occurs with USB connection but doesn't with USB-C connection.

If any body has any further thoughts re this I'd be most interested.
Nuxian

[AndyMH]

AN UPDATE
I did notice however that in the File System MNT folder there was a file or directory "usb_WD_My_Passport-_25E1_then a long alphanumeric string-0:0-part1". This is there whether the drive is connected or not. I cannot delete it.
I am assuming there is some problem with the WD 1TB My Passport such that it only occurs with USB connection but doesn't with USB-C connection.

When you plug an external drive in with mint, it will automount in /media not /mnt so that suggests that you have changed the mount point. To resolve that post the output from cat /etc/fstab.

Standard conventions are fixed drives in /mnt, removable drives in /media. If there is a label on the partition, e.g. mylabel, then udisks (what is used to automount) will use the label and automount at /media/you/mylabel. When there is no label it uses the UUID, e.g. /media/you/45329c8e-24af-4558-8b67-5db9d1b544b7, that is what you are probably seeing.

When you plug the drive in and it is not working, does it show up in the output from sudo parted --list? I would try a manual mount in a terminal to see what errors it shows up, but I don't know what filesystem(s) you have on the drive.

It might be that the drive is drawing more power than can be supplied by the usb port, given that your seagate mains powered drive works.

[Nuxian]

Thanks AndyMH
Sorry for delay in reply.
Drive was formatted Ex4 and the only way I could see to do this in the Disc utility was to class it as an internal drive, hence maybe it is showing in /mnt and not /media.
I changed to xfs format but still the same problem.
Output from cat /etc/fstab is:-

Pad-T480:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=f0a88165-4072-4c2a-8afd-520d5cf93cd1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installationUSB sockets
UUID=4FD8-7A02 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/swapfile none swap sw

As I said I have not started to learn Terminal yet so sorry this means nothing to me.

I have not changed the mount point as far as I am aware. Just connected to the USB sockets.
I have no files showing in /media/me.
Sorry I think I am out of my depth with this at the moment.
Nuxian