USB drive won't mount due to authorization issue

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1

I have two Samsung 3.1 256 GB USB drives that I use to back up files on a project that I haven’t worked on for a couple months and they’ve been sitting safely on a shelf. Their content is about identical because I just back-up the files to both drives in case one fails.

On my desktop, one mounts successfully after spinning and displaying “checking” for awhile; and the other fails with an error of “You are not authorized to mount this device.” But I can plug the same drive into my laptop and it mounts successfully just about immediately without a “checking” delay.

Both machines run KDE and use the 6.12 kernel.

How can I figure out the problem?

Thank you.

Tried this:

sudo fdisk -l                                                                                                                                                                                  
Disk /dev/sda: 476.94 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Disk model: KingFast        
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B0C1FFE2-719A-F441-B731-74DEFBCD5B61

Device         Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       4096     618495    614400   300M EFI System
/dev/sda2     618496  964655514 964037019 459.7G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3  964655515 1000206899  35551385    17G Linux swap


Disk /dev/sdb: 239.02 GiB, 256641603584 bytes, 501253132 sectors
Disk model: Flash Drive     
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1         256 501253099 501252844  239G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /run/media/gary

and it mounted but seemed rather slow.

2

Possibly file system corruption - perhaps a premature removal before all files were written.

As the device identifies itself as a Windows file system - I suggest using a Windows based system to check the filesystem.

3

Thanks. I was about to say, “Impossible!” because I never use Windows (at least not for several years now, and not since Windows 7 and well before I purchased these drives); but I might have used the drive to give a file to someone who copied it to a machine running Windows. I’m pretty careful about that and generally make them give me a drive to put the files on. I also might have plugged it into a Xerox printer to print a PDF directly; and I don’t recall if it even worked.

Maybe I didn’t do something that I should have when I first received the drives, such as format them anew and they arrive formatted for Windows?

After mounting from the command line, it will now mount as it did before but it is terribly slow to load the files such that they can be seen in Dolphin. But the same USB mounts fine and loads quickly on my laptop which is about the same hardware as the desktop.

Seems odd but there must be a reason. Thanks.

4

Terribly slow - that points to Linux 7.0rc - is that correct?

I am thinking - do you have the Manjaro utility udev-usb-sync installed AND you are using Linux kernel 7.0rc?

Linux 7.0 as it exist on unstable branch do not have the issue (tested on Thinkpad T495)

You can use Hirens BootCD as an intermediary to check the file system

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5

If you are mounting a device on Linux, that is formatted with a filesystem not fully supported on Linux, this should be expected behavior. What I find astonishing is that your two USB devices are not exhibiting identical symptoms. Still, for backing up files for a Linux system I would use a Linux format by preference.

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6

How do other storage devices perform when connected to the same port you are having the issues with? :thinking: It’s possible it is on a slower bus. :man_shrugging:

lsusb -v

Also, agree fully that it’s best to stick with a native Linux filesystem where possible.

7

Thanks. Both desktop and laptop are running kernel 6.12 and do not have udev-usb-sync installed. The desktop may have a bit more software loaded but the main difference is the desktop is on stable branch and the laptop on unstable. I’ve had no problems using unstable for about a year and may just switch the desktop to it also.

The USB ports are supposed to be 3.0 on the desktop and not sure about the laptop;but they’re not anything special.

I don’t recall clearly what I did when I received the USB drives but thought I read somewhere instructions for how to format a drive and the recommendation was exFAT. So, I take it that is not the best choice? and ext4 is?

Perhaps the one drive is just going bad; for there doesn’t appear to be a good explanation for why it mounts sometimes and sometimes not or why always mounts on the laptop. I think the drives are about three years old but Samsung is supposed to be guaranteed for five years.

I better get new drives and use Linux only file format; and, if that doesn’t work, well … I don’t know.

Thanks.

1 Like
8

It depends on what those drives are going to be used for.

  • If it’s a removable drive you intend to share with people who use Windows, then use exfat.

  • If it’s a drive for storing backups, use ext4, because MICROS~1 filesystems don’t (and cannot) store UNIX/POSIX file permissions and file ownership.

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