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I am relatively new to the Ubuntu family. This is also my first post in this group. Now lets make my problem clear.

When I insert any USB/external hard drive, it appears on my desktop (ubuntu 18.04) on the left panel. However, when I click the drive icon, it does not open, and also does not give any error message. However, when I format the drive, it works fine until I remove the USB drive. When I insert the drive again, the problem reoccurs.

This is a really weird behavior of Ubuntu. I am facing this problem since a couple of days. Previously, it was working perfectly. I can not really understand what is happening. Can anyone help me in this regard? Its really very painful. Thank you in advance...

Cheers Razon

vanadium
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Razon kumar
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  • It might be due to a problem with the file system of the drive. You should check the file system. See for the command here https://askubuntu.com/questions/1004827/how-to-fix-read-only-usb-drive, point 2 of the accepted answer. You need to find the correct device name for you and replace /dev/sdb1 with the one you found. For finding device name, open "Disks", click your USB drive: you see the device name next to the label "Device". – vanadium May 01 '20 at 10:37

1 Answers1

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It is not uncommon that a file system on a connected drive becomes damaged/inconsistent. That may be a possible cause of the behavior you see.

Prevent file system damage

To avoid any file system corruption, be very careful when you remove the drive. You should never just plug it out. Rather, first eject it with software. In Ubuntu, right-click the connected USB drive, and select "Safely remove drive". Wait a few seconds. You will get a notification that says drive removal is safe. Unplug the drive only after having seen this notification.

Alternatively, wait with removing the USB drive until the system has shut down fully.

Repairing a damaged file system

You can repair a damaged file system with the utility Disks or using the terminal. The file system first must be unmounted before proceeding with the check and repair.

  1. Open the utility "Disks"
  2. In the left pane, click your USB drive
  3. In the graphic map labeled "Volumes", make sure the relevant partition is highlighted. For USB sticks, you typically will see just a single partition. However, for larger drives with multiple partitions, you will see all of these in the graphical map.
  4. Click the "Stop" button (■). This unmounts the partition.
  5. Click the cog icon (third from the stop button) and select the menu item "Check file system". If this reports errors, you know you need to repair the file system. Then proceed with 6.
  6. Click the cog icon again, but this time select "Repair file system". You get a warning first and a message that it can take some time.

Final note

If you are careful mounting and unmounting the drive, file system issues should be rare. If, despite precautions, you regularly continue to face file system corruption, then a faulty USB drive or other hardware issues (even a loose cable) may be at the origin.

vanadium
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  • Hi Vanadium, Thank you very much for your help. It resolved my issue. – Razon kumar May 02 '20 at 05:57
  • Thank you for the feedback. I was not sure that was effectively your issue, but it is the first thing that should be checked. Could also have been a hardware issue or something else. I was hesitating to post as an answer, but I taught it was very helpful fundamental info for many users. Users do not always realize that carefull unplugging using software first is very important. Glad that in your case this solved the issue. – vanadium May 02 '20 at 08:36