Posts Tagged ‘usb’

USB Disk Errors on Mint 19 VMware Guest

December 8th, 2020, posted in Windows
Share

Connecting a physical USB device to a virtual machine is sometimes tricky. Virtual machines are not really designed for physical interaction. In this case, it was necessary to mount a 1 TB external USB disk to a VMware virtual machine running Linux Mint 19.3. USB errors were seen and the disk would not connect. The fix was very simple.

 

Connecting the Disk :

A USB disk was connected to a Linux laptop running VMware Workstation 15.5.1, and hosting a Linux Min 19.3 guest. When the connection “button” (at the bottom right of the VMware window) was pressed, these errors appeared in the guest’s kernel log:

[Tue Mar  3 22:51:30 2020] sched: RT throttling activated
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:17 2020] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:18 2020] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:18 2020] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:18 2020] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:19 2020] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:19 2020] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:19 2020] usb usb1-port1: attempt power cycle
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:20 2020] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci-pci
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:20 2020] usb 1-1: Invalid ep0 maxpacket: 9
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:20 2020] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 9 using ehci-pci
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:20 2020] usb 1-1: Invalid ep0 maxpacket: 9
[Tue Mar  3 22:58:20 2020] usb usb1-port1: unable to enumerate USB device
[Tue Mar  3 23:00:32 2020] pciehp 0000:00:15.0:pcie004: Slot(160): Attention

USB Errors like this are very common. There are many causes and many potential solutions, some of them quite esoteric. In this case though, the solution was very simple.

 

Quick Solution :

The fix was to edit the virtual machine settings in VMware, and change the USB specification from “USB 2.0” to “USB 3.0”. With that done, the disk connected without a problem. More explicitly:

VM settings -> USB Controller -> USB compatibility -> change USB 2.0 to USB 3.0.

The physical USB port was indeed USB 3, as was the external disk. One strange thing is that the arrangement (USB 2.0) had worked until a day or two earlier.

Share
read more no comments

How to Make a Portable Hard Drive Bootable

June 3rd, 2011, posted in TEChNoLoGY
Share

The operating system on some computers can crash, requiring an external source for the operating system to be used to recover data and repair the internal hard drive. Creating a bootable portable drive using an external hard drive or USB thumb drive is a solution to maintain a convenient recovery system. A bootable portable drive can also be used to run a different operating system on a computer.

Instructions :

STEP #1 :
Plug the USB drive into your computer’s USB port.
Download and install the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool program (see Resources section below for link). Then launch the program, select your USB drive and format the USB drive in NTFS format.
If desired, type the name of your USB device in the “Name” field.
Exit the utility program when formatting is complete.

STEP #2:
Download and install the HP USB Key Utility program (see Resources section below for link).
Open a window for your USB drive by selecting the drive under “My Computer” located in your Start menu.

STEP #3:
Insert the Windows installation disk into your CD/DVD drive.
Launch the HP USB Key Utility program and click the “Next” button to begin the wizard.
Select the drive letter from the drop-down menu for your CD/DVD drive.
Click the “Next” button.

STEP #4:
Select the radio button next to the option “Create New or Replace Existing Configuration” and click the “Next” button.
Select the option “Create New Filesystem” and click the “Next” button.
Select the option “With Partition” and click the “Next” button.
Select the option “HP Firmware Flash Package” and click the “Next” button.
Click the “Finish” button when the Completion screen is displayed to exit the utility.

STEP #5:
Launch your Internet Explorer application and type “c:” in the address bar.
Select “Folder Options” under “Tools” in the top menu bar. Select the “View” tab and click the option for “Show Hidden Files and Folders” in the left frame.
Deselect (i.e., uncheck) the boxes next to “Hide Extensions for Known File Types” and “Hide Protected Operating System Files.”
Click the “OK” button.

STEP #6:
Select the following files in the window by holding down the “Control” (CTRL) key while clicking:
boot.ini
ntldr
ntdetect
Drag these files to the open window for your USB drive (they will copy to the drive).

STEP #7:
Safely eject your USB drive and remove your Windows installation disk from your CD/DVD drive.

Tips & Warnings:
 Make sure that the computers can recognize a USB drive as a start-up device (i.e., older computers reset device recognition as part of their BIOS during start-up).

Share
read more 20 comments