# which device is my external hard drive [SOLVED]

## Despot Despondency

Hi,

I want to mount my external hard drive through my USB port, but I don't know which device corresponds to the USB port.  Any point would be appreciated. (Sorry it's such a basic question)Last edited by Despot Despondency on Sat May 01, 2010 10:59 am; edited 1 time in total

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## John R. Graham

External USB drives (both memory sticks and rotating media) produce fake SCSI/SATA drives is /dev.  Do

```
ls /dev/sd*
```

- John

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## chithanh

When you connect a USB drive, dmesg will tell you which /dev entry corresponds to your device.

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## Despot Despondency

Thanks for the replies.

Here's the output of dmesg | grep usb

```

[  182.323396] usb 2-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3

[  182.450385] usb 2-5: default language 0x0409

[  182.455626] usb 2-5: udev 3, busnum 2, minor = 130

[  182.455628] usb 2-5: New USB device found, idVendor=0bc2, idProduct=3000

[  182.455629] usb 2-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

[  182.455631] usb 2-5: Product: FreeAgentDesktop

[  182.455632] usb 2-5: Manufacturer: Seagate

[  182.455633] usb 2-5: SerialNumber:             6QG1EJJS

[  182.455679] usb 2-5: uevent

[  182.455691] usb 2-5: usb_probe_device

[  182.455693] usb 2-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

[  182.456426] usb 2-5: uevent

[  182.460801] usb 2-5: adding 2-5:1.0 (config #1, interface 0)

[  182.462501] usb 2-5:1.0: uevent

[  182.462516] usb-storage 2-5:1.0: usb_probe_interface

[  182.462520] usb-storage 2-5:1.0: usb_probe_interface - got id

[  182.463878] usb-storage: device found at 3

[  182.463880] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning

[  182.463898] drivers/usb/core/inode.c: creating file '003'

[  197.213757] usb-storage: device scan complete

[  197.224503] usb 2-5:1.0: uevent

[  197.224586] usb 2-5: uevent

[  197.225643] usb 2-5:1.0: uevent

[ 3761.972709] usb 2-5:1.0: uevent

[ 3761.972789] usb 2-5: uevent

[ 3761.973799] usb 2-5:1.0: uevent

```

So the external hard drive seems to been registered (it's the FreeAgentDesktop), I still can't tell which device I have to mount?

Also the output of "ls /dev/sd*" is

```

/dev/sda  /dev/sda1  /dev/sda2  /dev/sda3  /dev/sdb  /dev/sdb1

```

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## Jaglover

You do not want dmesg | grep usb 

You want sudo -f tail /var/log/messages

then you plug in your drive and see what kernel tells you.

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## John R. Graham

Yeah, but it's /dev/sdb.    :Razz: 

- John

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## Ant P.

```
ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/usb-*
```

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## Jaglover

 *John R. Graham wrote:*   

> Yeah, but it's /dev/sdb.   
> 
> - John

 

Very likely, yes.   :Cool:   But I considered the possibility sdb is something else and the external drive wasn't recognized properly due to a missing feature in kernel.

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## Despot Despondency

OK, solved it. Thanks for all the help.

Turns out it was indeed /dev/sdb1 after all.

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