I’m running a Ubuntu server on my old laptop with an external HDD connected to it. The external HDD is powered independently from the laptop, as it is plugged into the wall.

During a power outage, my laptop remains operational due to its battery, but the HDD shuts down. When power is restored, my laptop does not automatically remount the HDD, and I have to reboot the system manually to access it.

Does anyone know how I can resolve this issue?

Edit: Not sure if this added context changes anything, but this is the HDD I’m using. It’s a 3.5" HDD that gets its power directly from the wall.

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    3 months ago

    I had one back in the day like that. My notes on that event are old so maybe someone can modify or clarify.

    First you’ll have to find the UUID of the external drive. (lsblk -f) Then create a mount file like: sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/mnt-data.mount. In the mnt-data.mount file, insert something like:

    [Unit]
Description=External HDD Mount
Requires=dev-disk-by\x2duuid-<YOUR_UUID>.device
After=dev-disk-by\x2duuid-<YOUR_UUID>.device
After=local-fs.target

[Mount]
What=/dev/disk/by-uuid/<YOUR_UUID>
Where=/mnt/data
Type=ext4  # Change to ntfs, xfs, etc., depending on your drive format
Options=rw,noatime,nofail

    Enable and reload:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable mnt-data.mount
sudo systemctl start mnt-data.mount

    Verify status:

    systemctl status mnt-data.mount

    Should say ‘active’. Reboot and test. Let me know if that works. Like I said, that was a while ago. If it works, it’s just another reason why you should doccument your server setups. If it doesn’t, well shucks I tried. LOL

      • feannag@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        6·
        3 months ago

        Wouldn’t that just mount the HDD when the server boots? I think the issue is re-mounting it while the server remains up, hence the systemd service. But maybe I don’t understand fstab fully.

        • happy_wheels@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          I wanted to provide feedback for THIS part only. :) not for OPs issue. I would have responded to OPs post if that were the case…

        • klankin@piefed.caEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          I think you can use the service to remount using the fstab entries/options. (Like “mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/XXX” and it’ll automatically apply the options and mountpoint)

          Arguably cleaner depending on your setup

    • Lenna 🔞@piefed.caOPEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      My /etc/fstab file currently has the following:

      UUID=412ea77a-96e1-427c-9f75-2aae2fe0dca1 /mnt/wd ext4 defaults 0 2

      If I were to use the mnt-data.mount you’ve suggested, does that mean I need to delete what I already have in /etc/fstab and replace it with what you suggested?

  • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
    7·
    3 months ago

    That risks breaking the drive eventually. They don’t handle loss of power well. And if its being written to at the time, data loss and corruption is inevitable.

    That said, no need to reboot to mount the drive.

    sudo mount -a
      • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Then set up a cron job that periodically tries to read a file on the drive, and if that command fails, then execute sudo mount -a

        Like, set up a root account cron job to run touch \external_drive\test_file.txt || mount -a at 5-minute intervals.

  • IpsumLauren@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    3 months ago

    Remove the laptop battery.

    /jk

    I used to have a similar setup and the disk didn’t last a year. All those power losses are going to break the disk eventually. Now I’m trying a cheap UPS.

  • warmaster@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    I can infer that you want suggestions for cost efficient backup power. Depending on the laptop model, it could power the HDD and in case of an outage it could draw power from the laptop’s battery. It would decrease battery charge duration but it would be enough for a graceful shutdown to prevent data loss.

    Alternatively, you could maybe use a battery pack.

    • klankin@piefed.caEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Ive thought about trying this before, but do you have any experience with how to actually hook up the power supply?

      Never thought breaking a drive was worth the risk, but theoretically you should be able to solder a buck converter to the laptops motherboard if the voltage requirements vary.

  • Natanael@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    I recommend a UPS, even a small one is fine for this. Spinning disks don’t like frequent starts and stops, especially not unplanned powerless ones.

    At least you should be running a journaling file system or something similar which tolerates power loss decently (you’ll still see data corruption, but the file system won’t die). If you run software that doesn’t tolerate power loss well, then you absolutely need an UPS

    • Lenna 🔞@piefed.caOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      This is my HDD. Aren’t these guys able to handle power losses since people usually plug them in to backup stuff, and then pull the plug once they’re done?

      And does ext4 count as a journaling file system?

    • SpikesOtherDog@ani.socialEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Find a used one for sale. Bonus points if it has any kind of management. Replace the battery. If at all possible, have it unmount the drive at a certain percentage.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      I was going to mention that, but also that while I’m sure that it’d handle power loss while it’s unmounted the filesystem I don’t know what happens if the backing storage goes away while it’s in use.

    • Lenna 🔞@piefed.caOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      It doesn’t happen often, but when it does happen I temporarily lose access to my media. But based on what others are saying here, it looks like it’s possible to manually remount my drive instead of rebooting. So I’ll give that a try.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Does anyone know how I can resolve this issue?

    I don’t know why you’d need a reboot to remount the thing. Are you just not familiar with how to add something to /etc/fstab and mount it manually and are relying on some kind of auto-mounting system that only happens to run at boot, or is it giving some kind of error?

    If an error, what happens when you do:

    $ sudo mount -o remount /mnt/the-mount-point

    ?

    • Lenna 🔞@piefed.caOPEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      auto-mounting system that only happens to run at boot

      This is correct. I made my drive auto mount using /etc/fstab, and I believe that is only checked once during boot.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Nah, that’s good. What I mean is, if it’s in /etc/fstab, it should be possible to manually mount it without a reboot. Have you tried manually remounting it after power comes back?

        • Lenna 🔞@piefed.caOPEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          Nope, I haven’t tried that. But I will give it a try when the next power outage occurs. I actually didn’t know I could manually remount until today. I’m still pretty new to selfhosting.

          • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Gotcha. Yeah, the stuff in fstab is just a convenience; it’s equivalent to running a bunch of mount commands at boot. You might be able to just run “mount” again without the '-o remount" option. I was just listing that in case you were seeing some kind of errors in trying to manually mount it.