USB trouble with external hard disk

[MR ZenWiz]

On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 11:23 PM Volker Wysk <post at volker-wysk.de> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I've been copying a large file from one external hard disk to another, and
> rsync reported a "file IO error" (no further information). The keyboard and
> the mouse froze. I had to log in remotely in order to reboot the system.
> I've tried two or three times and then it worked.
>
> It looks to me like the USB subsystem died. The culprit seems to be the
> target hard disk, but I'm not sure. It could also be a problem with USB.
>
> What should I do about it? Should I scrap that hard disk? It's old, but I
> don't know how old exactly. I haven't had any problems with it previously.
>
> Why can one faulty USB device cause the entire USB subsystem to freeze? And,
> is there a way to test the integrity of that harddisk?
>
Have you tried switching up USB ports to see if one
(arrangement/connection) works better than another?

I used to have problems with some of my laptops because the USB ports
were two per controller, and the wrong combination of devices could
jam up each other or even the whole USB subsystem.

There are also bad USB ports (for some reason, most likely h/w failure).

HTH.

MRZ