A couple of days ago, I bought myself a 5TB Seagate Expansion Portable drive. This is an 2.5″ external spinning hard disk that connects over USB. In a review on a well-known Dutch website for IT enthusiasts, I read that inside, the drive consists of an ST5000LM000 hard drive and a USB to SATA chip (in contrast to other manufacturers like WD that solder the USB connector directly on the drives circuit board).
After connecting the drive to my computer (that currently runs Ubuntu 21.10), I wanted to see what I could learn about the drive in terms of SMART information. So I tried:
$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.13.0-41-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org Read Device Identity failed: scsi error unsupported field in scsi command A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.
Trying the suggested -T
option didn’t help. So I played around with the -d
option that I had used before trying to connect to hard drives behind RAID controllers. That looked better:
$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda -T conservative -d sat,auto smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.13.0-41-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Vendor: Seagate Product: Expansion HDD Revision: 1901 Compliance: SPC-4 User Capacity: 5.000.981.077.504 bytes [5,00 TB] Logical block size: 512 bytes Physical block size: 4096 bytes LU is fully provisioned Logical Unit id: 0x3e41434334313346 Serial number: 00000000NACC413F Device type: disk Local Time is: Thu May 19 21:54:04 2022 CEST SMART support is: Unavailable - device lacks SMART capability. === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === Current Drive Temperature: 0 C Drive Trip Temperature: 0 C Error Counter logging not supported No Self-tests have been logged
The drive reports the correct size, but also says there is not SMART support. In fact, using -d scsi
gave identical output. Because there should only be this USB to SATA translation layer I thought that somehow I should be able to get the SMART commands to work. Looking through the smartmontools
website, I came across this article that explains the “SAT with UAS” situation. It seems that the high speed UAS driver disables SAT transfers in certain cases. The workaround is to tell the kernel to use the older usb-storage
driver instead of the uas
driver. With the lsusb
command I identified the manufacturer and device ID of the drive:
$ lsusb | grep -i seagate Bus 004 Device 012: ID 0bc2:2037 Seagate RSS LLC Expansion HDD
Next, I made sure to unmount and disconnect the drive and then instructed the kernel to use the old driver for this device:
$ echo "0x0bc2:0x2037:u" | sudo tee /sys/module/usb_storage/parameters/quirks
and reconnected the drive. I verified in the kernel logs that the usb-storage
driver was indeed used:
mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb 4-3.3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd mei 19 22:08:30 barabas mtp-probe[983206]: checking bus 4, device 12: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:0c:00.3/usb4/4-3/4-3.3" mei 19 22:08:30 barabas mtp-probe[983206]: bus: 4, device: 12 was not an MTP device mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb 4-3.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0bc2, idProduct=2037, bcdDevice=19.01 mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb 4-3.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb 4-3.3: Product: Expansion HDD mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb 4-3.3: Manufacturer: Seagate mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb 4-3.3: SerialNumber: 00000000NACC413F mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb 4-3.3: UAS is ignored for this device, using usb-storage instead mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb-storage 4-3.3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: usb-storage 4-3.3:1.0: Quirks match for vid 0bc2 pid 2037: 800000 mei 19 22:08:30 barabas kernel: scsi host6: usb-storage 4-3.3:1.0
Notice the “UAS is ignored” message. And lo and behold, smartctl
now works and shows all relevant information:
$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.13.0-41-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 2.5 5400 Device Model: ST5000LM000-2U8170 Serial Number: WCJ6AG24 LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0e0939684 Firmware Version: 0001 User Capacity: 5.000.981.078.016 bytes [5,00 TB] Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm Form Factor: 2.5 inches Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s) Local Time is: Thu May 19 22:30:52 2022 CEST SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity was never started. Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run. Total time to complete Offline data collection: ( 0) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x71) SMART execute Offline immediate. No Auto Offline data collection support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. No Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 827) minutes. Conveyance self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x7035) SCT Status supported. SCT Feature Control supported. SCT Data Table supported. SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 067 065 006 Pre-fail Always - 5367808 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 100 100 000 Pre-fail Always - 0 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 10 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 100 253 045 Pre-fail Always - 3765 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 (86 255 0) 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 9 184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0 187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 069 069 040 Old_age Always - 31 (Min/Max 29/31) 191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 2 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 23 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 031 040 000 Old_age Always - 31 (0 19 0 0 0) 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0 (7 164 0) 241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 1723222 242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 3644586 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t] SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1 SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Not_testing 2 0 0 Not_testing 3 0 0 Not_testing 4 0 0 Not_testing 5 0 0 Not_testing Selective self-test flags (0x0): After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk. If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
Now that I know how to do this, let’s undo the “use usb-storage
driver instead of the uas
driver” (alternatively, a reboot should also work, but who wants that?):
$ echo "" | sudo tee /sys/module/usb_storage/parameters/quirks
I will use this drive as a backup drive while I am travelling, so the aim of this post is not only to inform you as my reader(s), but also to remind my future self of how I did this. Now I only need to remember to check the SMART values every once in a while :-).
Thanks for this article. This quickly solved the problem for me. I like the amount of detail and the mention of rather deleting the quirk after getting the stats.
Sorry, noob question here: May I ask the use of 0x0bc2:0x2037:u? The “u” what does it mean?
Dear Pau,
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I had to look it up, but in the “Additional Information” section of one the articles mentioned in the text (https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/SAT-with-UAS-Linux) use of
:u
is explained. It means “IGNORE_UAS”, so it basically tells the kernel not to use UAS for this device.Hi. Tried to do it as described. No success. The Seagate expansion 4TB has still Smart disabled. Any idea?
Hi Hajo,
I’m sorry to hear it didn’t work for you. Where did it fail? Were there any error messages?
Wow, this totally worked also on Debian 12 (Bookworm) as well! Now my OMV can also access the SMART data and I can run useful scheduled tests. Thanks!
Interestingly, after reboot, I can’t get it back. I see there is a way to report a new drive to be added to the smartmontools DB. When I get a chance, I will try and report the info there so it is added permanently. I have a Seagate Expansion 8TB I am using in MergerFS as a data drive.
Finally, I made the flag permanent by using the grub-update method as listed here: https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/SAT-with-UAS-Linux#PermanentFlagSettings
Hope this helps someone!
Glad this post helped you, AhnFire! And thanks for the follow-up replies. Indeed: hope this helps someone!
Hi LCK – thank you for much for this article, I wasted 2 days of my time to figure out why the smart ctl was not working on my Seagate drive, and finally caem across your article. It is very elaborate and helped me fix my issue w mu Ubuntu + 5TB drive – thank you very much