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My Raspberry Pi 2 will not pick up my NTFS external hard drive. In dmesg I see the message USB Disconnect. I have NTFS-3g installed. /dev/sda1 does not exist.

Eric
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2 Answers2

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You do not mention which model of pi it is. If it is an earlier one (A or B, but not "2 B" or "3 B"), you cannot power an external drive and need a hub as already suggested.

If it is a Pi 3, and you have a decent, 2+ amp power supply, this should just work, so something fishy is up.

If it is a Pi 2 or a + (A+/B+) or zero model, you need to edit /boot/config.txt and add:

max_usb_current=1

Then reboot. Without this, these models will have the power to the USB port limited and it is not enough for most external drives.

/dev/sda1 does not exist.

That may be the case anyway if it doesn't like how the disk is formatted; the number on the end indicates a partition number. What should exist is just plain /dev/sda, the physical device itself. If that exists, then the drive it there, but there is some issue with reading it.

I believe NTFS-3g has a problematic history but I am not a user and cannot comment further.

goldilocks
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It sounds like you have power problems.

The Raspberry Pi does not have enough power to safely access an external hard drive. Your best option right now is to get a powered USB hub (see a nice one [here](https://www.google.com/search?q=powered+usb+hub"Search Google for a powered USB hub.")).

Good luck,

HewwoCraziness

Eric
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