[vox-tech] USB disk drive problem

[Norm Matloff]

I have a friend who is new to Linux.  He's sworn off Windows, which is
great, but a bit of a risk since he's not a techie (though he's very
sharp).  He's using Linux Mint, a derivative of Ubuntu.

It's going great except he cannot get his USB portable disk drive to
work.  It simply will not show up, using df, lsusb etc. and mounting by
hand failed too.  His other USB devices (memory sticks, camera
connection etc.) work fine, and the portable disk drive works find under
XP.

Any suggestions?

Norm