Comment 24 for bug 40561

Running Ubuntu desktop 8.04.2 (LTS), updated to latest packages.

I had a bad server crash, and picked up a backup from one of my virtual machines from the previous day (lucky me). I moved the vm (which happens to be a file server) to a USB drive, fresh-installed ubuntu and vmware server 2.0, and to my shock and horror, the USB disconnects after a random amount of time, crashing the VM in the process.

worse still, the directory where it was mounted previously (/media/disk) hangs with an IO error, I can't move it or otrhewise do anything with it. The device is remounted on a different directory (/media/disk-1).

VMWare does not like it at all, so I have to restart the whole system to bring back the VM.

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output of uname -a:
Linux fileserver 2.6.24-23-generic #1 SMP Mon Jan 26 00:13:11 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
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tail of dmesg:
[ 1164.424147] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, address 3
[ 1164.424363] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK
[ 1164.424369] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 680117055
[ 1164.424375] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014624
[ 1164.424379] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424387] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014625
[ 1164.424390] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424393] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014626
[ 1164.424396] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424400] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014627
[ 1164.424403] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424406] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014628
[ 1164.424409] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424413] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014629
[ 1164.424415] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424419] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014630
[ 1164.424422] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424425] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014631
[ 1164.424428] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424431] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014632
[ 1164.424434] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.424437] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 85014633
[ 1164.424440] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb1
[ 1164.425094] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK
[ 1164.425099] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 680117295
[ 1164.426041] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK
[ 1164.426045] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 680117535
[ 1164.442854] Aborting journal on device sdb1.
[ 1164.442887] journal commit I/O error
[ 1164.442991] ext3_abort called.
[ 1164.442993] EXT3-fs error (device sdb1): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
[ 1164.442997] Remounting filesystem read-only
[ 1864.510439] usb 4-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[ 2331.229034] usb 4-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 2331.240690] scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 2331.242566] usb-storage: device found at 4
[ 2331.242574] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 1167.242925] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 1167.243546] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic External 1.03 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[ 1167.255763] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] 1465149168 512-byte hardware sectors (750156 MB)
[ 1167.256873] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 1167.256877] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 21 00 00 00
[ 1167.256880] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1167.257992] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] 1465149168 512-byte hardware sectors (750156 MB)
[ 1167.258868] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 1167.258871] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 21 00 00 00
[ 1167.258874] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1167.258878] sdc: sdc1
[ 1167.274080] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[ 1167.274134] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 3134.868550] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
[ 3134.870509] EXT3 FS on sdc1, internal journal
[ 3134.870519] EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
[ 3134.871251] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
[ 3320.434207] vmmon: Had to deallocate locked 65782 pages from vm driver ef174a00
[ 3320.439024] vmmon: Had to deallocate AWE 3767 pages from vm driver ef174a00
[ 3320.442280] device eth0 left promiscuous mode
[ 3320.442302] audit(1237626776.772:4): dev=eth0 prom=0 old_prom=256 auid=4294967295
[ 3320.442332] bridge-eth0: disabled promiscuous mode

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I am not a C/C++ programmer, but I want to help debugging this one with all the information I can provide.
What can I do to help (besides addin a 'me too' to this bug report)?