16.04 behavior was getting worse over time. Finally stopped working- not sure why.
Rebooted (normal): took me to plain black screen with ability to type-- didn’t know what to type
Rebooted (recovery from newest version-- don’t remember what it said)
Recovery mode started, was 1st time I ever saw it (im new to linux)
I had forgotten to unmout/eject my 1tb Toshiba external hard drive. Has my whole life on there!!!
Process of recovery said something to the effect of “Reset: 1 of 3” regarding the external hard drive.
I waited because I didn’t know what to do… then the next line showed up with the same thing again “Reset 1 of 3…”
and I panicked and unplugged it.
I’m guessing I courrupted the softward, but that the media is still on there (???) Just a guess.
I set up my system for dual boot… the device never mounts. the light blinks, then goes steady, then goes off.
disk manager shows no device.
When I plug it in, I do hear the notification that a device had been plugged in successfully…
Sorry if this was too long.
It’s only a guess, but that sounds like your external hard drive has a physical fault that is unconnected to your OS. How long have you had it?
Since the winter, and I’ve been using it daily in my Linux and Windows OS with no issues.
This issue happened after I ran the recovery option in the Ubuntu grub menu…
***correction: this issue started after I interuppted the recovery option from the grub menu.
I don’t know all the correct vocabulary, so I’m sorry if I sound redundant.
You’re saying it sounds like a physical fault? Why
***I think I need to know if it’s safe to run the recovery mode with external hard drives plugged in.
If so maybe i can just run recovery again, and let it go all the way through? Will Ubuntu recovery correct the issue on the external hard drive? What was the “reset” status referring to??? That sounded like it was reformating my drive!
Update:: Ok I’ve never seen this before… so I didn’t think to try this.
I just plugged it into a new USB port…
Is there a way to correct the USB port I was using before?
Is it working in the new USB port? If it is, then, if it were me, I would run a live UM ISO session and try the problematic USB port with the drive or, ideally, another drive, whilst in the live session. If it works, then the problem with the USB is indeed likely to be related to your installed OS. If it is still not working, then it might be a physical fault with the USB port itself.
Hi @WarrWillow,
if you ever need to just switch off your PC, follow the next step:
Press and hold the power button for about 4 seconds until the PC shuts down (Soft Power Down), don’t just simply pull the plug, you may well destroy the hard drive!. 
Worth a read: