OSX disk media is not present

Trying to mount an ext2 / ext3 / ext4 device using external drivers on OSX might bring up the following error:

disk media is not present

in:
sudo dmesg

To fix that a virtual machine helped.

Attaching the external drive using usb, creating a filter for that usb device to forward it to the ubuntu based VM.

Run
fdisk -l

to find the right device.
E.g. /dev/sdd

Now go with fsck.ext3 (for ext3 only)

fsck -y /dev/sdd

-y means answer every question with yes.

For a 2 TB HDD that might take up to several hours, but after that is finished, you can try to mount the drive again.

eSATA Drive in QNAP

If you want to use a eSATA drive in a QNAP device without plug and play, read the following.

Attach drive to eSATA drive.
ssh admin@yourip
#dmsg

Check for:

[11936.459226] ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl F310)
[11936.499252] ata5.00: ATA-8: WDC …., 04.05G09, max UDMA/133
[11936.499295] ata5.00: 3907029168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
[11936.539268] ata5.00: configured for UDMA/133
[11936.539323] ata5: EH complete
[11936.539646] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access WDC WD…. 04.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[11936.549494] Check proc_name[sata_mv].
[11936.559626] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdza] 3907…. 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)
[11936.559899] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdza] Write Protect is off

Important is sdza

Format the drive:

mke2fs -t ext3 /dev/sdza

Mount the device

mount /dev/sdza1 esata/

Be happy

Mount a VDH file within linux

To mount a VDH (Virtual Hard Disk) file in linux (e.g. ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-fuse
sudo mkdir /mnt/vhd-mountpoint/
sudo vdfuse -f disk.vhd /mnt/vhd-mountpoint/
mkdir /mnt/vhd-mountpoint
sudo mount -o loop  /mnt/vhd-mountpoint/Part1 /mnt/part1

VDH is mostly used within Windows 7 and newer.