External USB drive does not work in Karmic (works in Hardy)

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I am using Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 5.

When plugging in my 500GB Western Digital harddrive, the device does not show up in <Places>. However, the device works correctly in Hardy, so it dows not seem to be a Hardware problem.

Also note that all my other external USB drives do work with Karmic.

When plugged in, the device shows up for a few seconds in lsusb, but then vanishes.
The dmesg output says something about:

device descriptor read/64, error -71
(see the attached dmesg log)

The following thread on ubuntuforums:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=797789
suggests, that it has something to do with USB power saving and one could disable it by issuing the command
echo -1 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend
as root and then reboot. However, this does not work for me as I am using the live-CD, such that the change gets lost on reboot. (I wanted to install Karmic on the external disk that is not recognized)

I am happy to provide further Information you might need for debugging.

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC262 Analog [ALC262 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC262 Analog [ALC262 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 5542 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfc300000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC262'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0262,104d2800,00100100 HDA:14f12c06,104d1700,00100000'
   Controls : 18
   Simple ctrls : 11
Date: Sat Sep 5 17:12:52 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Alpha i386 (20090902.1)
MachineType: Sony Corporation VGN-NR11S_S
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-9-generic 2.6.31-9.29
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/hostname.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-9.29-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-9-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.16
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-9-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 07/18/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: R0130J9
dmi.board.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.board.name: VAIO
dmi.board.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.board.version: N/A
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrR0130J9:bd07/18/2007:svnSonyCorporation:pnVGN-NR11S_S:pvrC3LQDBGR:rvnSonyCorporation:rnVAIO:rvrN/A:cvnSonyCorporation:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: VGN-NR11S_S
dmi.product.version: C3LQDBGR
dmi.sys.vendor: Sony Corporation

[Data (ubuntuaddress)]

The disk is the entry in the second line (In the file attached above)