hdparm fails on usb drives

I used to have a script ask my external drives to spin down less often, but after a recent upgrade the script fails.
hdparm -S 241 /dev/sde;

/dev/sde:
 setting standby to 241 (30 minutes)
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(setidle) failed: Invalid exchange
I tried identify but it also faild
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid exchange

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases seems to be out of date but the EOL should not be until "April 2015"
nothing in dmesg

1) lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS
Release: 10.04

2) apt-cache policy hdparm
hdparm:
  Installed: 9.15-1ubuntu9
  Candidate: 9.15-1ubuntu9
  Version table:
 *** 9.15-1ubuntu9 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
3) What you expected to happen: (succsess)
hdparm /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
 multcount = 8 (on)
 IO_support = 0 (default)
 readonly = 0 (off)
 readahead = 256 (on)
 geometry = 38913/255/63, sectors = 625142448, start = 0
4) What happened instead: (failure)
hdparm /dev/sde

/dev/sde:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid exchange
 readonly = 0 (off)
 readahead = 256 (on)
 geometry = 243201/255/63, sectors = 3907029168, start = 0