Linux - HardwareThis forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I've been a user of linux for some time now so I'm not a total newbie but I'm not an expert either. However, I'm quite new to forums.
Anyway, I have a problem with a USB 2.0 hard drive 40Gb that I just bought. My computer doesn't want to mount it. I have 4 other USB sticks that are automatically mounted no problem. So I tried the logical thing to do which is mounting the device manually. I tried:
# mount /dev/sda1 /media/usbdisk
after creating the /media/usbdisk directory, but I get this message:
special device /dev/sda1 does not exist
But the fact is that the computer regonises my HD since when I start the Hardware Browser, it identifies it as:
Looking around, I found out that I need to partition the disk using fdisk /dev/sda and then format with mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
But there's something wrong because when I partition the changes I make don't stay.
Here's what I do:
Quote:
[root@localhost ~]# fdisk /dev/sda
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 38154.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 38154 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4) p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-38154, default 1): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-38154, default 38154): 38154
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 83
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 38154 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 38154 39069680 83 Linux
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
So it is obviously creating a /dev/sda1 partition at this stage. However, when I try to format I get this:
Quote:
[root@localhost ~]# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Could not stat /dev/sda1 --- No such file or directory
The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?
And when I do fdisk /dev/sda again, the /dev/sda1 partition is not there.
OK, forget everything I said. Tried it on another computer that runs with Unbutu and got the same result. Then I discovered that even windoze xp can't make the thing work. Probably bought a defective unit.
Welcome to LQ lltbreg and thanks for posting back with the update. Initially it sounded like the drive just needed to be formatted, but if you tried it with 3 different systems and none of them recognized it, I'd agree that it could be defective. Good luck with it
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.