HD filetype conversion (Linux won't read)

goofytoad · 01-08-2006, 03:53 PM

I used Partition Magic to convert one of my drives to FAT32 in Windows and now SuSE won't recognize it. The permissions are dr-----, device node: sda8 and the error is
Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: can't find /dev/sda8 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

Is there any command or anything I can do to regain access to it?

gilead · 01-08-2006, 04:09 PM

I'm assuming you were able to successfully format the drive in Windows so it should be mountable. What do you get when you run (change /mnt/newdrive to whatever mount point you want):

Code:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda8 /mnt/newdrive

If that successfully mounts the drive, you'll probably need to add options so that users/groups can access the data.

goofytoad · 01-08-2006, 04:39 PM

linux:~ # mount -t vfat /dev/sda8 /mnt/sd9
mount: mount point /mnt/sd9 does not exist

I used a lot of different options for mount points but they all said that. I didn't format it, I just converted it. (yeah, that was dumb)

gilead · 01-08-2006, 04:51 PM

That error is telling you that the directory /mnt/sd9 does not exist. Did you run `mkdir /mnt/sd9` before running the mount command?

goofytoad · 01-08-2006, 04:59 PM

Nope, I'm a n00b. It works and I REALLY appreciate your help.

gilead · 01-08-2006, 05:06 PM

No problem - glad it worked

goofytoad · 01-10-2006, 04:28 PM

Is there any way to permanently mount it like that? When I rebooted the changes weren't effective.

gilead · 01-10-2006, 05:17 PM

Yep. As root, edit the /etc/fstab file. Using the setup you have:

Code:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda8 /mnt/sd9

You'd add the line

Code:

/dev/sda8  /mnt/sd9  vfat  rw,exec,users,umask=000  0  0

It's worth experimenting with the options part (rw,exec,users,umask=000). You may wish to limit access to a user with uid= or to a group with gid= but that's up to you. The users option lets anyone mount or unmount the file system. exec and rw (read/write) are pretty self-explanatory. The best thing is to run `man fstab` and/or `man mount` and look for options that suit the way you want to use the file system.