[SOLVED] Problem Mounting External Harddrive in Slackware

countryparson · 08-29-2009, 08:50 PM

Hi.
I've just installed Slackware 13 and am having trouble mounting a Maxtor One Touch 750GB external harddrive. It automatically mounts and shows up on the desktop in most other distros I've used - Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse, Arch. I've tried other usb sticks and cds/dvds in the Slackware install and they show up and mount in KDE just fine.

dmesg from booting has the following:

Quote:

sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 1465149168 512-byte hardware sectors: (750 GB/698 GiB)
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 2d 08 00 00
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 1465149168 512-byte hardware sectors: (750 GB/698 GiB)
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 2d 08 00 00
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sdb: sdb1

When I tried to mount manually (mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb TEST) I get the following:

Quote:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so[/CODE]

The results from dmesg after the failed mount gives this:
[CODE]FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
GFS2: gfs2 mount does not exist
FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.
GFS2: gfs2 mount does not exist
VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sdb.
VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sdb1.

I've tried fsck:

Quote:

root@localhost:/home/scott# fsck /dev/sdb
fsck 1.41.8 (11-July-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.8 (11-July-2009)
/sbin/e2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
/sbin/e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

fsck worked fine with an Ubuntu live cd.

Any help would be appreciated.
-Scott

ongte · 08-29-2009, 11:35 PM

I noticed you referred to the disk /dev/sdb in several commands like mount and fsck. These commands are meant to be used on the partition not the disk. You should use /dev/sdb1 for these commands.

Quote:

FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
GFS2: gfs2 mount does not exist
FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.
GFS2: gfs2 mount does not exist

These errors indicate that /dev/sdb1 is not a FAT filesystem or there is something wrong with it.
First, check that the partition is intact and the type of the partition:
# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

I suspect it's an NTFS partition. If so, you may be missing will 'ntfsprogs' needed to work with NTFS. You also need 'ntfs-3g' to mount it read/write.

Once you have installed these. Try again to mount the partition:
# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt

To mount it read/write:
# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt

countryparson · 08-30-2009, 07:52 AM

Thank you.
I get the same messages on sdb1:

Quote:

root@localhost:/home/scott# fsck /dev/sdb1
fsck 1.41.8 (11-July-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.8 (11-July-2009)
/sbin/e2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
/sbin/e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb1

It was a NTFS but I reformatted it to ext3. (Sorry, I left that out of the original post.) Results of fdisk -l

Quote:

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

Disk /dev/sdb: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 91202 732574583+ ee GPT

I tried to mount it as ntfs to see what would happen and got the same error message. - wrong fs type, bad option etc...

ongte · 08-30-2009, 08:50 AM

From the fdisk output, it's saying that your disk is partitioned as a GPT disk. Seems Slackware is having a problems reading the partition or filesystem, it could be caused by it being GPT.

We normally use the ancient DOS (MBR) partition table. But recently GPT was created as part of EFI to overcome the 2TB limit of MBR. GPT is only necessary if the drive is > 2TB in size, so not necessary in your case. It may have come partitioned that way from the manufacturer.

Windows XP onwards should be able to understand GPT. Most modern distros released is the last 3 years should be able to deal with GPT as a storage volume. (But as yet none can boot from it)

I suspect Slackware's kernel was not built with GPT support. To confirm this, can you check if this drive works fine when using the Ubuntu LiveCD you mentioned and only fails on Slackware?

If so, that means you'll need to recompile Slackware's kernel to enable support for GPT.
Or the alternative (if you have no data on there) is to repartition the drive back to normal MBR.

countryparson · 08-30-2009, 01:09 PM

Thanks - that appears to be the problem. I'll recompile and post back.

onebuck · 08-30-2009, 02:30 PM

Hi,

How did you create the partitions and format the filesystem on the disk in question?

countryparson · 08-30-2009, 03:39 PM

I can't remember exactly but I think I used gparted under a recent version of ubuntu.
It's been awhile ago but I think I resized whatever was on it (either ntfs or vfat) added a ext3 partition so I could move my files over. After transferring them I deleted the original partition and expanded the ext3 to fill up the drive. If that helps any.
Also, it mounts fine under the ubuntu live disk.

countryparson · 08-31-2009, 05:18 AM

Recompiling my kernel with GPT support worked. Thanks.