External HD won't mount

lionround · 10-13-2007, 07:40 PM

I am running Feisty 7.04. I have an external HD Lacie case with a Seagate 250 gig HDD, fat32 format. Very little data on it and nothing that can't be replaced if I have to format.

It used to mount when I plugged it in at /media/LACIE; however, now when I plug it in, I get the following error message:

"Cannot mount volume
Unable to mount the volume 'LACIE'
mount_point cannot contain the following characters: newline, G_DIR_SEPARATOR (usually/)"

When I go to Disk Usage Analyzer, it shows up under "Places" when I click on Scan Folder, but it is inaccessible.

Other externals that I have hot swap just fine, but not this one. It mounts under both Windows XP and 98.

lionround · 10-14-2007, 07:23 AM

Anybody out there that can tell me what file holds the information how/where to mount an external when it is plugged in???

The_JinJ · 10-14-2007, 07:34 AM

Try changing the mountpoint - I guess your using the GUI to do it?
Can you post your fstab and mtab

lionround · 10-14-2007, 07:44 AM

My fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda3
UUID=eba43422-4542-470a-ac43-23e7e2dc0a31 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda6
UUID=f1ae32d1-69d7-4942-a6bb-8428269ccfe2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/sda1 /storage ext3 defaults 0 0

My mtab:

/dev/sda3 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
procbususb /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
lrm /lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/volatile tmpfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda1 /storage ext3 rw 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/SimpleTech ntfs rw,nosuid,nodev,umask=222,utf8 0 0

saikee · 10-14-2007, 09:10 AM

Usually if a user takes the matter into his/her own hand there is no partition, with a healthy filing system, that cannot be mounted "manually".

In root console do a

Code:

fdisk -l

to locate the partition, say it is device sdb1, that you want to mount. Creat a mounting point and mount it like this

Code:

/sbin/mkdir /mnt/sdb1
/sbin/mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1
ls /mnt/sdb1

The magenta bits are normally required if you run a Red Hat.

lionround · 10-14-2007, 12:55 PM

Saikee,

Woo Hoo, you rock. I have been trying and posting for over a week now to get this resolved.

You Da Man.

Thanks.

saikee · 10-14-2007, 01:41 PM

lionround,

It is a God given right to every Unix/Linux user to be able to mount a hardware device on the filing system tree. It is almost like magic.

The system works like this. The kernel detects the hardware and assign a major and minor number to each block device say sda2, in which a hard disk partition belongs to. We always mount a device on the filing system tree. The branch of the tree is free to us to select but /mnt or /media is frequently used for this purpose. The mount command makes the necessary connection.

After you have finish the work you can unmount the device (/dev/sda2) or the branch (/mnt/sda2)

Code:

umount /dev/sda2

which is the same procedure to remove an attached hardware in a MS Windows.

There is a time lag in Linux when you ask something to be written onto the device. In other word the action takes place not alway immediately but in the back ground while the CPU is not too busy. Therefore the "umount" instruction is very important to tell the kernel, "Hey we need to split, so finish what you are doing!" before pulling out the device, otherwise a premature withdrawal of the device will to a loss of data.