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Unable to mount USB external hard drive on Linux

Hello Everyone,
I am new to Linux and try to mount external hard drive on Linux machine. Please help me finding out how can I do it? Here is the info so far I got.
[root@linux1 /]# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
[root@linux1 /]# cat /var/log/messages |grep usb
Sep 26 02:32:24 linux1 kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
Sep 26 02:32:24 linux1 kernel: usbcore: registered new driver hub
Sep 26 02:32:24 linux1 kernel: usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
Sep 26 02:32:24 linux1 kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
Sep 26 02:32:24 linux1 kernel: drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.0:USB HID core driver
[root@linux1 /]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 8.7G 7.6G 716M 92% /
none 505M 0 505M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda6 175G 83G 84G 50% /oradata
/dev/sda2 9.7G 55M 9.1G 1% /redolog
/dev/sda5 2.0G 35M 1.8G 2% /temp
/dev/sdb 109G 3.3G 100G 4% /restore
[root@linux1 /]# dmesg |grep usb
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.0:USB HID core driver
SELinux: initialized (dev usbfs, type usbfs), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev usbdevfs, type usbdevfs), uses genfs_contexts

Thanks,
Lion:scratch:

Hello,

What distro are you using, and what kind of hard drive is it? Run the following before you plug your USB hard drive in, and after the fact, plug it in, and you will see live results of your messages file:

Code:

tail -f /var/log/messages

Cheers,

Josh

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lionlinux (Post 4482872)

Hello Everyone,
I am new to Linux and try to mount external hard drive on Linux machine. Please help me finding out how can I do it? Here is the info so far I got.

Ok...we'll be glad to help, but need some useful details. What version/distro of Linux? What kind of external hard drive? How big is the drive? What have you done/tried so far? What desktop environment?

Most distros will either automatically mount the drive for you, or at least present it so you can mount it easily through a GUI or command line.

EDIT: Corp769..you beat me to it...was typing while you were too. :)

Hello Josh
Here is the output for your query.
tail -f /var/log/messages
[root@linux1 /]# tail /var/log/messages
Sep 26 04:45:27 linux1 kernel: hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Sep 26 04:45:28 linux1 udevd[1507]: udev done!
Sep 26 07:38:18 linux1 sshd(pam_unix)[8012]: session closed for user root
Sep 26 13:51:54 linux1 dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.1.254 port 67
Sep 26 13:51:54 linux1 dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.1.254
Sep 26 13:51:54 linux1 dhclient: bound to 192.168.1.90 -- renewal in 41698 seconds.
Sep 26 16:51:41 linux1 sshd(pam_unix)[9587]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Sep 26 16:51:41 linux1 sshd[9589]: gethostby*.getanswer: asked for "xpremoteserver.gateway.2wire.net IN AAAA", got type "A"
Sep 26 17:14:34 linux1 sshd(pam_unix)[9659]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Sep 26 17:14:34 linux1 sshd[9661]: gethostby*.getanswer: asked for "xpremoteserver.gateway.2wire.net IN AAAA", got type "A"

[root@linux1 /]# uname -a
Linux linux1.titan.net 2.6.9-89.0.0.0.1.ELhugemem #1 SMP Tue May 19 04:38:38 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

So far I have connected using USB to my Host server and add the USB driver to the guest machine. After that I am not sure if that has created any mount point by it self.
The hard drive is external USB Segate 270G.

Thanks for the help
Lion

Hmm... Something doesn't seem right here. What output do you get when you type "mount" at the command line?

Try running lsusb from the command line to see whether the drive is detected.

Also try funning fdisk -l to list the partitions.

If the drive is formatted NTFS, that may be the issue. Not all distros include NTFS drivers by default. I know that Debian does not, because I had a similar issue with a non-Seagate drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell (Post 4483074)

Almost forgot about that.... To the OP: If this is the case, you need to install ntfs-3g on your system.

Hello Frank/Corp
Here is the ouput for commands you requested.
#mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /oradata type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /redolog type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda5 on /temp type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)
/dev/sdb on /restore type ext3 (rw)

[root@linux1 /]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 214.7 GB, 214748364800 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 26108 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1147 9213246 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1148 2422 10241437+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2423 2677 2048287+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda4 2678 26108 188209507+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2678 2932 2048256 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 2933 26108 186161188+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 118.1 GB, 118111600640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14359 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

[root@linux1 /]# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Thanks

How many hard drives do you have installed on your system, not including your external hard drive?

Corp

I have installed two hard drives as shown in my previous post
Disk /dev/sda: 214.7 GB
Disk /dev/sdb: 118.1 GB

Thanks

Hmmmmm. That drive does seem to be invisible. I'm assuming you have tried it in different USB ports.

Do you have access to another computer for testing the drive itself?

That USB drive is working in Windows. I tried it on windows 2007 and able to upload few files.

I hope the following question isn't a dumb one but it's related to the OP's issue... wouldn't the Linux box treat/view an USB key and the OP's external USB hard drive the same? Windows reports my 4GB and 8GB USB keys as "USB Mass Storage" devices. On Windows 7 my Dell Digital DJ (big o' brick MP3 player) and my son's IPod are reported as USB mass storage devices. I have an old Acom Data external USB/Firewire drive (170GB I believe). I'll pull it out and test it as well.

<--- is a Linux newbie running Slackware v13.37 with KDE.

Update:
I plugged in my 4GB Kingston Data Traveler USB key which has a formatted FAT32 partition with data files on it.
tail -f /var/log/messages gives me the following:

Code:

Sep 28 09:37:24 p424slack1337 kernel: [89195.533919] usb 1-5: SerialNumber: 001BFC03F054BA7050000000

Sep 28 09:37:24 p424slack1337 kernel: [89195.537217] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-5:1.0

Sep 28 09:37:25 p424slack1337 kernel: [89196.563225] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access    Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS

Sep 28 09:37:25 p424slack1337 kernel: [89196.563551] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0

Sep 28 09:37:25 p424slack1337 kernel: [89196.974990] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 7774208 512-byte logical blocks: (3.98 GB/3.70 GiB)

Sep 28 09:37:25 p424slack1337 kernel: [89196.976736] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off

Sep 28 09:37:25 p424slack1337 kernel: [89196.997553]  sdb: sdb1

Sep 28 09:37:25 p424slack1337 kernel: [89197.001604] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

uname -a gives me:

Code:

Linux p424slack1337 2.6.37.6-smp #2 SMP Sat Apr 9 23:39:07 CDT 2011 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

mount gives me:

Code:

/dev/root on / type ext4 (rw,commit=0)

proc on /proc type proc (rw)

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)

/dev/sda3 on /distros/ubuntu_v11.04 type ext4 (rw,commit=0)

tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

lsusb gives me:

Code:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0951:1603 Kingston Technology DataTraveler 1GB/2GB Pen Drive

/sbin/fdisk -l gives me:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x68a368a3



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sda1            2048    7813119    3905536  82  Linux swap

/dev/sda2        7813120    85938175    39062528  83  Linux

/dev/sda3  *    85938176  164062270    39062047+  83  Linux



Disk /dev/sdb: 3980 MB, 3980394496 bytes

9 heads, 9 sectors/track, 95977 cylinders, total 7774208 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sdb1  *        8064    7774207    3883072    b  W95 FAT32

cat /etc/fstab gives me:

Code:

/dev/sda1        swap            swap        defaults        0  0

/dev/sda2        /                ext4        defaults        1  1

/dev/sda3        /distros/ubuntu_v11.04 ext4        defaults        1  2

#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom      auto        noauto,owner,ro  0  0

/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner    0  0

devpts          /dev/pts        devpts      gid=5,mode=620  0  0

proc            /proc            proc        defaults        0  0

tmpfs            /dev/shm        tmpfs      defaults        0  0

FYI: Ubuntu hasn't been installed yet. I just created a partition for it when I installed Slack.

The device notifier in the system tray gave me the following error:

Code:

org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Rejected send message, 1 matched rules; type="method_call",

sender=":1.93" (uid=1000 pid=5356 comm="kdeinit4: kded4 [kdeinit]) 

interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume" member="Mount" error name="(unset)" requested_reply=0 

destination="org.freedesktop.Hal" (uid=0 pid=1661 comm="/usr/sbin/hald))

dmesg |grep sd gives me:

Code:

...

[89196.563551] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0

[89196.974990] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 7774208 512-byte logical blocks: (3.98 GB/3.70 GiB)

[89196.976736] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off

[89196.976742] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 41 00 00

[89196.976745] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

[89196.982604] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

[89196.997553]  sdb: sdb1

[89197.001596] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

[89197.001604] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

[91778.037876] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.

mount /dev/sdb /home/jqpdev/Desktop/Jump_Drive gives me:

Code:

mount: /dev/sdb: can't read superblock

I think "The can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb" response from VFS is the issue. My USB key was formatted in Windows 7 which may have formatted the partition in a way that is subtly different than Windows 95 would have. However, Win7 reports it having a FAT32 partition.

Try

Code:

#mount /dev/sdb1 /home/jqpdev/Desktop/Jump_Drive

Strange or maybe not so strange...
I originally tried #mount -t vfs /dev/sdb1 /home/jqpdev/Desktop/Jump_Drive before running /sbin/fdisk -l -u /dev/sdb and it failed (something about the superblock...). I then starting google searching and while googling the system tray notifier popped up again reporting that there was a USB device attached but it still failed to mount. I figured the auto-mount feature was implemented via simple polling which caused the additional notification. However when I re-ran the fdisk command without the -u option it read partition tables on my hard drive and the USB key. Running mount without the -t vfs worked. I'll test the ACOM Data drive in a few minutes and report back.