Can not access mounted USB drive

Honkeychops · 03-03-2006, 10:08 PM

I have a 60 GB USB HDD that shows up *mounted* under Devices on my Mandriva 2006 desktop.

When I try to access this drive (sda1) I get error message: "can not enter folder /mnt/x-ternal."

I have NO problem accessing my 128 MB USB (removable storage) flash drive, or for that matter my Windows drives/partitions from "Devices" on the Mandriva desktop.

Can someone explain (to this newbie) how to read and write to my USB HDD?

Thanks for any help

Matt

pnellesen · 03-03-2006, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honkeychops

When I try to access this drive (sda1) I get error message: "can not enter folder /mnt/x-ternal."

Permissions, maybe? Are you trying to access it as root or as a different user? CAN you access it as root?

What does your /etc/fstab entry look like for /mnt/x-ternal?

(So a response that consists of 4 questions and no answers???

)

ambattu · 03-03-2006, 11:12 PM

Its definitely permissions... It happens that if you have NTFS in your external HDD, Mandriva will configure it to be accessible only to root (This happened to me, though the internal HDD NTFS partitions were accessible by all users).

Its risky to write to NTFS partitions. Convert to FAT and then write to the HDD. Or you can partition the extHDD into FAT and NTFS partitions, if you still want an NTFS partition. (Using QTParted, Partition Magic, or something else)

Your USB flash drive is working because it has FAT as filesystem. It mightn't be the same for your 60 GB ext HDD.

Honkeychops · 03-03-2006, 11:49 PM

Yes, you are correct, there are NTFS (data backup) files on the external HDD.
And yes, I can access theose (NTFS) files as root!

Ok, so I should probably partition the 60GB and create an a FAT partition for use with Linux or should that created partition be a linux partiton?

I would like to use some (if not all) the extra file space I could have available on the external USB drive. I`m dual booting using TWO HDD`s but the Mandriva drive is only 15 GB!

Thanks again for any info

Matt

NoStop · 03-06-2006, 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honkeychops

Yes, you are correct, there are NTFS (data backup) files on the external HDD.
And yes, I can access theose (NTFS) files as root!

Ok, so I should probably partition the 60GB and create an a FAT partition for use with Linux or should that created partition be a linux partiton?

I would like to use some (if not all) the extra file space I could have available on the external USB drive. I`m dual booting using TWO HDD`s but the Mandriva drive is only 15 GB!

Thanks again for any info

Matt

Since the external drive now has NTFS on it, I'd have to assume that you'd still want to be pluggin it into a Windoze box from time to time. That being the case, you would probably prefer to have that new partition formatted as FAT32 so that it is then accessible from both Linux and Windoze.

Cheers.

Honkeychops · 03-06-2006, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoStop

Since the external drive now has NTFS on it, I'd have to assume that you'd still want to be pluggin it into a Windoze box from time to time. That being the case, you would probably prefer to have that new partition formatted as FAT32 so that it is then accessible from both Linux and Windoze.

Cheers.

Thanks, that is just what I have done!

Matt