I can't get ubuntu to work with my external hard drive!
 

this was working FLAWLESSLY before installing BB.

I could access info on my external, one hundred and sixty gigabyte hard drive, without ANY PROBLEMS.

now, I get new errors every time I try to do something.

this just completely blew my mind.

kingrames@kingrames:/media$ cd sda1
bash: cd: sda1: Permission denied
kingrames@kingrames:/media$ sudo cd sda1
sudo: cd: command not found

WHAT the HELL is wrong with this?

I have tried everything to get this damn drive to work. I can't chmod ANYTHING because it's a read-only drive.

I can't view anything because I don't have the permissions.

How, HOW am I supposed to access this drive? what is the POINT of locking out the user from hardware by default?


especially something as important as an external drive!

and I already did sudo chmod -R 777 /media/onesixtygig
and sudo umount -r /dev/sda1
and sudo chmod a+rx /media/onesixtygig
(this one ticks me off the most - every single file on the hard drive is listed along with an error message saying that I can't change the file permissions due to it being read-only)

double-clicking on the link to onesixtygig on my desktop returns the error message "You don't have the permissions to view these fles."

atttempting to unmount it says "Unable to Eject Media - umount: only root can unmount /dev/sda1 from /media/sda1
eject: unmount of `/media/sda1' failed
"

I'm just about to snap - can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

What does your /etc/fstab look like? Post it here What filesystem does your external hard drive have?

kingrames@kingrames:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / reiserfs notail 0 1
/dev/hda3 /media/hda3 ntfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 ntfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0


kingrames@kingrames:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Password:

Disk /dev/hda: 30.7 GB, 30758289408 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 59598 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 13874 6992118 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda2 13874 15436 787185 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda3 * 15436 59591 22254183 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 19457 156288321 7 HPFS/NTFS

-----
Hope this helps.

Can you try changing this line in your /etc/fstab

to read like this instead?

Then type this in the terminal Any difference?

no, no difference.

Theoretically should remount your partitions. Maybe try rebooting?

SWEET!

oh thank you guys. this is wonderful.

now, just to make sure I get something out of this:

what did that command do that I changed in my /etc/fstab file?

was it just a clarification of what my usb drive really was? Was linux trying to use an outdated or obslete driver?

To be perfectly honest, I don't know. I just copied that off
http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#automountntfs

If you want to understand more the nitty-gritty of /etc/fstab, I highly recommend
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html