Cannot read files from flash drive

MTK358 · 01-20-2010, 04:46 PM

This happens in my main computer with Slackware and Arch.

Code:

$ su
Password:
# cd /media/fl
# mount /dev/sdb1 .
# ls                   # No Output!
# umount .
# umount .
umount: .: not mounted # first worked but now failed, so it must have been mounted. But where's the data?

My hard drive is /dev/sda.

r3sistance · 01-20-2010, 04:54 PM

since you used umount twice in a row it will be not mounted on the second try.

What files are you expecting to see and what filing system does your flash device use?

MTK358 · 01-20-2010, 04:58 PM

I am expecting to see a tarball of all my personal files when I run the ls command.

The flash drive is formatted with FAT32.

And I umounted twice to show that is was mounted, but the files did not show up.

r3sistance · 01-20-2010, 05:09 PM

Are you certain that /dev/sdb refers to the flash drive and not say another sata device, possibly like cdrom? What do you get in the tail of dmesg when you plug the flash drive in? You should get a message in there about it.

MTK358 · 01-20-2010, 07:19 PM

Code:

usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi9 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 3
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning

r3sistance · 01-20-2010, 08:05 PM

Hmmm, could have hoped for something more useful like what it had been placed as. I would check if /dev/sdb still exists when the flash drive is disconnected, if it is then the flash drive is not being placed as /dev/sdb.

minrich · 01-20-2010, 08:16 PM

Have you tried the full commands:

$ su

# mount /dev/sdb1 /media/fl
# cd /media/fl
# ls
# umount /dev/sdb1

I am not sure that mount sees '.' as the directory you have cd'ed to

MTK358 · 01-21-2010, 06:48 AM

For some reason it doesn't work if my current dir is /media/fl!

If I am not in /media/fl during mounting, it works, even with relative pathnames!