External Hard Drive Won't Mount

jo_smithey · 01-20-2010, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantab

At the moment the drive in question is connected to the USB adapter you have, correct?

In that case, the relevant device SHOULD be
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-JMicron_USB_to_ATA.ATAPI_Bridge_152D203380B6-0:0-part1

But that device isn't there!

This means one of two things. Either the hard drive isn't properly connected to the USB adapter, or it has a broken partition table.

To determine which, run

Code:

sudo fdisk -l "/dev/disk/by-id/usb-JMicron_USB_to_ATA.ATAPI_Bridge_152D203380B6-0:0"

If the drive is connected properly, you will get some output. If it is not, you will get nothing.

edit: also, if these long disk ids are bothering you, 'ls -l /dev/disk/by-id' will tell you where the symlinks point to, which is the more usual '/dev/sdb1' or similar

sudo fdisk -l "/dev/disk/by-id/usb-JMicron_USB_to_ATA.ATAPI_Bridge_152D203380B6-0:0"

no output

I'm pretty sure the drive is connected properly because as I said early Windows XP detects the drive but it can't be viewed under "My Computer" nor "Disk Management". Someone else had suggested that I should install the drivers for the USB adapter however, I recall reading somewhere that the drivers are only needed for Windows 98 and older (and I can't find the drivers CD). The only other thing I could think of are the jumpers. The instructions from the USB adapter state to remove the jumper, as this will revert the settings of the HD to factory default.

lugoteehalt · 01-20-2010, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jo_smithey

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/myDrive

Code:

root@ubuntu:/mnt/myDrive# sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/myDrive
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

dmesg | tail

Code:

 VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.

Are we trying to mount the internal drive /dev/sda apparently or the external drive, connected by a USB thing??

If we are after the sda thing we are basically getting there. The above messages *probably* say it is there and so on, it is just that the file system type is wrong - it is not vfat - or the file system is buggered. Is there any reason to believe it is buggered?

Try it with -t ntfs as originally. Try it with sda2 instead of sda1. Does -t auto make any sense? Could look in mount's manual.

Don't know, have you already posted the output of

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

?

cantab · 01-20-2010, 11:57 PM

To be honest it would be best if the problematic drive was put back inside the Windows XP desktop, as an ATA slave drive. These USB adapters and enclosures can be a bit finicky, especially under Linux. With the drive connected 'normally', you will be able to read any data that is there for reading.

jo_smithey · 01-21-2010, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lugoteehalt

Are we trying to mount the internal drive /dev/sda apparently or the external drive, connected by a USB thing??

If we are after the sda thing we are basically getting there. The above messages *probably* say it is there and so on, it is just that the file system type is wrong - it is not vfat - or the file system is buggered. Is there any reason to believe it is buggered?

Try it with -t ntfs as originally. Try it with sda2 instead of sda1. Does -t auto make any sense? Could look in mount's manual.

Don't know, have you already posted the output of

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

?

We are trying to mount the 3.5" HD to the PC via the USB Adapter. I'll try your suggestions when I get home this afternoon. fdisk -l should be posted on the first page but I'll post a new one to see if anything changed.