[SOLVED] Unable to delete 4+Gg from external hard drive

cygnis1 · 10-05-2009, 08:10 PM

I have a WD My Passport 320 GB external hard drive which I formated, using gparted on a live cd to ext4. Hardy could not read ext3 so I reformated it to ext3, then copied my home directory using "rsync arvu /home". When I went into the external hard drive to look at the file,I could not see it. I went back to gparted and could not access the 4+GB. How do I get these back, and why can't I access the file?
Thanks

vibinlakshman · 10-05-2009, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cygnis1

I have a WD My Passport 320 GB external hard drive which I formated, using gparted on a live cd to ext4. Hardy could not read ext3 so I reformated it to ext3, then copied my home directory using "rsync arvu /home". When I went into the external hard drive to look at the file,I could not see it. I went back to gparted and could not access the 4+GB. How do I get these back, and why can't I access the file?
Thanks

Can u print the output here of " fdisk -l " ???

cygnis1 · 10-06-2009, 07:05 AM

> sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for john: [sudo] password for john:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x02cc02cb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 7872 63231808+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 19294 19457 1317330 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 7873 19293 91739182+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 19294 19457 1317298+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 319.3 GB, 319370035200 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38827 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x02f2d98f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 38827 311877846 83 Linux

avijitp · 10-06-2009, 07:22 AM

Did you try to mount your /dev/sdb1 manually and see if the data is still there?

mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 /mnt
cd /mnt ; ls -l

thorkelljarl · 10-06-2009, 07:36 AM

Maybe, if it is not about mounting...

If you have access to one, you could use a Windows installation to re-format the drive to a Windows file format, then use Windows to delete the Windows partition. Then try again, perhaps with a new partitioning live-cd, if you did not use one, such as PartedMagic. The same partitioning live-cd might be better at seeing the HDD.

Was there anything on the HDD that would correspond to U3 on a USB flash? U3 on a flash should require a removal program that runs on Windows and is resistant to formatting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

I am assuming that WD, like so many firms, integrates itself more and more with Windows, and thereby automatically excludes any alternative.

cygnis1 · 10-07-2009, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorkelljarl

Maybe, if it is not about mounting...

If you have access to one, you could use a Windows installation to re-format the drive to a Windows file format, then use Windows to delete the Windows partition. Then try again, perhaps with a new partitioning live-cd, if you did not use one, such as PartedMagic. The same partitioning live-cd might be better at seeing the HDD.

Was there anything on the HDD that would correspond to U3 on a USB flash? U3 on a flash should require a removal program that runs on Windows and is resistant to formatting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

I am assuming that WD, like so many firms, integrates itself more and more with Windows, and thereby automatically excludes any alternative.

Yes, that is it. That solution was suggested last evening at my LUG. I just have to ignore the 4+gigs and am able to use the HD without any problems. Thanks to all for the help.