2014-10-14

Mint 17 refuses to mount a Windows hard drive on my HP Compaq computer regardless of what I specify for -t in the mount command. fdisk -l shows my HD's type as HPFS/NTFS/exFAT but MInt dos not acccept exFAT or vFAT. It suggests running dmesg | tail to obtain the correct type but it rejects the very type indicated by dmesg just the same.

Any help will be miuch appreciated.

julianvbi

sometimes it's just easier to mount from disk utility

Post the (tail-ed) dmesg output. Also the output from

Hi, Everyone,
Thanks for your inputs. The outputs of dmesg | tail -l and parted -l are listed below.
julianvb
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Output of dmesg | tail

[27194.689475] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[27194.689487] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 2d 08 00 00
[27194.690356] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[27194.690370] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[27194.693851] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[27194.693864] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[27194.720624] sdc: sdc1
[27194.724466] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[27194.724479] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[27194.724489] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
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Output of parted -l

Model: ATA ST380011A (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0GBparted -l
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 78.4GB 78.4GB primary ext4 boot
2 78.4GB 80.0GB 1600MB extendedparted -l
5 78.4GB 80.0GB 1600MB logical linux-swap(v1)


Model: WD Elements 10B8 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512Bparted -l
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 1000GB 1000GB primary ntfs bootparted -l

Model: Maxtor OneTouch (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flagsparted -l
1 32.3kB 500GB 500GB primary boot

Hi, Everyone,

Yesterday I was able to use TestDisk to access all directories and files on my 500-GB NTFS Maxtor external usb hard drive directly after I failed to mount it in Linux Mint 17. I think it's a simpler way to access the contents of a Linux system's thumb drives and hard drives in case a difficult mounting problem occurs since the method is so direct and simple.

I decided to forget about using the mount command to access my Maxtor drive when I still failed to mount it in Mint 17 even after I had fixed the 'missing NTFS signature' error. As a matter of fact, I almost wanted to re-format the drive when I failed to mount it in both Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows XP. Ubuntu's mount command also rejected ntfs as the drive's file type and Windowst XP indicated that the drive needed to be formatted.

I admit that my solution is neither neat nor perfect, but I now have access to every directory and file on the drive.

julianvb

I didn't see a file syatem type on disk did you just format to msdos without creating any partitions?

Hi, EDDY1,

I didn't format the drive, which I bought as a Windows NTFS drive this past summer from a local party. I had no trouble using it in Ubuntu 12.04 in the beginning. I guess something must have happened to it in the meantime. Thanks.

julianvb

Hi, Everyone,

I am delighted to report that I've finally solved my problem very cleanly by running chkdsk on my Maxtor hard drive in Windows XP. The complete command is chkdsk drive: /r. Now Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint 17 and WIndows XP all mount it automatically.

Indeed Windows problems are best solved with Microsoft tools.

Once again thank you all for your kind support.

julianvb

so what fs does it report?

If I understand your question correctly, it's NTFS.

julianvb