mounting without knowing the filesystem
 

i want to mount a harddisk which is primary slave and has linux installed on it
i donot know what filesystem it has
how do i mount it now

if i use this

mount -t ext3 /dev/hdb /backup

It doesnot work

please guide me

try these step

1. fdisk /dev/hdb
2. press the p button it will show u what filesystem it is
3. press q to quit fdisk without saving

u can use the info got from the above step

Try this:

mount -t auto /dev/hdb /backup

if mount can read the filesystem, then it should work.

You may also want to try

mount -t auto /dev/hdb1 /backup - the partition numbers are needed for mount commands

You can list the available partitions with:

fdisk -l

Then try the above mount command with each of /dev/hdbX

Dave.

post the same thing in a single (and the most appropriate) forum only.

mount -t auto /dev/hdb /backup
doesn't work

fdisk /dev/hdb
doesnot give me the filesystem type

what does
fdisk -l /dev/hdb
give you (notice the -l option; and do this as root)?

it gieves me detail about /dev/hdb
in which the filesystem it shows is linux

there has to be a number before it says Linux in the column ID. What is the number?

it gives me 83

Type 83 is ext2.

Ion

Now try

# mount -t ext2 /dev/hdb1 /backup

doesn't work
it is a new filesystem. Let us say "newfs"
someone has modified the available existing filesystem(ext2 or ext3)

mount gives me

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb9,
or too many mounted file systems


fidsk -l gives me

Disk /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 20.4 GB, 20409532416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 * 1 638 5124703+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 639 2481 14803897+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part5 639 893 2048256 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part6 894 1275 3068383+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part7 1276 1815 4337518+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part8 1816 2181 2939863+ 83 Linux
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part9 2182 2244 506016 82 Linux swap
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part10 2245 2481 1903671 83 Linux

Disk /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/disc: 20.0 GB, 20020396032 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2434 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part1 * 1 3 24066 83 Linux
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part2 4 2434 19527007+ 5 Extended
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part5 4 93 722893+ 83 Linux
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part6 94 157 514048+ 83 Linux
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part7 158 2376 17824086 83 Linux
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part8 2377 2408 257008+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part9 2409 2434 208813+ 83 Linux

What error does it give you when you try to mount it? Copy and paste the exact output here.

You can try reiserfs. fdisk will give an 83 code for that aswell. In other words, try mount -t reiserfs /dev/hdb1 /backup. If that doesn't work then try a whole bunch of others like: jfs, ufs (may need some extra parameters), vfat, ntfs. If you can't find one that works try running fsck on it. Try this last as if you pick the wrong fs type you could permanently bugger any data on the drive.

doesn't work

the exact output of mount

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb9,
or too many mounted file systems

It is a newfs. modified one. how to mount this now.