I have recently lost a lot of data because of XP 'breaking' the file structure on 4 drives. Consequently I want to store my files on an exclusively Mandriva (not dual-boot) pc. I have formatted a drive as ext4 and want to transfer all the files from a ntfs drive.

[BTW the 'broken file structure' means that - I believe, according to software from the manufacturer - although the hard drive is perfectly able to function it is invisible to operating systems. I have been told I need to do a 'low-level format' to recover the drives but have not so far been able to find suitable free software that can 'see' the drives.]

When I formatted the ext4 drive I called it (mount point) datastor1 and this is showing only under root which I can live with although I would prefer it to show along with other drives on the left (in Dolphin). So presently I click on root and then double-click on datastor1 in Dolphin to get access.

I have access to the ntfs drive also but when I try to move files I get 'Access denied to /datastor1/The Streets of San Francisco'.

This appears to be an issue with root ownership of datastor1: can someone help me to fix that please? It may be an issue with the ntfs drive: will it help if I check the box 'Support "user." extended attributes' in 'Mandriva Linux Control Centre - Manage Disk Partitions - Options'? I am a bit worried about checking this box having googled and it looks a bit complicated/dangerous.

Once I empty that drive I want to do the same with others so they will all be ext4 and I won't be tempted to let windows near my files.
I almost lost another 2 drives of files (1.5tb each) this week.

Until now I have kept my data storage ntfs so both systems would have access.

Help please?

A couple of ideas:

If /media/datastor1 is in /etc/fstab, make sure the fstab settings are rw and not ro (for read only).

More about fstab here.

Also, assuming that the datastor1 drive is located at /media/datastore1

I would try

And check the permissions of datastor1. If they show rw for read-write, I would

And continue drilling down to see if I could locate the problem.

The Slackbook has a good section on permissions, including ways of changing them.

Frankbell: Thank you for your prompt response and I will follow up on your reading suggestions tomorrow because it is very late here now.

My fstab shows:

# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=6b93410d-f645-4f41-b568-4643bbd38d58 / ext4 acl,relatime 1 1
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=7d20826d-3292-4ee4-adb7-3a0bf794d0ad /datastor1 ext4 acl,relatime 1 2
# Entry for /dev/sda8 :
UUID=4511b06c-771d-4b86-8dca-65fd4f4885aa /home ext4 acl,relatime 1 2
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=22F0919EF09178AD /media/win_c ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=58105F3E105F2274 /media/win_d ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc1 :
UUID=01CB4A204D71BEA0 /mnt/windows ntfs-3g user,umask=000 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda7 :
UUID=91fd0ea1-c10b-4f91-ae4d-abf8752dd0f5 swap swap defaults 0 0

datastor1 does not appear to be 'ro' - ?!

ls -l shows:

total 52
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-01-21 23:03 cdrom/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 2011-01-21 10:41 win_c/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 45056 2011-01-21 23:32 win_d/

Thanks again for taking the time.

I did cd /dev

and

ls -l

and got:

brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 17 2011-01-22 00:20 sdb1

then I did:

cd datastor1
ls -l

and got

root@localhost dev]# cd datastor1
bash: cd: datastor1: No such file or directory

I have no idea.

I had remembered that to change ownership a few years (versions) ago I was able to open a console as root then open kate and/or kwrite in the console then click on open a file, navigate to the relevant file and right-click and choose properties then change the ownership/permissions.

Recently I could not get the system to allow me to do that using 'Tools - Konsole', and logged in as su. It would not let me open Kate or Kwrite.

This time I went into 'Mandriva Control Centre - System - Open Console as Administrator' then after failing to open Kate I successfully opened Kwrite then Open File and navigated to my Datastor1 drive and took possession!

I have not got the drive showing in the Dolphin menu yet but at least I have the use of it.

The mount point for /dev/sdb1 is /datastor1. If you want to mount it under /media then create a directory /media/datastor1. Change your fstab and the directories permissions as desired. Once this is accomplished you can delete /datastor1 to keep from getting confused.

Hi Michaelk, thank you for your kind response!

I have now got my datastor1 drive owned by me and appearing as one of the folders in my Home-Richard directory after many attempts including 7 I think fresh installs.

It has been a valuable lesson regarding mounting of drives etc and I have learned some

I have taken a copy of your response and will probably try again in a day or two.

Thanks again!

Today I managed to instal my next hard drive as /Media/datastor2 and showing in the left-hand panel of Dolphin as I wanted. After changing the ownership and permissions successfully I have now done the same with datastor1. Great! Thanks again, michaelk.