[SOLVED] External Drive mount error

Ratmonkey · 01-04-2013, 09:36 AM

Slackware 14.0 32-bit

Plugged my external drive in to retrieve some data and got the following:

An error occurred while accessing 'My Book', the system responded: The requested operation has failed.: Requested filesystem type is neither well-known nor in /proc/filesystems nor in /etc/filesystems

I actually don't remember if I formatted the drive on Windows or Mac, working at a help desk I've had to use it on various computers and it may have been either system. Anyway to resolve this without taking it to another computer?

ButterflyMelissa · 01-05-2013, 03:25 PM

What I usually do in a bare system:

su - (if you're not Root already)
fdisk -l (to get to know the system's format)
mount [filesystem] /dev/[somedeice] /media
cd /media

I could advice to mount it using Knoppix, my preferred workhorse....

Then, use mc to shuttle stuff to a stick. But, all of this if the system is simply not-moutable...

Luck

Thor

ljb643 · 01-05-2013, 07:21 PM

To expand on the previous post, you can use "file --special-files" (or "file -s") to determine a lot about a mystery filesystem. The "file" command knows about a lot more things than the kernel.

Code:

file -s /dev/sdb

The output should include "boot sector", and "partitions", if the disk has recognized partitions. If it does, then

Code:

file -s /dev/sdb1

Will make an educated guess about what filesystem lives in the partition. (This is different from "fdisk -l", which reports the partition type code.)

Ratmonkey · 01-08-2013, 11:39 AM

Hey guys, this gave me enough information to solve it. Once mounted from the commandline, I was able to copy everything (also from the commandline). So much for expecting KDE to do it all for me =P

Thanks!

ButterflyMelissa · 01-09-2013, 09:19 AM

Quote:

So much for expecting KDE to do it all for me

Dont...this is Linux, not the "other" one...YOU're the boss, the OS is not

I may have failed to suggest Midnight Commander, but, it seems you're on top of it, good for you!

THor