problems mounting external drive

[Albretch]

I am trying to mount my external drive. I think it had a FAT32 partition of 80Gb (the whole drive), but I am not able to.
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The drive may haver had powering problems (low power supply not a spike).
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Based on the output to the tried commands, what is happening to it?
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How can i fix my drive? As I scarcely remember you could use qparted to solve these kinds of problems, but I don't know about the details.
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How can you fix the drive using knoppix or any other utility for that matter?
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Thank you


// __
sh-3.1# mount /dev/sda /media/sda1 -rw
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda, missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so
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// __
sh-3.1# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80037281792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9730 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table
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// __
sh-3.1# dmesg | grep -i sda
SCSI device sda: 156322816 512-byte hdwr sectors (80037 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 11 00 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 156322816 512-byte hdwr sectors (80037 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 11 00 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
sda: unknown partition table
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
SCSI device sda: 156322816 512-byte hdwr sectors (80037 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 11 00 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 156322816 512-byte hdwr sectors (80037 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 11 00 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
sda: unknown partition table
sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
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// __
sh-3.1# lspci -v | grep HCI
0000:00:0f.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): NEC Corporation uPD72874 IEEE1394 OHCI 1.1 3-port PHY-Link Ctrlr (rev 01) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: NEC Corporation uPD72874 IEEE1394 OHCI 1.1 3-port PHY-Link Ctrlr
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// __
sh-3.1# modprobe usb-uhci
FATAL: Module usb_uhci not found.
sh-3.1# modprobe usb-ohci
FATAL: Module usb_ohci not found.
sh-3.1# modprobe usb-storage
sh-3.1#
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// __

[Zrebel]

try the 'noudev' cheatcode.

[ckamin]

Albretch:

When you see the error "Bad Superblock" it usually means a bit of trouble. It could possibly be that the MBR is at fault or corrupted. It may also mean that the Partition or FAT tables are corrupt. Linux is reporting that the drive is unreadable or corrupt for some reason like that. I have encountered several issues with external drives with FAT32 partitions larger than 32 Gig. Sometimes if the drive is unplugged or powered down during a write, it will become corrupted. You reported a power issue, and it may very well be that your drive is corrupted as a result. If you created the drive with a Windows system previous to Windows 2000, you may be able to recover the MBR using fdisk. Look at the following links:

http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2526&p_created=1126282135&p_sid=EoQZsvRh&p_lva=2190&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MyZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N 2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfc GFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9cmF3&p_li=&p_topview=1

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1331&p_created=1110500688&p_sid=aUP6xvRh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MiZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9 jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9mbmwmc F9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1yYXc*&p_li=&p_topview=1

Here is a powerful tool that may help: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk Be very careful and read ALL of the documentation before attempting anything.

[maxIT]

I am trying to mount my external drive. I think it had a FAT32 partition ....
// __
sh-3.1# mount /dev/sda /media/sda1 -rw
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda, missing codepage or other error


Try 'mount -t vfat /dev/sda /media/sda1'

smartctl (http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/6983/print) is the appropriate command for an in_deep_check of your hd health.

[ajay67]

for me, linux can see my external usb drive & it's contents but i couldn't transfer files to/from it. any advice?