Problems mounting harddrives on knoppix 3.2 (vfat)

[Profound_Darkness]

Hello.

I am a super nube as far as linux goes. I have been playing with various graphical and text forms for about a year or 2 on and off and I absolutely love knoppix however...

I am having several showstopping problems with it. For now I deal with the fact that on 2 different computers the downloaded knoppix 3.1(beta kdd) and 3.2 (I think) are unable to mount a partition on one computer and now 3.2 cannot mount a partition on mine.

The error message I recieve (verbatim for one device):
Could not mount device.

The reported error was:

Mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad
superblock on /dev/hdb1,

or too many mounted file systems

<end of error>

I looked through the config files, I believe filesystems in etc and vfat is listed and doesn't have nodev in front.

I checked etc/fstab and it lists the 2 drives/partitions that won't mount with the fallowing information (where __ is a letter and number):
/dev/hd__ /mnt/hd__ auto noauto,users,exec 0 0
It took me a while but I managed to activate the konsole (love the play on words) for superuser and tried typing mount -t vfat <device> and all i got was instructions on how to view the manual (very helpfull info but no progress).

As far as too many file systems (don't know what that means exactly) but I was able to mount other drives fine.

After searching around and reading a few posts (all that seemed apply in my searches) I found no fixes. I am at an utter loss and am in need for this to work as I have a seperate computer problem that I am trying to mount this drive to fix.

[rickenbacherus]

As root, try it like this:

# mount -t vfat /dev/hda? /mnt/hda?

-OR-

# mount -t auto /dev/hda? /mnt/hda?

You need to make sure mount points are defined in /etc/fstab if you want the easy mount commands like so:

# mount -t vfat /dev/hda?

You can't mount a drive into thin air- it must have a mount point. Also that mount point must exist in the directory /mnt.

Do this:

cd /mnt
ls

That will list all of your existing mount points. You can mount any drive to any mount point like so:

# mount -t auto /dev/hda1 /mnt/cdrom

Oooooooh now that's just insane isn't it? ;)

[Profound_Darkness]

will try after lunch (I have been punching keys and clicking in linux since 8am, is now noon).

pretty sure mount points are defined but not quite right (I gave an example line in my post for one of the drives).

I didn't know about Ls command (pretty sure that is a lower case l and an s), as for listing mounts just typing mount does that too :)

I kinda figured based on reading that if I was so inclined I could mount a scsi drive to /mnt/floppy (man I have done some reading today!)

Thanks much again, will have the results in about an hour.

[Stephen]

tried typing mount -t vfat <device>

In the su console window mount -t vfat /dev/hd_ /mnt/hd_ the mount point should already be there, to check in any console window ls /mnt/. You need to specify the mount point when you mount the device. You will be able to access the drive at /mnt/hd_ eg. to change to drive cd /mnt/hd_.

[Profound_Darkness]

Results:

mount -t vfat /dev/hdf1 /mnt/hdf1
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdf1,
or too many mounted file systems

mount -t auto /dev/hdf1 /mnt/hdf1
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

woah! I like that ls command...
It shows the 2 drives (working on hdf1) in a dark color and current mounts in light blue... cool!

tried: mount -t vfat /dev/hdf1
result: gives help info as if I typed mount -h

a couple of tidbits more on info:
I !think! that the partition/drive (hdf1) is on my secondary (promice) controler... however that thought doesn't pan out because hdf5 (same drive, different partition) works fine.

Thanks for the information so far (that ls command is realy neato) but it still wont mount...

[rickenbacherus]

I didn't know about Ls command (pretty sure that is a lower case l and an s)

Yes it is a lower case L and S - short for LiSt.


, as for listing mounts just typing mount does that too :)

the mount command shows what is mounted and where they are mounted but it does not show all mount points. To find mount points:

cd /mnt
ls

[Profound_Darkness]

yep, that ls command is way cooler...

still the drives wont mount though...

[Dave_Bechtel]

--Post results of ' fdisk -l ' as root (open up konsole in kde, ' sudo bash ', then the command, cut+paste, Ctrl-D to logout of root.) FYI, if the partition is not FORMATTED with a filesystem, it will not mount. Are you sure these partitions are formatted?

--In any case, if the partition is/was formatted but you can't mount it it Windoze or Linux, it may be corrupted. If the data is mission-critical, look into a data-recovery specialist in your area.


Hello.
I am having several showstopping problems with it. For now I deal with the fact that on 2 different computers the downloaded knoppix 3.1(beta kdd) and 3.2 (I think) are unable to mount a partition on one computer and now 3.2 cannot mount a partition on mine.

The error message I recieve (verbatim for one device):
Could not mount device.

The reported error was:

Mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad
superblock on /dev/hdb1,

or too many mounted file systems

<end of error>

As far as too many file systems (don't know what that means exactly) but I was able to mount other drives fine.

After searching around and reading a few posts (all that seemed apply in my searches) I found no fixes. I am at an utter loss and am in need for this to work as I have a seperate computer problem that I am trying to mount this drive to fix.

[Profound_Darkness]

yes they are formated, all hard drives show as having files (except the new one, which isn't one of the problem drives) under dos (win98 boot disk).

Also the fdisk info seems to prove that bit out as well, here goes:

Disk /dev/hdh: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdh1 1 1307 10498446 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdh2 1308 4865 28579635 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdh5 1308 4865 28579603+ b Win95 FAT32

Disk /dev/hde: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 1 14593 117218241 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/hdf: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdf1 1 4611 37037826 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdf2 4612 4865 2040255 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdf5 4612 4865 2040223+ b Win95 FAT32

Disk /dev/hdc: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 12161 97683201 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/hda: 45.0 GB, 45020602368 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5473 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1306 10490413+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 1307 5473 33471427+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1307 5473 33471396 b Win95 FAT32

Disk /dev/hdb: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 14946 120053713+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)

<end of info>

I can't realy understand all that but hdf seems to show systems on both partitions, its the first partition that I am having trouble with.


Thanks (for another neat command).

[edit]
clarification, hdf1 and hdb1 are the items I am having trouble with...

[Dave_Bechtel]

--Well, dunno what to tell you about hdf1 - that looks pretty standard. But hdb1 is one big partition, of 120GIG. Might be too big of a partition size.

--Try resizing hdb down into 2 60-gig partitions (partition magic is recommended - www.partitionmagic.com ) and see if that helps. Also run ' scandisk /all /nosave /autofix /nosummary ' from your boot disk to see if there are lurking errors.

Hint: see my tips page ( http://wolfrdr.tripod.com/linuxtips.html ) for more cool commands than you'll know what to do with. ;-)

[Profound_Darkness]

It's interesting that you mention "too big" as the other computer that this drive is on has a single 160g partition (a bit big for my tastes but it's not my comp either). Also I have another drive that is 120g size that seems to work fine.

Unfortunately I am a user of large partitions (I prefer about 100g partitions) when I can so shrinking isn't gonna be nice to run with under my current primary OS (win2k) :(

ah well, thanks very much for the help peoples, I have picked up quite a bit. Guess knoppix isn't quite ready for my personal everyday use yet, but I will jump on the next release fast. my other problem is the sound card isn't being detected (got some ideas to fix that already) but if I can't read storage devices then sound doesn't matter, heh

so far btw, knoppix is the closest linux I have played with that I would put money on. I have tried redhat but I don't like gnome (mostly cause it crashed 2 times for me and failed to fully recover, stable releases both) and kdd is more comfy too :) I have also tried a few fun text based ones but I don't think I would use a text based OS after so much time with a graphical one...

oh, on a side question related to this problem, what the heck is a superblock?

[Profound_Darkness]

Just thought I would let you all know:

The 120 gig drive turns out to appear damaged (it was crashing/hanging win2k when accessed and win98 was hanging bad when accessed). the other 120 gig is still working fine (so I don't think it was a size issue).

The 160 gig may be a size issue, and hdf btw has been reformated as a single partition since I thought it was being removed. so that means my only remaining personal issue is sound...

thanks for the help all.


ttfn