cannot find hard drive in root shell

**rmonterr** · 08-31-2006, 12:02 AM

UNfortunately, my computer crashed and I've turned to Knoppix.

I got it up and running okay, but my hard drive (I never partitioned it) never showed up on the desktop. By changing the desktop configurations (show unmounted hard disk drives), I was able to get it there. However, upon right click -> mount, I get an error that tells me to check that my hd's are plugged in correctly (they are, double-checked). Now upon doing mount /dev/hde1, I get can't find dev/hde1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab. I'm at my wit's end here, and I apologize if this problem has come up a lot before (and has been answered), but I'm a Linux noob and find it hard to follow a lot of the jargon in these topics. I don't see how there can be trouble finding my hard drive if it can abviously read that it's there (hence the ocon appearing on the desktop), and the fact that prior to booting up Linux, Windows reads my hard drive as functional. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

**ockham23** · 08-31-2006, 08:30 AM

Windows reads my hard drive as functional.

How's that possible if you haven't partitioned the drive yet? Anyway, you can use Windows Disk Management to partition and format the drive. Knoppix also has a partitioning tool (qtparted), but it's less convenient.

Code:

sudo qtparted

You have to create a partition table before you can partition the new drive.

**rmonterr** · 08-31-2006, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by ockham23

Windows reads my hard drive as functional.

How's that possible if you haven't partitioned the drive yet? Anyway, you can use Windows Disk Management to partition and format the drive. Knoppix also has a partitioning tool (qtparted), but it's less convenient.

Code:

sudo qtparted

You have to create a partition table before you can partition the new drive.

Uhh, thanks, but I can't start windows. Perhaps I used the wrong terminology. At bootup, the drives are read as functional, probably Bios then. The bottom line is that I'm trying to get to the contents of my unpartitioned hard drive because my computer crashed.

**Harry Kuhman** · 08-31-2006, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by rmonterr

..... The bottom line is that I'm trying to get to the contents of my unpartitioned hard drive because my computer crashed.

What do you mean the contents of my unpartitioned hard drive???? If the hard drive is unpartitioned then it should have no contents. What do you really think is out there?

**OErjan** · 08-31-2006, 04:52 PM

if the drive is unpartitioned it should be fairly easy, sadly it might be so badly damaged that it canot be saved...
hmm even if the hdd is one large piece it has a filesystem, you did format it right?
i need to know what you have tried in knoppix, what does fdisk -l (minor L not capital i or 1 (one)) in a consolewindow say?

**rmonterr** · 08-31-2006, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

Originally Posted by rmonterr

..... The bottom line is that I'm trying to get to the contents of my unpartitioned hard drive because my computer crashed.

What do you mean the contents of my unpartitioned hard drive???? If the hard drive is unpartitioned then it should have no contents. What do you really think is out there?

Hmm, okay, once again I'm probably using the wrong terminology.

I've got two 120 gig hard drives in RAID 0 array. I never actually used the partition utility in windows prior to saving anything on there. That's what I mean by "unpartitioned." I'm just trying to get the contents out (pictures, music, videos, passwords) but cannot mount the drive.

If the drive is unpartitioned it should be fairly easy, sadly it might be so badly damaged that it canot be saved...
hmm even if the hdd is one large piece it has a filesystem, you did format it right?
i need to know what you have tried in knoppix, what does fdisk -l (minor L not capital i or 1 (one)) in a consolewindow say?

I'll do this and let you know, thanks.

**rmonterr** · 08-31-2006, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by OErjan

if the drive is unpartitioned it should be fairly easy, sadly it might be so badly damaged that it canot be saved...
hmm even if the hdd is one large piece it has a filesystem, you did format it right?
i need to know what you have tried in knoppix, what does fdisk -l (minor L not capital i or 1 (one)) in a consolewindow say?

It doesn't do anything, just gives me a new line.

**Harry Kuhman** · 08-31-2006, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by rmonterr

Hmm, okay, once again I'm probably using the wrong terminology.

I've got two 120 gig hard drives in RAID 0 array. I never actually used the partition utility in windows prior to saving anything on there. That's what I mean by "unpartitioned."

Yea, you are claiming something that doesn't make sense, and you didn't mention key information.

1. Someone partitioned those drives in the RAID setup process. If it wasn't you then it was someone else, but implying you have a unpartitioned hard drive led people down the wrong track.

2. That you didn't mention the Raid 0 issue until now was a huge mistake. Unfortunately, it seems like your Raid setup is software based and I don't believe that you are going to be able to access any of that data from Knoppix; you can only read it with the Raid drivers that created it. Raid zero stripes the data aross multiple drives, it writes some on on drive then moves to the next drive. So this hard drive that you are trying to extract files from may not have any complete files on it, just parts of files. There is, of course, no redundancy of data with Raid 0, so it's not used for reliability (just the opposite, it is much more prone to failure, as loss of any hard disk will cause all data to be lost). Why you would choose to use RAID 0 and not keep good backups, particilarly under Windows that is well known for this type of problem, is something that I can't understand.

I'm sorry that this is not the information that you had hoped to hear, but it's not a Koppix or Linux issue.

**rmonterr** · 08-31-2006, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

Originally Posted by rmonterr

Hmm, okay, once again I'm probably using the wrong terminology.

I've got two 120 gig hard drives in RAID 0 array. I never actually used the partition utility in windows prior to saving anything on there. That's what I mean by "unpartitioned."

Yea, you are claiming something that doesn't make sense, and you didn't mention key information.

1. Someone partitioned those drives in the RAID setup process. If it wasn't you then it was someone else, but implying you have a unpartitioned hard drive led people down the wrong track.

2. That you didn't mention the Raid 0 issue until now was a huge mistake. Unfortunately, it seems like your Raid setup is software based and I don't believe that you are going to be able to access any of that data from Knoppix; you can only read it with the Raid drivers that created it. Raid zero stripes the data aross multiple drives, it writes some on on drive then moves to the next drive. So this hard drive that you are trying to extract files from may not have any complete files on it, just parts of files. There is, of course, no redundancy of data with Raid 0, so it's not used for reliability (just the opposite, it is much more prone to failure, as loss of any hard disk will cause all data to be lost). Why you would choose to use RAID 0 and not keep good backups, particilarly under Windows that is well known for this type of problem, is something that I can't understand.

I'm sorry that this is not the information that you had hoped to hear, but it's not a Koppix or Linux issue.

Thanks. I backed up all my important, and expensive, software and their corresponding applications. It's the sentimental stuff I didn't. This really blows, but the thanks for the help anyway.