Can't Access HDA1

This has probably been asked before, but I can't find the answer, and I have limited time to find the answer. I can't figure out how to access my hard drive's files. I keep trying to mount the Hard Drive (HDA1), but it gives me this error:

Unable to mount device
Error org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure

I will probably need to use this bootable CD on some other computers also, but I don't have access to those computers yet. I don't know if there is something I am doing wrong, or maybe it's just my computer. My computer boots up just fine, but I can't access the drive from Knoppix. I am using the latest stable version of knoppix.

Is there something I should type in Terminal Emulator :? ? Thanks

Bump.

I'm having the exact same problem (except my drive is named something else). Can anyone please help?

weird, I just click the desktop icon and the file manager pops up, I use FAT for file system though...

Hi all,

I have investigated the problem. The /etc/fstab file is dynamically built at every reboot (NOT ALWAYS SEE LATER) by the script /usr/sbin/rebuildfstab which takes care to popilate the directory /media with the proper mount points (es. /media/sda1, /media/sda2, /media/hdc1 etc.).

It is the failure in populating this directory the source of your (and mine) problem. I have tried to launch the script after bootstrap in a root terminal but the script checks the current filesystems (from /proc/partitions) against the current /etc/fstab (which has been correctly populated) and refuses to re-create the mount points in /media.

I am still working on the problem since it seems that there is another task that takes care to CLEAN the /media directory at every reboot so my temptative to call rebuildfstab in my /etc/rc.local has not solved the problem since, although I am sure that the call has regenerated the content of the directory /media, there is the second cleaning task that has deleted the newly created mount points just after their creation.

I am still investigating to find out what is this son-of-a-program that cleans that directory in order to address the problem properly.

If there is someone of the KNOPPIX Team that would kindly help us he/she is welcome.

In my case the problem shows up in the version booting from an USB ket with a persistent user disk (knoppix-data.img).

Cheers

I had the same issue and it was caused because the NTFS drive (hard drive) was "in use" by Windows even though Windows wasn't running. This was supposedly caused by an improper shutdown (which in fact did occur due to a trojan). Whatever the cause, though, this is what I did to fix:

open a command line
type in: su root
type in: mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 -o force [where sda1 is your hard drive, it may be different than sda1]
This should force the ntfs drive to mount regardless of being "in use"

If you're sketchy about trying this right off, try: mount /dev/sda1
This should give you some additional options if it won't mount, and you might find something similar to the above but with a variation that might work better for you.

Hope this helps someone in the future. I was lucky enough to stumble across someone in the office familiar with Linux...

I generally keep quiet in the HDD install forum because people who post here just don't want to hear what I have to say. But I feel that the "advice" being given here should not be allowed to pass without comment. So far every version of Knoppix up to 6 has had problems writing to NTFS. While some people claim that they can do it safely, or by bypassing the default drivers and using special drivers, may average users have further destroyed their partitions and lost data that they could have recovered because they insisted on doing this. As to Knoppix 6.0 and 6.0.1, I don't know their status in this regard. But given the past Knoppix track record, I would not consider these versions safe to write to NTFS without giving a lot more time for the jury to come back om that. If anyone is considering the above advice to write to a NTFS partition, even to just make it "no longer in use", you have been warned. In general there are better ways to recover data from NTFS drives that are safe and don't risk further corruption of the data. Once needed data has been recovered, that NTFS partition should be deleted and Windows used to recreate it, perhaps as part of a windows reinstall; or just replace the partition with a FAT partition which Linux can write to safely, or even reinstall a version of Linux intended for hard disk install (such as Debian and certainly not Knoppix) and stop fighting with Windows.

So my one-year old turned off the power to my in-laws Windows XP machine while I had the system configuration utility up. Now it won't even boot up. I created a DOS boot CD; but once in DOS it's not even recognizing the other drives so I can't go in and make any needed changes to the corrupted file. So I created a Knoppix boot CD and I'm just wondering what it will do if I force the mount of their hard drive. Would I possibly lose all the data on the NTFS partition? Would I be able to go in and open the files and make the needed changes and then get Windows to boot properly? If not, then what is my best option to recover the files before I format (NTFS again) and reinstall XP for them? Thanks.

to recover files just burn hem to DVD or transfer them to another compuer via ftp, even using a fat formaed drive will work (just be aware of the 3.9Gig max size of a single file)

The problem is that I can't access the hard drive at all. The computer won't even boot up off that hard drive in Windows, and I could try to force the mount in Knoppix; but I'm worried it will kill the data. I took their hard drive over to my place and will try and access it as a slave drive on my computer; but I'd rather fix the file than have to backup all of their data. I guess my main question is whether or not forcing the mount will cause a problem or not (Knoppix 6.0.2).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rahmuss

.... and I could try to force the mount in Knoppix; but I'm worried it will kill the data. ....

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If you want to try to force something, use the mount command and the read-only option (man mount for details), it should not harm anything. But you may very well find that Linux can't mount the partition. Windows is quite capable of destroying partitions that way, I have several drives that it has done it to, even without a one year old.

Even if you can't force a mount, there is a chance that only the partition table is mucked up, not the partition itself. Gpart or testdisk may help you recover in that case, see man gpart and/or man testdisk for details.