Transferring files from linux to external usb hard drive

Hi guys, I am attempting to recover files from a crashed desktop computer using an external usb hard drive. I have searched the forum for an answer to this question however I have been unable to find a solution.

I have successfully installed and loaded Knoppix v5-1.1.1 Linux operating system through a cd. Upon first installation, I tried out my western digital external hard drive and was able to copy and paste several files to the external drive without difficulty. I then disconnected the usb cable and transferred the files from my external to a separate computer without difficulty. However upon my second attempt to transfer files I received an error message that reads:
"Could not write file...disk is full"
- The odd part is that the disk is not full as there is 72gb free on a 74.5gb capacity external hard drive. When I double click on the hard disk icon (sdc1) representing my external usb drive I have 3.8mb total on the disk, however if I right click on that same drive icon and select properties and then device it says I have 0 bytes out of 74.5gb free (100% used).

In an effort to figure this out, I went out and purchased a different usb external hard drive, a Seagate freeagent Pro 320gb external USB 2.0 hard drive. Using this drive I attempted to simply copy and paste files to the hard disk icon (sdc1) on the desktop. Each time I received an error message stating "could not write...." file to the disk. I then went through the rescue faq portion of this website and right clicked on my new external drive on the desktop in order to change read/ write mode (from read only to write). I then received an error message that stated
"/dev/sdc1 is not mounted. Please mount the partition prior to changing its read/write status"

I then proceeded to mount the device. After doing so I then right clicked on the usb drive icon and attempted to change the read/ write mode again, however received a prompt that stated "Do you really want to change partition /dev/sdc1 (fuseblk) to be writable"...I clicked yes and received another error message stating:
"The remount command failed. Maybe there is another process accessing the filesystem currently."

So here I am, at a standstill in this data recovery process. I have read through many of the postings in this section of the forum and am hopeful that someone may be able to lend some advice and direction as to my next move. Thanks.
-Jon

I appreciate the detail in your post. One thing I'm not clear on is the last bit where you were having trouble changing it to be writable with the "remount command failed" thing. This could possibly be due to some error encountered as a result of changes you or Knoppix has made in the current session rather than a persistent problem. Did you try completely rebooting, then immediately mounting sdc1 (without any intermediary steps like you described in your post), then changing the read/write mode? I have had very similar errors crop up, and this often turned out to be the problem. Perhaps trying to change the read/write mode on an unmounted drive made some process hang without relinquishing control of it. You seem pretty knowledgeable from your post, so I don't mean to patronize you, but it's a simple step you might've missed.

If that didn't work, I've had a great deal of problems trying to mount/umount or otherwise manage devices just based on how I try to do it. For example, using the desktop icons that are automatically created for each of your devices sometimes fails to register changes I make to it, or they return errors very much like yours. Sometimes adding and using the "Storage Media" applet to the KDE Panel (the equivalent of the windows start menu/taskbar) will circumvent this problem or may have that trouble itself. Sometimes opening a console and using the text command "(u)mount /dev/sdc1" works for me, other times i must use "(u)mount /media/sdc1". I have the most success using one of these console commands rather than relying on the GUI. Like I said, this doesn't sound like a persistent problem that must be solved before you can move forward with your data recovery; it sounds like a fairly common error that I often encounter that is technically "your fault". If you've already tried the methods I've listed here or they end up not working, try opening a console and typing ps -aux. From this list try to identify anything that might be hanging or that should not be running/should have been closed. Use the "kill" command on the corresponding PID(s) and then try again.

Just as a rather recent example, I tried to unmount my second flash drive partition after I finished watching a video, but I ran into the same problem you had. It turned out that when I closed Kaffeine (a media player) normally, it didn't actually fully shut down. When I noticed that and killed the process, it allowed me to unmount/otherwise change that partition again.

Jaeran,
Thank you very much for the reply. It was very helpful. I am still new to Linux so my knowledge base is still very novice and any info is appreciated. I took each point of your reply into account however have been unsuccessful in making my 2 external hard drives function in file transfer. I was able to access task manager and did not see any files currently running that may be contributing to the remount command failure.

I then tried to mount the device through kdisk as well as using a console and writing in a text code and received the following error message:
"Called: mount /dev/sdb1
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Operation not supported
Mount is denied because NTFS is unclean. Choose one of these actions:
Boot windows and shutdown it cleanly, or if you have a removable device then click the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows taskbar notification area before discontinuing it
or
Run 'ntfsfix' on Linux
or
Mount the NTFS volume with the 'ro' option in read-only mode"

I then ran ntfsfix /dev/sdb1 through the command console and received the following message:
"Mounting volume...Error reading bootsector: Input/output error
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... Error reading bootsector: Input/ output error FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Input/ output error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk"

? Volume being corrupt. I guess I don't understand this as this is a new usb device that I used.

Of note: I was able to make file transfer possible from my sda2 hard disk to a usb stick (although at only 128mb this would make tranferring 40gb of mp3 files a very long and cumbersome task, although at this point I will do nearly anything to recover these music files).

Once again thanks jaeran and any further info would be much appreciated.

if the disk is new use gtparted to make it FAT32 (vfat) that should be read/write from both Windows and Linux, the max partition size might pose problem though, and max filesize (3.9Gb).

EDIT
you could always burn them to a DVD/CD using k3b and a burner (if you have one), perhaps borrow an external one?
/EDIT

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OErjan

if the disk is new use gtparted to make it FAT32 (vfat) that should be read/write from both Windows and Linux, the max partition size might pose problem though, and max filesize (3.9Gb).

EDIT
you could always burn them to a DVD/CD using k3b and a burner (if you have one), perhaps borrow an external one?
/EDIT

---

Boy I think I am really out of my league here. What is gtparted and how would I make my usb device FAT32 (vfat)?

Also, something odd is happening now with my 3rd usb device (a small capacity 128mb pen usb drive). The max capacity is 128mb, and during my first transfer I was able to transfer just about 128mb of data, however on subsequent transfers I am now getting less and less capacity before I get a transfer error message stating that I have no more disk space remaining. I am now down to 25 mb or so before getting this message. This is after I have cleared the disk to enable full 128mb capacity on transfer. Am I screwing things up by simply extracting the usb drive from the computer or is there something I am missing in Linux like a formal disconnect for the usb drive (such as the safely remove hardware option in windows)? The same thing happened with my 80gb external usb western digital drive which has been cleaned to allow 80gb of space, however when I try to transfer it states cannot transfer because disk is full...

ouch, ys you are certainly messing things upp. you have to unmount the drive before removing it, rightclick the icon and choose unmount.
EDIT
you must close all windows asosiated with the device r you will get an error message
/EDIT
to recap you have to mount it in linux before transfering files to it AND unmount before removing it, but that is fairly simple (rightclick on the icon and choose mount or unmount acording to what you want to do).

qtparted is a tool or formatting and making filesystems on disks.

if I was you I would go the burner route.
an internal burner can be had for under 40euro and external for about 55. they can be viewed as an investment for backing up (saving you this in future)
k3b supports most usb burners and almost all internal ones, iomega, samsung NEC and plextor have all worked beutifully for me on the USB-external front (the plextor is an old CD burner) and only one has NOT worked internally, old LG CD-r burner.
EDIT2
you may have to reboot to fix the problem of the shrinking USBpen, there are other ways but for a beginner this is simplet i think.
/EDIT2

metsn05

For what it's worth, there was really no mention of the file systems on the target drive's file system. Some of the error messages might indicate that it may be NTFS. I have seen numerous instances where an NTFS partition was probably corrupted by writing to it using Linux. Many people have claimed success, but I usually see the drives when they have become corrupted. Many were not hardware failures, but simply data corruption. The one common denominator in many was the fact that they were written to using Linux. The problem doesn't always show up right away either. It may take some time for it to become apparent.

The source drive (crashed unit) could also be corrupted and the files may not be easily accessed. Windows seems to do this on a regular basis on it's own. A few of the error messages may indicate this to be the problem. I'm not certain which drive they are referred to. If it is the external unit, then it may have some issues that need to be resolved. If it's NTFS, it's probably best to try Windows first to repair it.

It may well be that it's not the issue here, but it's worth mentioning. Knopppix 5.1.1 is "supposed" to be better at writing to an NTFS partition than it was in the past, but it may not be perfected yet. Even Windows will corrupt an NTFS drive on occasion. Many external drives appear to be more susceptable to being corrupted. I have had some issues when trying to use some of the current external Western Digital Drives with Linux. There appears to be a hardware/driver issue with some models. I can't speak for the Seagate, since I have not had any failures/issues with these drives yet. I would hesitate to use an NTFS volume for transferring files using Linux. FAT32 would probably be a better choice for compatibility.

Another option would be to transfer files over a network, or to use a live disk such as Bart PE or Windows PE if you have one available. The Bart PE disk can be made quite simply and can be equipped with many recovery tools and drivers to assist you. It would be a better choice if you wish to write to NTFS volumes.

Yeah, I didn't realize your drive was NTFS. That file system is Microsoft's latest, and it's proprietary, so you can blame their selfishness/pettiness for the lack of support. I would strongly recommend doing what the other posters have recommended by reformatting it to FAT32. You shouldn't really notice any difference or limitations; Microsoft is the originator of that file system as well, and Windows can read/write from it, just in case you're wondering. The only thing you should really notice is the approximate ~4gb file size limitation. I don't think ordinary data will give you any trouble, though. You should try to avoid writing to NTFS drives with Linux in the future unless absolutely necessary (reading is okay); I've found that Knoppix has let me write to mine just fine, but you do risk corruption.

I'm going to recommend using GParted to format your partition(s) because I like it best. I'm doing this from memory, so cut me some slack.

1) Go to the menu that should be on your taskbar with a penguin icon (the "Knoppix" menu) and click "Set Root Password" or something to that effect. You'll need to do this every time you start Knoppix if you want to use certain programs; I don't know if you can save a root password with a "save configuration". Choose any old password.

2) Go to the main KDE menu, leftmost on the panel. Go to the System menu from there I believe, and then click on GParted; I think it's in the upper quarter of the menu. Enter the root password you just created when prompted.

3) When GParted opens, it should have a list you can expand in the upper-right hand corner to select the device you want to fool with. Select your external drive (be sure you select the correct one, e.g. check the size of the drive and make sure it's the one you want).

4) I'm not sure on this, as I've never viewed an "unpartitioned" drive in GParted. Technically, even though you may not have created separate partitions in a drive, an unpartitioned drive is counted as one giant "partition" of its own. It *should* show you just one entry under "Partitions" with your drive at its max size, probably with "ntfs" as its file system. If you right-click on it, there should be a menu option like "Format" or "Format as" which leads you to a list of possible file systems; choose fat32. Edit: I should mention that when you finalize your changes and format it to fat32 in the next step, you will lose all the data on your drive. It sounds like you can't access it anyway, but I'm just warning you that reformatting it will erase everything.

5) The way GParted works is to let you plan out what you're going to do to a drive or its partitions, step by step. In the last step where you chose to format it as fat32, it didn't actually format it yet. You can choose other actions to take on your drive (only if you want to), and when you're finished you click the "Apply" button near the top. I can't really remember, but I think there's a box near the Apply button that shows what changes are about to be made if you click it.

After that, I would probably reboot just to be perfectly safe, and then try copying your files over as detailed above.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by metsn05

Hi guys, I am attempting to recover files from a crashed desktop computer using an external usb hard drive. I have searched the forum for an answer to this question however I have been unable to find a solution.

I have successfully installed and loaded Knoppix v5-1.1.1 Linux operating system through a cd. Upon first installation, I tried out my western digital external hard drive and was able to copy and paste several files to the external drive without difficulty. I then disconnected the usb cable and transferred the files from my external to a separate computer without difficulty. However upon my second attempt to transfer files I received an error message that reads:
"Could not write file...disk is full"
- The odd part is that the disk is not full as there is 72gb free on a 74.5gb capacity external hard drive. When I double click on the hard disk icon (sdc1) representing my external usb drive I have 3.8mb total on the disk, however if I right click on that same drive icon and select properties and then device it says I have 0 bytes out of 74.5gb free (100% used).

In an effort to figure this out, I went out and purchased a different usb external hard drive, a Seagate freeagent Pro 320gb external USB 2.0 hard drive. Using this drive I attempted to simply copy and paste files to the hard disk icon (sdc1) on the desktop. Each time I received an error message stating "could not write...." file to the disk. I then went through the rescue faq portion of this website and right clicked on my new external drive on the desktop in order to change read/ write mode (from read only to write). I then received an error message that stated
"/dev/sdc1 is not mounted. Please mount the partition prior to changing its read/write status"

I then proceeded to mount the device. After doing so I then right clicked on the usb drive icon and attempted to change the read/ write mode again, however received a prompt that stated "Do you really want to change partition /dev/sdc1 (fuseblk) to be writable"...I clicked yes and received another error message stating:
"The remount command failed. Maybe there is another process accessing the filesystem currently."

So here I am, at a standstill in this data recovery process. I have read through many of the postings in this section of the forum and am hopeful that someone may be able to lend some advice and direction as to my next move. Thanks.
-Jon

---

We see a very similar thing happening on PVR video recorders using linux. These recorders use any fat32 usb like freeagentpro, mine is the 750gig. Many people complain, like you, that after movies are recorded (in .ts format) then they disconnect the drive and attach it to their Xp computers which they then copy the files to the C: drive. Then when they reattach that drive to the PVR, the drive is not recognized or the PVR will only read the total capacity of the drive or serial number.
The only cure seems to be writing Zeros with seagate utilities to wipe the drive clean, That is very bad if you have 200 hours of movies you just lost.

I'd like to hear the solution to this and your problem and why it happens in the first place.

Is knoppix live cd going help me transfur files from the freeagent to the C: drive or will knoppix corrupt my Xp?

-jeff1

.

Dismount before disconnecting.

I had similar problems when trying to copy my Compaq Presario V2000 Notebook hard disk to an external hard drive. What I did was formatted the external hard drive on an HP notebook then tried copying files from the Compaq that was running Knoppix and it worked.

I'm having teh same problem as OP, but my external is formatted to FAT32 and I have unmounted my drive. I don't know what to do...

I have 40gb free on this external but knoppix is saying that it is at 100% capacity. My first time connecting it I was able to transfer about 5gb over but since then it is reported as full. I unmounted and even rebooted knoppix but it still shows the drive full. Anyone know what might be wrong?