usb drive not recognized

**mikemillion2000** · 07-12-2008, 10:15 PM

I worked on getting some files off a bad drive on my laptop with Knoppix. I was able to create an img file on my usb drive after formatting it via knoppix - mkfs.ext3, and then I executed a dd to the image file.

When I connect the usb drive to any other system (WinXP or Vista), the drive is not recognized. The system says it wants to format the disk.

Any suggestions?

Thanx.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-12-2008, 10:24 PM

Windows will not read Linux based partitions such as ext3, so this partition would only be useful if you wanted to transfer the files to another Linux system.

I can suggest 2 solutions: If you insist on doing this by an external drive, format it as FAT32. One restriction that this will impose is that file sizes of 4 gig or greater will not be allowed. I have always be able to save files to external USB devices, but some people do seem to have problems with it. For backing up or data recovery, see the alternative below.

Alternately, I suggest networking two systems together and transferring the files by FTP across the network. See this post for more detailed steps to do so.

**mikemillion2000** · 07-12-2008, 10:34 PM

Well, I had to create the img file via dd, because normal methods, such as copying the files over the network, won't work. Now, you've got me thinking can I connect the laptop to the network with the usb drive attached, and then copy the image file to another machine.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-12-2008, 10:57 PM

I have had very good results transferring files across a network. I use FTP rather than Windows networking because Windows networking can be problematic and because it is much slower, and in some cases it might impose additional file size restrictions. I'm not clear why you have an image file made with dd, but as long as that's what you want and you know what you are doing, I don't see any problem with that.

**mikemillion2000** · 07-12-2008, 11:21 PM

Oh, I have no problem, with transferring files, it's just that even with Knoppix, it won't mount the drive, so I can't get to the files, which is why I chose to go with DD to see if I could get to them by creating the img file. Now comes the task of getting them from the img file I created.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-12-2008, 11:36 PM

Good luck with that. If you have success please report back just how you did it. I have a few Windows drives that I can't recover files from either, and there are some files out there that I would like to get back.