New user question Why don't I see my HD or my USB flashdrive

**tstock1453** · 03-19-2010, 04:47 PM

Ok I'm new to Knoppix

and I'm excited about it. I bought the book "Knoppix Hacks" and I've sent for the new version 6.2.1
When it boots from the CD (in this case ver 5.1.1) should the desk top have my drives icons on it by auto-detection or do I need to use the "mount /dev/hda" codes?

From what I read they should be on the desk top as Icons and all I need do is determine which drive I want to see the files from.

**OErjan** · 03-19-2010, 08:36 PM

depending on version it would or would not show on desktop.

personally I would go the manual way, not all would, but it is actually the "easy way", true it requires some typing but it almost always works. and if not we have more information to work with to solve the problem.

to find what disk it is we want you can type command below to list available disks.

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

(the l is lowercase L) to find the

then do

Code:

sudo mount

to se what (if anything) is mounted and where.

now do

Code:

ls /media

to see if there is already a folder created for the disk and partition you want to reach.

if not create it

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/yourname

now mount it.

Code:

sudo mount -t filesystem /dev/diskname+partitionnumber/media/yourname

filesystem is the filesystem of the disk, ntfs, vfat, ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs...

ask further if you have problems, that book should have more information, not to mention the internet, but feel free to ask anyway.

**OErjan** · 03-19-2010, 08:39 PM

oh, you could try the mount /dev/hdXY (X=disk letter Y=partition number) first, it should work, just did not mention that as it was implied in your answer that you knew about it.
my way is worth learning as it will work on most Linux and other Unix like systems.

**OErjan** · 03-19-2010, 08:52 PM

uhm, the sudo part does NOT always work, but typing su and giving root password mostly does.
when the commands have been typed you then type
exit
to end the "root" session.

**tstock1453** · 03-22-2010, 12:12 AM

Thank you, OErjan the manual way is almost always better. I appreciate your answer and will give your instructions a try. I have lots to learn and I hadn't put together that the / hdX,Y command stood for drive letter and partion yet. Makes more since to me now...I kinda had one of those "Oh, duh" moments

Thanks again!