Unable to mount MacBook HD in Knoppix 6.4.4

[RyanP]

I'm trying to recover data from the internal HD of a MacBook, which has recently stopped booting to its native OS (OSX 10.4.11). When I enter

mount -t hfsplus /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2

in LXTerminal, it returns:

mount: special device /dev/sda2 does not exist

Strangely (at least to me), when I run

parted /dev/sda

and enter the "print" command, I get (usually after several minutes):

Model: ATA Hitachi HTS54161 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name                  Flags
 1      20.5kB  210MB  210MB  fat32        EFI system partition  boot
 2      210MB   120GB  120GB               Customer

I was able to mount an external HD with an HFS+ partition (where I would like to copy the files from the internal drive) without issue.

Is there any reason that parted would be able to find /dev/sda, but not mount?

One possible solution I thought about was to write a new partition table (not GPT) to the internal drive that would be readable in mount, but I don't want to try that without some guidance for obvious reasons.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

More info:

root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# lspci 
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:07.0 Performance counters: Intel Corporation Device 27a3 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 22)
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
03:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Agere Systems FW322/323 (rev 61)

root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# dmesg | grep sda
[51840.398745] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
[51840.398750] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[51840.398758] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
[51840.398800] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
[51840.398812] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 06 40 28 00 00 08 00
[51840.398830] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 409642
[51840.398837] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 51205
[51864.365452] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
[51864.365457] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[51864.365465] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
[51864.365517] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
[51864.365526] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 06 40 28 00 00 08 00
[51864.365539] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 409642
[51864.365545] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 51205
[51888.288727] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
[51888.288732] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[51888.288739] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
[51888.288781] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
[51888.288793] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 06 40 28 00 00 08 00
[51888.288812] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 409642
[51888.288819] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 51205
[51912.168754] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
[51912.168759] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[51912.168766] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
[51912.168809] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
[51912.168821] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 06 40 28 00 00 08 00
[51912.168848] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 409642
[51912.168853] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 51205
[51936.212041] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
[51936.212046] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[51936.212054] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
[51936.212096] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
[51936.212108] sd 2:0:1:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 06 40 28 00 00 08 00
[51936.212126] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 409642
[51936.212133] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 51205

[antixsuperstar]

Hi Ryan,

I was tumbling around the web with the same issue as you and I think I found a solution. Two things have to be done:

1. Enable kernel modules:

   # modprobe hfs
   # modprobe hfsplus

   (Don’t know if this has to be done in order, but I guess it won’t hurt if you do so).
2. Repopulate filesystem (credit: http://www.renanmarks.net/en/blog/re...g-linux-system ). Knoppix has parted, which AFAIK comes with a program called partprobe. Execute it now that it will recognize HFS partitions and then there you will find new directories under /media:

   # partprobe /dev/sdb

   (assuming that the HFS partition is in /dev/sdb).

Note: If you have a HFS+ partition (journal enabled) it will probably mount it in read-only mode. You can fix this by mounting the partition with the force option:

# mount -o force,rw /media/sdb2

(again, assuming /dev/sdb2 is the HFS partition).