External usb hard drive
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: External usb hard drive
started by: CAPTAIN RON N FL
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 11 2007,16:45
I have two 300 gb usb external hdd's. They were working find in windows xp. Turn off the computer. Came back and xp no longer sees them.I have one 200 gb usb hdd that still works.
I would like to see if I can save,recover, etc. my files I have on them so I can use them again on xp.
OK ...... how do I get DSL to see the drive?
Using DSL on cd.
Toshiba laptop.
Everything works great so far.
Thanks, Ron
Posted by curaga on July 11 2007,16:51
Are they seen in the mount app? In the lower right corner, click on the device name (probably fd0 or cdrom0) until you see something beginning with sd. That's the external hd. Click on the red button that says "umounted". If it turns green, that hd is now mounted and you can copy files.
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 12 2007,17:34
Ok I was able to mount two different drives. One a mini WD 80 gbz and my Dazzel card reader. It did not see my Mad Dog usb hdd. That is what I want to be able to get my files from. After I mount the drive, what do I need to do to open it etc.
Any idea why it won't see my Mad Dog drive with the good hdd in it?
Thanks, Ron
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 12 2007,17:38
Double post. SORRY???
Posted by curaga on July 12 2007,17:56
Click on emelfm and browse either side into /mnt/sd* sd* being the drive you mounted
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 12 2007,18:51
Spoke too soon. It won't mount the Dazzle. It gives the same info error for it as for my Mad Dog. That's a bummer. I won't be able to use it to look at my pictures.Well the WD drive works. I was able to see the files. I have a bunch of different files some mp3's some programs that have .exe in them some rar etc. Some are folders with different things in them... like rar doc etc. When I right click on one of them, I get a lot of things to choose from. I would like to be able to move them to a different portable drive..... like my Mad Dog.What do I need to be able to that?
I still need to get it to see my Mad Dog. It says Error: mount: relocation error: mount: undefind symbol: blkid_known_fstype. What does that mean and how do I get it to see the drive?
I thought that I should add that I also have a WD 500 gbz usb external drive that works too. This will be the drive that I want to transfer all the files from my Mad Dog drive to.
I found that I have to have the drives hook up to the laptop before I boot for it to see them. I can't just swap them in and out like in xp.
Thanks, Ron
Posted by curaga on July 12 2007,19:29
That error means it has a filesystem that's not supported. Either that's true and it has a weird filesystem, or you didn't "unplug it safely" in Windows causing the filesystem description to get corrupted..To move files around hook two drives up, mount both, open emelfm and browse the other side to the other drive and the other for the other. Then select all on one side and click move and they'll move to the other side..
What filesystem was on your Mad Dog?
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 12 2007,20:17
For my usb drives, I just manually mount them via terminal.. (I don't think the mount app gets updated?)
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 12 2007,20:48
Windows XP ntfs. Now I am worried. I have to go and checked if it is still working.... and yes I am sure that is what happen. I am having all kinds of trouble with xp on this laptop. I am about to do a fresh install.... again for the..................time.:pI HATE XP!!!!!
Yes ...... another hard drive bites the dust.
Is there anyway to recover them??? I now have lost over 1000 gbz
because of this. I am going to have a drink
Now I know why it would not see it...... lucky me.
Posted by lucky13 on July 13 2007,03:46
| Quote |
| I am having all kinds of trouble with xp on this laptop. I am about to do a fresh install.... again for the..................time.:p.... I HATE XP!!!! |
I don't know what kind of problems you're having with XP, but this issue doesn't sound like it's XP's fault. Certainly doesn't sound like something requiring a reinstall. Take a deep breath and learn how to use XP's features before you insure that you do lose your data (reinstallation ISN'T a good starting point because it means you will lose data). There's no reason to reinstall it if you've set system restore points like you're supposed to. If you have a restore point, use it. It works for the rest of us who use XP (correctly anyway).
< http://www.microsoft.com/windows....re.mspx >
< http://www.theeldergeek.com/system_restore.htm >
< http://searchwarp.com/swa78730.htm >
Posted by curaga on July 13 2007,08:19
I'm not sure DSL can handle ntfs, even read it..
Posted by Juanito on July 13 2007,09:32
DSL will read ntfs without problems on my machines - I also managed to use ntfsprogs to re-size an ntfs partition with DSL, though I'm not sure I would recommend this...
Posted by curaga on July 13 2007,09:53
Maybe it's a new ntfs format DSL's old ntfs driver can't read?
Posted by lucky13 on July 13 2007,11:56
There's no problem reading NTFS with Linux. Linux has been able to read NTFS since kernel 2.2. There are at least two drivers that allow read-write access to NTFS partitions. NTFS3g works in userspace but not kernelspace. Captive NTFS is a wrapper that uses the Windows NTFS driver.NTFS is a standard. There are no changes in NTFS between Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista; just as there are no changes in ext2 between Linux kernel versions.
I have an old NT workstation and I've never had any trouble accessing NT 4.x partitions under Linux since 2.2 was released. Dittos for any other Windows partitions -- FAT, NTFS in XP and Vista, etc. -- since then.
Posted by curaga on July 13 2007,12:13
Actually there was a change between NT and 2000.. but that's not the point.How can this guy access a drive with corrupted filesystem descriptor?
Posted by lucky13 on July 13 2007,13:30
NTFS: Full backwards compatibility, and it only affects the earlier versions of Windows from being able to access features in the newer versions and not the other way around. I have no problems accessing my NT partitions from XP, but I've had some minor issues accessing XP partitions from NT (though I've not encountered issues I haven't been able to work around). USB Issue: I don't know what he's done, but I have it a hunch the problem is on the USB side and probably related to not properly unmounting before disconnecting or otherwise not properly shutting down. If that's the case, reinstalling isn't going to fix it.
I don't know why people jump to reinstalling something instead of figuring out what the real problem is and recovering from it. Reinstallation insures data loss, not system recovery. That's why reinstallation should be an absolute last resort. And if he's been reinstalling repeatedly like he said, maybe that's part of the problem -- either he has hardware issues that need to be resolved or he needs to learn how to properly use his software (Windows is a very capable and robust OS regardless of what people want to disparage Microsoft about) to reduce these kinds of issues.
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 13 2007,14:41
Well the truth is that it is not xp really. It is my fault for not setting a restore point but I removed that in the beginning. I rolled my own and have been doing so for over a year. It was a very very very modified version I had on my laptop. This was my test computer where I could play with things etc. It was also my fault that the drives were not shut down properly. I knew that I had done a bunch of changes that made it buggy..... turning it's self off without warning. I was going to reinstall XP and give this laptop to my daughter to take with her to college. I should have transfer all the files off of it...which I did....then reinstall a nice xp for her. Instead I decide to go through all of the files etc that I had on different drives...get rid of ones I did not need ... old out dated programs etc. and clean out all the drives and try to get everything in two drives... one for music, one for programs etc.
Of course in the middle of doing this it took a dump. So all the external drives got shut down in the middle of things. That is the reason that DSL can not see them. Otherwise there would be no problem. I have several hdd fix it programs but none seem to work.
What I hoped was that DSL would be able to see them and I could transfer them to a new drive. Then I was in hopes of reformatting the old drive and making it good once more.
I know there must be away to do this. I was hoping that some one might know how to do it.:)
I know now that this is not a DSL problem now. I know also it is not a ntfs problem. It is a big problem for me though.
Thanks, Ron
Posted by curaga on July 13 2007,15:57
If you are ready to give up, formatting is easy..But to fight: to get more info, open Aterm and plug one of the non-working drives in. Then type dmesg and post the ~10 last messages.
In them you can see if anything can be done easily...
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 13 2007,23:56
How do I copy it so I can post?
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 14 2007,00:17
This is what it said:FAT: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xc6e8000 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:01.
NTFS: Invalid $mft record zero.
Fat: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xd6e8000 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01.
Fat: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xd6e8000 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01.
Posted by stupid_idiot on July 14 2007,04:49
| Quote (CAPTAIN RON N FL @ July 14 2007,04:17) |
| FAT: Did not find valid FSINFO signature. Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xc6e8000 sector=1. VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:01. NTFS: Invalid $mft record zero. Fat: Did not find valid FSINFO signature. Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xd6e8000 sector=1. VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01. Fat: Did not find valid FSINFO signature. Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xd6e8000 sector=1. VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01. |
As you can see, there are 3 'Found signature [...]' lines. The 3 external drives are being detected. The 'Invalid $mft' message should be due to a slight filesystem inconsistency caused by the improper shutdown. I think you should run Window's `chkdsk` program on all 3 drives. It looks like a minor problem, and there is a good chance a filesystem check will solve it. Assuming you have the Windows XP CD with you, you should boot up from it, proceed to choose 'Start Recovery Console', and run:
e.g. (depending on drive letters of the usb drives)
`chkdsk /f C:` or `chkdsk /f E:` etc.
If this succeeds, you can reboot into Windows XP and start restoring your data (assuming your Windows installation is still working).
If you plan to restore data from an NTFS filesystem to another NTFS filesystem (i.e. writing to NTFS) from within Linux, I would advise you not to use DSL or any other Linux that uses kernel 2.4.x. I do not know exactly how reliable the NTFS-write driver in the 2.4 kernel is, but if you look at the menu configuration for kernel compilation, the NTFS-write driver is flagged as 'Dangerous!'.
On the other hand, the newer 'ntfs-3g' driver (which requires a Linux kernel 2.6.20 and later) is reputed to be 100% safe from filesystem corruption - It is said, for practical purposes, to be 100% safe to use (see < here >).
Recently, I used ntfs-3g to write ~120G of backup data onto NTFS (on my friend's computer) and it worked very nicely.
To use the ntfs-3g driver, I recommend one of the LiveCD distributions that come loaded with ntfs-3g, especially one of the smaller LiveCDs meant for rescuing data - The one I know about is the quite-famous < gparted >.
Posted by lucky13 on July 14 2007,11:01
Good advice, stupid_idiot. Here's a list of Linux distros (including live CDs) that have the NTFS-3G driver:< http://www.ntfs-3g.org/index.html#download >
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 14 2007,15:24
I ran the Recovery Console but it would not let me do the E drive. It did not recognize chkdsk/fE:. It would let me run chkdsk but it only would do C. Maybe I did something wrong.I even tried it on another laptop..... no one has a tower here... with the same ending. No Joy.
Any suggestions on how to get chkdsk to do E?
Maybe it is because I am using student XP disk from college? Probably not... just can't figure it out.
Thanks, Ron
Posted by BillSmithBooksDotCom on July 14 2007,16:54
First, sorry if this is a completely unhelpful comment 'cause I'm 99% noob...But, using DSL 3.01, I have found that sometimes a drive will not show up in the mount tool on the bottom right corner of the desktop (especially if USB stick is plugged in after initial boot up from CD)...
BUT if I go to the menu, "system, mount tool," my unmounted USB sticks will show up and then can mount and unmount normally.
Don't know if this applies with other versions of DSL...just my personal experience that does occur often.
Posted by humpty on July 14 2007,20:05
i recommend one of the rescue kits in lucky13 's list.they are usually live CDs.
trinity is a good one.
Posted by stupid_idiot on July 15 2007,01:30
| Quote (CAPTAIN RON N FL @ July 14 2007,19:24) |
| I ran the Recovery Console but it would not let me do the E drive. It did not recognize chkdsk/fE:. It would let me run chkdsk but it only would do C. Maybe I did something wrong. |
No, you didn't do anything wrong.
I wasn't sure if the Windows XP CD could recognize USB hard disks, and I didn't want to complicate my first post, so I just suggested trying it out - In other words, I half-expected it to fail.
Very sorry about this. I should have brought it up earlier instead of wasting your time.
Could you please do the following instead:
1. Take out the hard drives from the USB enclosures.
2. Plug the hard drives into motherboard's IDE ports.
(Are you aware of how Master/Slave for IDE drives works? If not, see < here >)
3. Boot from the Windows XP CD and run `chkdsk` on all the drives.
* I realize this is very troublesome, but I think it's the proper way to solve the problem. Also, very sorry for not telling you about the USB thing.
EDIT: Are you on a laptop and not a desktop? If so, I will see if there is some way `chkdsk` can work with USB drives.
Posted by stupid_idiot on July 16 2007,11:23
Yes, I believe it may be possible to run `chkdsk` on a USB drive.I have only followed the information stated in the `chkdsk` manual, < here > (www.microsoft.com).
Do try the following (from Windows XP, not the XP CD):
`chkdsk drive_letter /r /x`
The `chkdsk` manual warns that this may take a long time.
Quote:
"If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes) or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over several days) to complete. The computer is not available during this time because chkdsk does not relinquish control until it is finished."
I think this is likely the worst-case scenario, but I am not sure. It sounds like a good warning for people using 80GB drives with a Pentium II. It should be much faster on modern systems, but should still take a pretty long time. The real killer is the 'bad block checking' feature. Checking for bad blocks on an ext3 filesystem in Linux takes very, very long as well.
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 16 2007,18:00
I went to Microsoft and found that I was doing it wrong.It should be "chkdsk E /f ".
I got this " Unable to determine volume version and state local disk E".
I am using a laptop... but that should be ok as chkdsk does work with usb drives[ as luck would have it... someone threw out a tower without hard drive and cd player. It even has ram and a card reader I have not tried it yet but will when I get time.XXXX no worky]. Oh well.
I found three different ways to get chkdsk to work. All with the same results as above. I have not tried the /p or /r command yet. I figure it would say the same thing.
Now that I have done a clean install my laptop sees the external drive but when I click on it it says it needs to be formated.
That is where I am at now. I have been Googling with nothing found that will help yet.
Thanks, Ron
Posted by jpeters on July 17 2007,06:55
| Quote (lucky13 @ July 13 2007,07:56) |
| There's no problem reading NTFS with Linux. Linux has been able to read NTFS since kernel 2.2. NTFS is a standard. There are no changes in NTFS between Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista; just as there are no changes in ext2 between Linux kernel versions. |
True; I have no problem accessing XP files (mp3's, pdf's, docs, etc) using DSL. I'm not sure why I had to format to ext3 to begin with. Will DSL install to NTFS, or do you need 83 Linux ID?
EDIT: oops...guess it's a read-only system.....
Posted by CAPTAIN RON N FL on July 18 2007,23:10
Well no luck so far.I guess the emachine board is bad. I have two other emachine boards that are the same way. I guess they must have gotten a batch of boards that were bad.
Thanks, Ron