Maxtor Basics

[decay85]

My father recently bought a Maxtor Basics external desktop hard drive for me, and put some files into it on his computer (which runs windows xp).

When I got home I plugged it into my computer, and the hard disk popped up, but I'm unable to write any files to in in Unbuntu. It works in Windows, tho.

This guy here seemed to have the same problem as me (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1097784&highlight=maxtor), so I followed the instructions he was given, and here's what I've got (sorry, but I'm a total noob with this stuff, it doesn't mean anything to me):


sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80032038912 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9730 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9543 76654116 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9544 9730 1502077+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9544 9730 1502046 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 121601 976760001 7 HPFS/NTFS


df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 72G 66G 3,3G 96% /
varrun 252M 80K 252M 1% /var/run
varlock 252M 0 252M 0% /var/lock
procbususb 10M 120K 9,9M 2% /proc/bus/usb
udev 10M 120K 9,9M 2% /dev
devshm 252M 0 252M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 252M 18M 235M 7% /lib/modules/2.6.17-12-generic/volatile
/dev/sdb1 932G 37G 896G 4% /media/usbdisk


It didn't seem like that guy got a final reply...



Remember, I have very little knowledge about this, so try not to get too technical with me. Any help would be most appreciated!!

[mikedep333]

What version of Ubuntu are you running? Write support for ntfs (the Microsoft Windows standard partition/filesystem (way of organizing data on a drive)) (like you have on that drive) has only been added somewhat recently.

Also, you might want to check the disk for errors on his Windows computer. I believe you can do that by right clicking on the drive/volume/partition under windows and going to properites or something.

[decay85]

I think it's 6 something. I'm trying to take a back-up of my files before I update my system, so that I don't lose anything. But since I'm unable to write to this disk, I'm not sure what to do.

[drs305]

The drive is formatted to NTFS (windows format). The easiest thing to set it up is to run ntfs-config, a program that will allow it to boot on startup.

Install the application. Open a terminal (ALT-F2 or Applications, Accessories, Terminal):
sudo apt-get install ntfs-config
Run ntfs-config: System Tools, NTFS Configuration Tool, or:
gksudo ntfs-config

Select the partition and "Apply". On the right side, type in a mount point between the < >. Whatever you enter will be placed in the /media folder. So if you type mydata, the partition will be mounted on /media/mydata. Apply, then choose internal/external.

You can then run the following to mount it:

sudo mount -a


That's it, and from now on it should be mounted when you boot if it is plugged in. If it's not plugged in at start, plug it in and run the above command if it doesn't automatically mount.

[mikedep333]

This page explains everything.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions/ThirdPartyNTFS3G

Note that if you have Ubuntu 6.06, you need to go out of your way with the instructions there.

If you have Ubuntu 6.10, there have been no more security updates for a year now. I would strongly advise you to upgrade by doing a full reinstall.

The other alternative is to have your father backup all the files on the external drive, and reformat it with FAT32. Windows XP purposely does not let you format large drives with FAT32, so you'll have to format it with FAT32 from Ubuntu Linux. There are instructions for doing this with GPARTED here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingANewHardDrive

[decay85]

I found out I'm running Unbuntu 6.10.

I get all the way to installing ntfs-3g, but when I try to install ntfs-config, I get this message:

ntfs-config:
Dependent on: libdbus-1-2 (>=0.60) but it is not installable

But from what I can see, I've already got it installed:
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2184/skjermdump5.png

Also, my computer can't seem to find the packages for libdbus-1-dev, libdbus-glib-1-dev & libdbus-qt-1-dev....

[drs305]

If you do have ntfs-3g installed, you can do what ntfs-config does manually.

Make a mount point. Name it what you want, but use the name throughout this post.
sudo mkdir /media/yourmountpoint

Back up fstab and open for editing:

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab &


Add this entry:

/dev/sdb1 /media/yourmountpoint ntfs-3g auto,users,uid=1000,utf8,umask=027 0 0

This will make you the owner of the partition when it mounts and you will be able to r/w to it.

I would recommend you use the UUID designation instead of "sdb1". Usually UUIDs won't change, the "sdb1" designation could.
To accomplish that, run this:

sudo blkid | grep "/dev/sdb1"

That will give you the UUID of your sdb1 partition.
Take that code and in fstab replace "/dev/sdb1" with:

UUID=XXXXX-XXXX-XXXX

so the end result looks something like:
UUID=7299e8f1-7caf-4cc3-8a54-cbcba80930 /media/yourmountpoint ntfs-3g auto,users,uid=1000,utf8,umask=027 0 0

[mikedep333]

Decay85:

Did you attempt to install the Ubuntu 6.06 packages for NTFS-3G and NTFS-config under 6.10? If so, that is your problem.

[decay85]

It still didn't solve my problem. Thanks a lot for your help, tho. I'll just try to get hold of another external hard disk some time soon, take a backup, and simply install the most recent version of ubuntu. This has simply been too much hassle.


EDIT:
Decay85:

Did you attempt to install the Ubuntu 6.06 packages for NTFS-3G and NTFS-config under 6.10? If so, that is your problem.
I don't think so, I tried installing it using both the regular package handler and synaptic.