drive won't mount ...sometimes

[hexagondun]

From time to time I have issues with ubuntu recognizing my hard drive and removable media. Something to do with my having the drives formatted in ntfs. Like I said, it has worked before- It recognized the drive that ubuntu is installed on and it has recognized my flash drive and sdhc card as well, all of which are formatted in ntfs. Any ideas as to how I could fix this issue once and for all? Thanks a lot for reading!

[HotShotDJ]

From time to time I have issues with ubuntu recognizing my hard drive and removable media. Something to do with my having the drives formatted in ntfs. Like I said, it has worked before- It recognized the drive that ubuntu is installed on and it has recognized my flash drive and sdhc card as well, all of which are formatted in ntfs. Any ideas as to how I could fix this issue once and for all? Thanks a lot for reading!

Open up Applications --> Add/Remove... and install the NTFS Configuration Tool. After it is installed, you will find it in Applications --> System Tools. It is very simple and should be self-explanatory. Let us know if that gets things fixed up for you.

[Michael.Godawski]

hi,

first please post the output of these terminal commands, so we get a picture of your drives:

sudo fdisk -l
df -h
cat /etc/fstab

For ntfs you need additional tools like ntfs-3g to mount them.
nfts-progs and nfts-config are also useful.

[WitchCraft]

mkdir /media/windows
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hdXY /media/windows -o force

for example hda1 and hda2:

gedit /etc/fstab

/dev/hda1       /media/XP       ntfs-3g errors=remount-ro 0       0
/dev/hda2       /media/Vista    ntfs-3g errors=remount-ro 0       0

[hexagondun]

The first suggestion failed, it says I don't have sufficient priveledges to mount. here's the output in terminal for sudo fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa3077377

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 192 1536000 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 192 19458 154753024 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5d379805

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 18701 150215751 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 18702 19457 6072570 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 18702 19457 6072538+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 8195 MB, 8195670016 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 250112 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1

df -h output is as follows:


Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1 143G 23G 113G 17% /
varrun 1013M 104K 1013M 1% /var/run
varlock 1013M 0 1013M 0% /var/lock
udev 1013M 64K 1013M 1% /dev
devshm 1013M 24K 1013M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1013M 39M 975M 4% /lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/volatile
gvfs-fuse-daemon 143G 23G 113G 17% /home/alex/.gvfs
/dev/scd0 2.5G 2.5G 0 100% /media/cdrom0
alex@Lappy386:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1 143G 23G 113G 17% /
varrun 1013M 104K 1013M 1% /var/run
varlock 1013M 0 1013M 0% /var/lock
udev 1013M 64K 1013M 1% /dev
devshm 1013M 24K 1013M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1013M 39M 975M 4% /lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/volatile
gvfs-fuse-daemon 143G 23G 113G 17% /home/alex/.gvfs
/dev/scd0 2.5G 2.5G 0 100% /media/cdrom0


and as for cat /etc/fstab:


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# -- This file has been automaticly generated by ntfs-config --
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=a7ea2283-c930-4ae8-a571-d765c81a8625 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# Entry for /dev/sdb5 :
UUID=267b7fc7-eb52-4ef0-a21e-32326c2af3d7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/sda2 /media/SQ004442V05 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/TOSHIBA\040SYSTEM\040VOLUME ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0


thanks so much everyone!

[hexagondun]

mkdir /media/windows
mkdir: cannot create directory `/media/windows': Permission denied
alex@Lappy386:~$ mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hdXY /media/windows -o force
mount: only root can do that


that's what I get when I copy mkdir /media/windows
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hdXY /media/windows -o force into terminal


sorry for being such a noob

[HotShotDJ]

Have you tried to use NTFS Configuration Tool yet? While it is possible that it may not be the solution, it is also possible that it will get things fixed up for you without the more complex things that you are trying now. Start simple and then move to the more complex. In the long run, it will make your life easier.

[Arylon]

I had a similar problem recently. My internal NTFS HD had been working fine, but would occasionally refuse to mount. The fix was to use my Windows install CD, and go to the recovery console.

chkdsk /r

That will force chkdsk to do a full scan of the disk and repair any problems it finds. if you don't use the /r, then it might report that "the disk appears to be fine" without really checking it.

[bschultzjames]

I am also having a similar problem. Linux sees my internal NTFS windows partition, but it cannot see my myBook 1TB NTFS-formatted external hard drive.


I tried the NTFS configuration tool, and I still get the same error message stating that Ubuntu can't mount the drive.


Any thoughts? [I am a noob in training ]

[HotShotDJ]

I tried the NTFS configuration tool, and I still get the same error message stating that Ubuntu can't mount the drive.

In that case, I believe Arylon's solution may fix it up for you. When NTFS formated USB drives are not "Safely Removed" in Windows, they sometimes are rendered unmountable in Linux. chkdsk /r should correct this.