[ubuntu] Noob in trouble - NTFS , ALSA

[ashwat]

Hi all,

My first post at the ubuntu forums. I shall describe in detail my baby steps with ubuntu. I made a clean swipe of the Windows7 HDD on my Vostro 1400 and installed Ubuntu 8.10. After some searching through forums, got the sound to work and installed Nvidia drivers as well. The trouble started when I tried to connect my NTFS formatted FreeAgent Drive. It gave the following error :

Unable to mount FreeAgent Drive $LogFile indicates unclean shutdown ( 0,0) Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Operation not supported Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. Choose one action : Choice 1: If you have Windows then disconnect the external devices by clicking on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the Windows taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly. Choice 2 : If you don't have Windows then you can use the 'force' option for your own responsibility. For example type on the command line : mount -t ntfs-3g /dec/sdb1 /media/FreeAgent Drive -o force Or add the option to the relevant row in the etc/fstab file : /dev/sdb1 /media/FreeAgent Drive ntfs-3g force 0 0.

Recurring Error

DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

Since I had no Windows, I tried to enter the command. I hadn't yet discovered then that sudo was required to run such commands. So I searched for unclean shutdown errors in the forum, only to stumble on this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=971896&page=2

I did as was described, only to find sound not working any more. I have since, undid the change to the alsa-utils but the problem persists. So right now I am without sound.

Getting back to the Free Agent Drive, I entered the command in the terminal, with sudo prefix, only to see a description of the mount command. Using gedit, I trie to edit the fstab file in the following manner :

/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0 /dev/sdb1 /media/FreeAgent Drive, ntfs-3g force 0 0

The error generated was

Unable to mount the volume 'FreeAgent Drive' Details : [mntent]: line 10 in /etc/fstab is bad mount: can't find /media/FreeAgent in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

When I removed the space between Agent and Drive, the error was

You are not privileged to mount the volume 'FreeAgent Drive'

Point is that the Recurring Error is one thing that pops up at every attempt to access the FreeAgent Drive from the places menu.

Now people shoot away and help this first timer.

[utnubuuser]

Hmmm.... Maybe Alt+F2 >>>then>> gksu >>then>> nautilus >>then try to access the hdd

Through gksu you enter nautilus with root user priviledge.

[doctordruidphd]

To use the mount command, I'm pretty sure you need to sudo:

sudo mount -t /dev/sdb1 /media/FreeAgentDrive

I use the following line in fstab for ntfs drives:

/dev/sdc1 /media/SDC1 ntfs rw,user,umask=000 0 0

In spite of that, I don't think writing to ntfs drives is supported. If you want to read and write files, you will need to copy the stuff from the ntfs partitions to a FAT32 (vfat, as fstab calls it) partition, or an ext partition -- since you no longer have windows, probably no need to keep the stuff on ntfs or vfat.

Not quite sure what the sound problem is, though. Check the mixer and see if somehow 'mute' got checked, or some app turned the volume down (I've had that happen).

[ashwat]

Originally Posted by utnubuuser Hmmm.... Maybe Alt+F2 >>>then>> gksu >>then>> nautilus >>then try to access the hdd Through gksu you enter nautilus with root user priviledge.

It gives the same error as defined by the stab file edits that i have made.

[ashwat]

Originally Posted by doctordruidphd To use the mount command, I'm pretty sure you need to sudo: sudo mount -t /dev/sdb1 /media/FreeAgentDrive I use the following line in fstab for ntfs drives: /dev/sdc1 /media/SDC1 ntfs rw,user,umask=000 0 0 In spite of that, I don't think writing to ntfs drives is supported. If you want to read and write files, you will need to copy the stuff from the ntfs partitions to a FAT32 (vfat, as fstab calls it) partition, or an ext partition -- since you no longer have windows, probably no need to keep the stuff on ntfs or vfat. Not quite sure what the sound problem is, though. Check the mixer and see if somehow 'mute' got checked, or some app turned the volume down (I've had that happen).

Using sudo in command prompt gives me details about how to use mount command.

Using sdc edit in fstab, gave the following error msg:

ntfs-3g: Failed to access volume '/dev/sdc1': No such file or directory Please type '/sbin/mount.ntfs --help' for more information

The sounds back up again miraculously enough with no changes from my side.

I am willing to convert my NTFS drive to ext even, but just want to keep my music. Any help on doing this would be greatly appreciated.

I am someone who has delayed the shift to Open/FSF movement perennially up until now so I dont want to lose faith so easily and go back to Windoze. Atleast not before I give this learning curve a good fight.

[HittingSmoke]

In spite of that, I don't think writing to ntfs drives is supported. If you want to read and write files, you will need to copy the stuff from the ntfs partitions to a FAT32 (vfat, as fstab calls it) partition, or an ext partition -- since you no longer have windows, probably no need to keep the stuff on ntfs or vfat.

When I still had an NTFS drive running with my media after converting from Windows I had full read/write access without any additional packages so I think you are mistaken here.

The sounds back up again miraculously enough with no changes from my side. I am willing to convert my NTFS drive to ext even, but just want to keep my music. Any help on doing this would be greatly appreciated. I am someone who has delayed the shift to Open/FSF movement perennially up until now so I dont want to lose faith so easily and go back to Windoze. Atleast not before I give this learning curve a good fight.

What I did here was sort of complicated, but worked. I moved as much off my NTFS drive as possible to a folder on my Ext3 drive then used a Gparted Live CD to shrink the NTFS volume as much as possible and repartition the newly freed space to Ext3.

I then copied all the files in the backup folder from the first transfer from the NTFS drive back to the newly created Ext3 partition. I did this again, copying as many files as possible to the original Ubuntu Ext3 drive from the NTFS volume then booting to Gparted and shrinking the NTFS volume once again and expanding the new Ext3 using the new free space.

You can do this as many times as needed to free up the space. Of course, the more space you have free on your Ubuntu install drive the faster and easier it will go.

I've tried to explain this best I can. I know it works because I've done it but it can be tricky and you've got to be very careful working with partitions that you want to preserve data from.

[ashwat]

I suppose I can do what you have described in detail, once I am able to mount the NTFS disk in the first place and access the data.

[HittingSmoke]

Originally Posted by ashwat I suppose I can do what you have described in detail, once I am able to mount the NTFS disk in the first place and access the data.

The error you're explaining happens when Windows isn't shut down properly. The problem here being, even when you shut down Windows "properly" it doesn't always, by definition, shut down "properly". Every time I've had this problem I've either just booted the drive and tried to shut down again or used the force command.

Is it possible to connect this HDD to a friend's computer who's running Windows and back up your data onto a portable drive? Or maybe get a windows PC set up temporarily just to get your data off the drive?

[talsemgeest]

Can you please post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

[ashwat]

Can you please post the output of Code: sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xe8000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13995 112414806 83 Linux /dev/sda2 13996 14593 4803435 5 Extended /dev/sda5 13996 14593 4803403+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I have still not been able to mount the disk inspite of following all the advice been given here. I hope I am doing everything right?