Invisible files on sd card

[t0p]

I'm running ubuntu on an Eeepc. I keep a 4GB sd card in the Eeepc. Up til now it's been okay. But now, the netbook doesn't want to boot if the sd card is plugged into it. If I put the card in its slot, it will automount... but it's "blank", if I go to Places I can see there are no files on the card. They have vanished!

I know the files haven't really vanished. They are still on the card - nautilus says there's 1 GB of empty space on the card, which means the card has shrunk; it should have 4GB of space. So, there are 3GB of files on the sd card, but the Eeepc can't see them. How can I make them visible again? (Please note, View > Show hidden files does not make them visible. These files are not regular hidden files).

Anyone know how I can get the files to show themselves?

[kartoshka]

Could be the filesystem is corrupt. Try running:

fsck device

to repair it.

[gutsy08]

Do the files show up if you open a terminal window and do a "ls -la" in that directory?

[sarah.fauzia]

Do the files show up if you open a terminal window and do a "ls -la" in that directory?

I am having the exact same problem (I also have Vista on this machine; I installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 with Wubi on my Lenovo X61T), and running ls -la showed all of my files. But if I go to the disk with Nautilus, it appears empty (but isn't in Vista). I would appreciate the help--thanks!

Note: When I originally installed Ubuntu with Wubi (only last night) I could read my files and write to the directories...but if I tried to delete a file, then my files would seem to disappear, but then would come back again. It was only after I unmounted my SD card with Ubuntu that it refused to work at all. I tried unmounting it with Vista and re-mounting with Ubuntu but that didn't work...

[sarah.fauzia]

Could be the filesystem is corrupt. Try running:

fsck device

to repair it.

fsck /media/disk
fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
fsck.ext2: Is a directory while trying to open /media/disk

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

I tried that... did I not correctly enter the directory? I tried cd /media, then the command, and it tells me:

/media$ fsck disk
fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Usage: fsck.ext3 [-panyrcdfvstDFSV] [-b superblock] [-B blocksize]
		[-I inode_buffer_blocks] [-P process_inode_size]
		[-l|-L bad_blocks_file] [-C fd] [-j external_journal]
		[-E extended-options] device

Emergency help:
 -p                   Automatic repair (no questions)
 -n                   Make no changes to the filesystem
 -y                   Assume "yes" to all questions
 -c                   Check for bad blocks and add them to the badblock list
 -f                   Force checking even if filesystem is marked clean
 -v                   Be verbose
 -b superblock        Use alternative superblock
 -B blocksize         Force blocksize when looking for superblock
 -j external_journal  Set location of the external journal
 -l bad_blocks_file   Add to badblocks list
 -L bad_blocks_file   Set badblocks list

I'm still not sure if it is reading the right disk, and I'm not quite sure of which option to pick... Again, thank you for offering your help! Unlike the original poster, however, I can boot with the SD card in the internal slot, I just have the problem I specified in my previous post.

[Orange_and_Green]

Hello

[EDIT]Sarmacid is right... Thank you for pointing out my mistake

Please unmount the sd card first by typing

sudo umount /media/disk

then run the fsck utility as superuser:

sudo fsck /dev/DEVICE_NAME

Where DEVICE_NAME is something like sdb1. Like Sarmacid said, the mount command will tell you (run it before you unmount)

Good luck

[Sarmacid]

fsck /media/disk
fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
fsck.ext2: Is a directory while trying to open /media/disk

/media/disk is not the device, it's the location where the device is mounted. To find out the device, run

sudo mount

and you should see the device mounted in that directory. It should say something like /dev/sdb1

[sarah.fauzia]

Oh dear, the folder I had tried to write to on my SD card in Ubuntu became entirely corrupted. I lost some valuable data--not too much, since I keep backups... Any clue about that? I couldn't even delete the folder until I let Windows clean it up.

[sarah.fauzia]

Now to add to the mysterious--I can see the files on my SD card now, after having done the cleanup in Windows. I'm just very worried about trying to save files to it again, after the initial disaster, but I'll give it a shot.

[sarah.fauzia]

/media/disk is not the device, it's the location where the device is mounted. To find out the device, run

sudo mount

and you should see the device mounted in that directory. It should say something like /dev/sdb1

Thanks, I did what you said to find the location and ran fsck:

fsck /dev/mmcblk0p1
fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
/dev/mmcblk0p1: 1401 files, 53485/490192 clusters

Did that just read my files, or did it fix anything? Again, I really appreciate the help, and I do hope the original poster finds a solution to this problem, too.