My FAT32 Partition does not mount in ubuntu. Help needed!

[Alibix]

So I had an accident with my windows installation on my net book while I was traveling, and the only backup I had was a usb stick with ubuntu on it.

So I installed Ubuntu, finally got everything up to date, and then sat down to handle my real problem, accessing my Fat32 internal HDD partition. I have read through a bunch off off tutorials on how to do it, and I`m at a loss now. I can not install Windows again, as windows will not recognize the hdd and will not install unless I Format my whole HDD, including all off my photos.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3824 30716248+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 3825 19456 125564008+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda5 1 2711 21776044+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 2712 2833 979933+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 2834 2955 979933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 2956 3824 6980211 83 Linux
aleksander@aleksander-laptop:~$ sudo mount -t vfat -o defaults,user,exec,uid=1000,gid=100,umask=000 /dev/sda3 /media/fat_partition
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

Using the df -h command :
aleksander@aleksander-laptop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 21G 3.2G 17G 17% /
tmpfs 497M 0 497M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 497M 104K 497M 1% /var/run
varlock 497M 0 497M 0% /var/lock
udev 497M 168K 497M 1% /dev
tmpfs 497M 384K 496M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 497M 2.2M 495M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-18-generic/volatile
/dev/sda7 942M 56M 839M 7% /boot
/dev/sda8 6.6G 4.6G 1.7G 74% /home


For some reason I can`t seem to mount my partition, or Ubuntu can`t read it, I remember something in the installation about enabling the partition, I unchecked this option, but I am unsure if that has anything to do with it.
I got all my photos and documents on the partition I am trying to access, so I can not format it. My goal is to save my files somehow, Format the partition and keep Ubuntu because although I am still a rookie I like it. :D

So in short, I know my files are there, I just can`t read them or mount the partition.
Any suggestions?

Thanks for all the help in advance,
Cheers,
Aleksander.

[Mustard]

Which version of Ubuntu are you using atm?

[Alibix]

I installed 9.4, but I just did a full update, so right now I would guess 9.10 or the newest version available.

[Kyugetsuki]

Please specify your ubuntu version, 'flavor' and hardware, if possible.

[jken146]

What happens when you use mount without all the options?

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media/foo

[Alibix]

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media/fat_partition
mount: you must specify the filesystem type.
Would this suggest that the file system is corrupt?
I don`t really know what "flavor" of Ubuntu I have sorry.

[jken146]

Alright. How about
sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media/fat_partition -t vfat?

[Girya]

try sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda3 /media/fat_partition

[Alibix]

aleksander@aleksander-laptop:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media/fat_partition -t vfat
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

And the other one :

aleksander@aleksander-laptop:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda3 /media/fat_partition
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

[jken146]

Looks like there might be something wrong with the FAT filesystem on the partition. You could run
sudo fsck.vfat /dev/sda3 to find and fix problems.

[Alibix]

I ran the code, and what came up was :
aleksander@aleksander-laptop:~$ sudo fsck.vfat /dev/sda3
dosfsck 3.0.1, 23 Nov 2008, FAT32, LFN
Logical sector size is zero.
Does that mean the Partition is broken?

[Alibix]

Bump, thanks for all the help so far, but I still haven`t found the solution to my problems.

[mikechant]

Assuming your partition is corrupt (and as it's not recoverable by fsck) you might want to look into 'testdisk' (search this forum for refs). I haven't used it myself but lots of people recommend it for data recovery.

[mikechant]

Also you might want to look at this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-179057.html
If you read through to the end it does have a (rather tricky) method using dd in Linux which might fix your partition. Or you could try mounting the disc in a USB enclosure and plugging into someone else's windows box and following the microsoft instructions referenced in the same thread.

[mikechant]

Here's another link about copying sector zero from sector 6 to fix the "Logical sector size is 0" error. This one looks a bit better explained.
http://www.mycomputingart.com/hardware/z24.recover-sector-problem.html