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Thread: Where are my drive partitions?

  1. #1
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    Where are my drive partitions?

    A couple months ago I updated my desktop OS from Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10. The upgrade went smoothly, but I lost access to my drive partitions. There are no icons for them on the desktop, in the launcher, or in Nautilus. USB thumb drives, CD's and DVD's also no longer show on the desktop when inserted. And they don't appear in the launcher, or Nautilus either. So I posted here, seeking help. Basically, I was told I must've done something wrong with the upgrade. I was told to edit FSTAB, or reinstall from scratch.

    I tried editing FSTAB. I gained read only access to my windows and data partitions, but not any removable drives or optical media. I even upgraded to 12.10, hoping that would solve the problems, but it didn't. I've been deferring doing a full reinstall, hoping for a solution that is not so drastic, and because I doubt it will solve the problems. The computer is not much use to me as is.

    Meanwhile I have been using my old laptop (also Ubuntu 11.04). Everything was working fine. I had access to all my partitions and removable media. But I was getting annoyed by the popup messages saying that I would not get any more security updates. So finally, after putting up with this for over a month, I decided to the update my laptop to 11.10. As on my desktop, the installation went smoothly. Now this is totally different hardware, yet I got the same results.

    It seems to me that this is behaviour BY DESIGN. The 11.10 upgrade removed my access to drive partitions and removable media. So what is necessary to restore it?
    Last edited by Engineeringtech; December 15th, 2012 at 03:51 PM.

  2. #2
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    is your install a real one or a virual one ? (wubi/virtualbox/...)

    http://www.google.fr/#hl=fr&gs_nf=3&...5&bih=909&bs=1

  3. #3
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    I do not know what you mean by lost partitions.

    Or is it the new Unity which does not show icons on desktop. But you should see them in the left panel of Nautilus or in Unity's left panel.

    I do not really know Unity as I use fallback.

    Unity info
    http://unity.ubuntu.com/about/
    http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/04/h...-ubuntu-unity/
    http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4795...guide-to-unity
    http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/04/1...-ubuntu-12-04/

    examples for 11.10 & 12.04
    http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/classicgnome

    # for gnome2 prior to 12.04
    sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback
    # this is same as fallback but based on gnome3 for 12.04 or later
    sudo apt-get install gnome-panel
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  4. #4
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    I wouldn't say it's by design because on my computer both in 11.10 and 12.04 the usb drives show as icon in Unity.

    I do clean installs, not upgrades, but if it's by design it wouldn't auto mount usb drives even in a clean install.

    I don't know how exactly to help you with troubleshooting but it's not by design. Maybe something went wrong during both upgrades.
    Darko.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit

  5. #5
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    I never said anything in my post about a virtual installation. My machines have been triple boot (DOS, Windows and Ubuntu) since I first set them up. Grub (or is it Grub2 now?) handles booting the Os's. DOS, Windows, and Ubuntu all boot fine on both machines. Windows didn't have any problem identifying and mounting my data partitions, thumbdrives and inserted optical media.

    As I also already said in my post, the drive partitions no longer appear on the desktop, in the launcher, OR in Nautilus. Nor do thumb drives or optical media mount in any of those locations when they are inserted. That is what I mean by " lost". I don't have access to them! What else would I mean by "lost"?

    Now I also don't know why anyone would say I should not expect them to be available/ mounted. If the partitions were available in 11.04, and all previous versions I have used, going back to 9.04, wouldn't they still be available under 11.10? All I had to do was go up to the "Places" menu to find them. As I selected them, they appeared (mounted?) on the desktop.

    I find it hard to believe my upgrades of two completely pieces of hardware could have both gone wrong in the same exact way. It's too easy to just say, "start over", or "to a fresh install".
    Last edited by Engineeringtech; December 15th, 2012 at 09:39 PM.

  6. #6
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    Just in case, can you post the output of:
    Code:
    sudo parted -l
    Also, to make sure any usb drive is recognized at all, you can run the parted command before and after you plug it in. That would be one test to see if the usb ports are working correctly under ubuntu.

    Even if the usb ports are not working, that would not explain why partitions on the internal diks don't appear in Nautilus under Devices. Can you post a screenshot of Nautilus?
    Darko.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit

  7. #7
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    [QUOTE=darkod;12406410]Just in case, can you post the output of:
    Code:
    sudo parted -l
    Also, to make sure any usb drive is recognized at all, you can run the parted command before and after you plug it in. That would be one test to see if the usb ports are working correctly under ubuntu.

    Even if the usb ports are not working, that would not explain why partitions on the internal diks don't appear in Nautilus under Devices. Can you post a screenshot of Nautilus?[/QUOTE

    Took what seemed like FOREVER to get a response from "sudo parted -l"

    I couldn't figure out how to insert screenshot here. So I attached the files:
    Attached Images Attached Images

  8. #8
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    Does that partition list look correct to you? You have one fat16 and few fat32 partitions. You said you have dos, windows and ubuntu.

    It's very rare not to have any ntfs partition. Even the now ancient XP was running on ntfs instead of fat32.

    Do you really have your disk layout as it showed it, or it suffered some corruption maybe?

    Waiting a long time to display the parted results usually means either a corruption or a failing hdd. Unfortunately I can't offer any evidence for that, just a huntch. I have a couple of failed hdds that initially show as normal, but as soon as you try anything, like printing the partitions list with parted, it never finishes. It just gets blocked.

    As you can notice comparing the screenshots, after connecting a usb drive it didn't show at all. It doesn't even recognize it.
    Darko.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit

  9. #9
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    Does gparted show partitions and do any have little yellow or red icons. If you click on icon it may tell what issue is. But it probably means you need to run chkdsk from Windows on those partitions.
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  10. #10
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    Re: Where are my drive partitions?

    Quote Originally Posted by darkod View Post
    Does that partition list look correct to you? You have one fat16 and few fat32 partitions. You said you have dos, windows and ubuntu.

    It's very rare not to have any ntfs partition. Even the now ancient XP was running on ntfs instead of fat32.

    Do you really have your disk layout as it showed it, or it suffered some corruption maybe?

    Waiting a long time to display the parted results usually means either a corruption or a failing hdd. Unfortunately I can't offer any evidence for that, just a huntch. I have a couple of failed hdds that initially show as normal, but as soon as you try anything, like printing the partitions list with parted, it never finishes. It just gets blocked.

    As you can notice comparing the screenshots, after connecting a usb drive it didn't show at all. It doesn't even recognize it.
    This is my laptop's partition map. My desktop partition map is near identical excepting it is a 500 MB drive instead of 80 MB. There is nothing unusual about using FAT32 for Windows. NTFS may be the default file system selected by the Windows installer, and supposedly more secure than FAT32, but FAT32 is a valid option, and generally acknowledged to be much faster than NTFS. That is why I have used it on numerous systems. However I am using NTFS on my desktop for both the Windows boot drive, and the Data partition, and the desktop suffers from the same exact problem (can't access the partitions, thumb drives, and optical media from Ubuntu).

    Incidentally, this partition map is the same partition map I've used on both laptop, and deskstop, for 6 years and 3 years respectively. I do some engineering work in DOS and have a CAD program which only runs under Windows. I didn't have any problem doing a GPARTED scan of my drives before the Ubuntu upgrade. And I haven't had any indications of pending hard drive failure on either machine. This is the 3rd hard drive I have had in my laptop. I've had two hard drives in the desktop. If I even see the slightest indication of file corruption I go looking for a replacement.

    Anyway, I am doubting this has anything to do with the problem, because my optical media and USB drives don't show up in the launcher, desktop, or Nautilus either. Optical media and USB drives always appeared on the desktops BEFORE I upgraded both machines to 11.10. I know they are functioning properly, because I can pop a DVD movie in one of the opticals on the desktop, open VLC player, and tell it to run the movie on /dev/dvd1. That works just fine. So the drives and partitions are there, it's just that Ubuntu is hiding them from me.
    Last edited by Engineeringtech; December 16th, 2012 at 01:59 AM.

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