Unable to mount external hard disk partition G

[raghu.ndp]

Hi everyone
My external hard disk partition G seems to be corrupted and unreadable. I am getting below error when I try to open the partition G. Please see I am able to open other partition F from the same hard disk.
"Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 32: mount wrong fs type, bad option , bad superblock on

/dev/sdb1/,missing code page or helper program or other error in somecases useful info is found in syslog - try dmsesg |

tail or so".

Thanks in advance,
Raghu.

[Impavidus]

As you call the partitions F and G, I assume they are Windows partitions. You may need to use Windows to check and repair them

[Mark Phelps]

Linux does not use drive letters, so to better show us the problem, please connect the external drive, open a terminal, and enter "sudo fdisk -lu" (Lowercase L, not a one). That will list out the size and type of partitions. Please post that information.

[raghu.ndp]

Hi Mark
I connected external drive and entered ""sudo fdisk -lu" as you suggested. Please find the output of the command as below:

raghu@raghu-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
[sudo] password for raghu:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9c4749fe

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 31784959 15891456 27 Unknown
/dev/sda2 * 31784960 32501759 358400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 32501760 429757303 198627772 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 429770941 976771071 273500065+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 529975296 741169151 105596928 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 741171200 976771071 117799936 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 429770943 525775319 48002188+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 525775383 529968284 2096451 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107861504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773167 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa4b57300

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 763776127 381888032+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 763777024 976769023 106496000 7 HPFS/NTFS
raghu@raghu-laptop:~$

[raghu.ndp]

Hi guys,
Please help mounting my external hard disk partition. I'm still facing the issue with it.

[Coltman151]

I'd say the one you're having problems with is the /dev/sda4. I don't think a w95 ext'd partition is compatible with linux. If you have a windows installation to view it with, copy the files out of it, and reformat it to a more linux friendly filesystem

[Impavidus]

No, sda4 is just a standard container for logical partitions. Has been standard stuff for 30 years. It's on the internal drive anyway.

The problem is with sdb1 (or sdb2, maybe). Have you tried opening it on Windows? It's a Windows partition after all. Maybe Windows can check and repair the file system on sdb1, which may be called F or G or whatever on Windows.

[arpanaut]

Sounds like to me that the external was not properly unmounted, or disconnected while still mounted.
Linux will not work with win. partitions in that condition.
You will need to mount the drive while in windows, or do disc repair from windows.
Then properly unmount in win. then Linux will be able to read and write.

[raghu.ndp]

I tried all the ways like disc repair, scan etc from windows and nothing worked. So I would like to to open the partition in linux if possible.

[varunendra]

Install testdisk (make sure you are connected to internet) -

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install testdisk

Then open it with -

sudo testdisk

..and follow this TestDisk Step-By-Step guide to do a normal/deeper search on your drive in question. After the search (quick or deeper, as required), can you list your partitions and files in it with the "P" key as suggested in the guide? If yes, you can proceed to writing the partition table structure to the partition table.

If even testdisk can't list the partitions and the files in it, I doubt the partition is recoverable anymore.