can't access external usb drive!

[myxal]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

Nope, not yet I've only just finished my dinner (it's just after 1:30pm here in the UK). As soon as I've finished this cup of tea I will give it a whirl, again, thank you

mmm, a cup of tea.. maybe I'll go get one myself btw, I'm in CET time zone, so it's only 1 hour later than in UK

[dibl]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

OK, from the land where we're on our second cup of morning coffee ....

Here's my two cents' worth, since this topic does seem to be so troublesome for new folks:

1. Unicorn Rider's advice is sound -- what you need to do is mount the thing by its /dev/disk/by-id/number, so it doesn't change when you plug in your thumb drive or something.

2. ntfs-3g, with the user added to the fuse group, basically works, but ntfs-config is untrustworthy, IMHO, and messes with your permissions in unpredictable ways.

3. KMenu>System Settings>Advanced>Disks & Filesystems is more a hindrance than a help, unfortunately. What has happened to me (OK, yeah, recently!) is, I had it correctly and repeatably mounted in fstab by its /dev/disk/by-id/UUID number, and then I opened the Disks & Filesystems utility and looked at it, and it showed it not mounted or enabled. I fell victim to the GUI temptation to twiddle it, and all it did was add a WRONG entry at the end of fstab, and screwed it up for me. So, for the moment, just leave Disks & Filesystems closed, for your own peace of mind, and go with your

hwinfo

and

fdisk

and

mount

outputs for reliable information.

[kevanf1]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

Ok, I popped this onto the Windows PC and made sure it was 'safely removed' before doing anything else.

I then deleted everything from the fstab file and also removed the directory I had made under /media

Next I have attached the drive to the Kubuntu PC. Up popped a window asking what I wanted to. I again opted to open in a new window. Nothing happened

I've looked under system settings and gone into Advanced - System Administration - Disk and Filesystems. From there I clicked on the HDD icon to bring me to the details about the various filesystems on this PC. Now, the problem is if I click on the Administrator button at the bottom I just get an empty screen with a red border. I do not get any options to 'mount' in any way? So where is this command? Or did you mean via the CLI?

[kevanf1]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

It just gets crazier!!!! I tried again in the System Settings part. It did finally show me the drives as Administrator. So, I want into it, twiddled (mistake but I hadn't read the previous poster's bit). The upshot is that it still does not allow me permission to open it. However, I need to check that I am actually part of the fuse group so.....hang on.....

[kevanf1]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

Right.... now I can access the drive but all is not rosy in the garden As I suspected I was not part of the fuse group, thank you for mentioning that Soon remedied. For some reason, the drive, though now owned by the user group and files owned by me cannot be unmounted (umounted in Linux speak). I also cannot change the permissions but I suspect that is due to me not being able to umount the drive. So, it looks as though I have to unplug it without doing a umount and trying to edit it after that

Whatever, this ain't good and it should not be this way. Hell's bells I'm no longer a newcomer and I got into this mess. That's not to say I know loads but I have been tinkering with Linux since about 1998 and Unix from 96. I pity a true newcomer expecting this to work without the messing about.

[myxal]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

I do not get any options to 'mount' in any way? So where is this command? Or did you mean via the CLI?

yes, you have to mount from console (well, it IS recommended)
ad user groups> whoa, never been there myself, I just ran ntfs-config - PROBLEM - the shortcut you get from the default installation of ntfs-3g is BORKED (shockingly, I found this out accidentally, looking for reason why nothing happened when I clicked on it - it was trying to run gksu instead of kdesu), either run sudo ntfs-config in console or Run command > kdesu ntfs-config and check both boxes. Then, reinsert the USB drive - it probably won't mount yet, so go to console and run "sudo mount ... /dev/..." - don't remember if there were any options. (-t ntfs-3g maybe) The thing is, I added Media panel to the taskbar (or whatever it is) and the drive showed up there - here, you go to properties>mounting>etc.. unmount (in console if GUI doesn't work), unplug, replug, and it should work.

[kevanf1]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

I'm sorry to say this but I'm giving up on it. No, no not on Linux I'm giving up trying to work this out from where it is now. I have an annoying icon on the desktop that I can't remove and neither can root!!!!! Time is too short to mess about any more.

I currently have Kubuntu on a 6gb drive. This is why I wanted access to the 200gb drive to create an image so that I could transfer everything over to a spare and more suitable 80gb drive I have spare. The 6gb was only being used to test out whether Kubuntu ran ok on this particular PC. Trouble is I like it so much I now want it on a usable drive

I'm going to reinstall Kubuntu onto the 80gb drive. Once I have done that I shall first of all make sure that I am a member of the 'fuse' group. I'm now pretty sure that was a big part of the problem. Once that is all done I shall go through the process of trying the 200gb USB drive again but this time the proper way If it works I'll try writing a simple step by step HOW TO and of course you guys will get the accreditation. If I can get it working

More tomorrow folks...

[dibl]

Re: can't access external usb drive!

That's not to say I know loads but I have been tinkering with Linux since about 1998 and Unix from 96. I pity a true newcomer expecting this to work without the messing about.

Me too. The advent of the Universal Serial Bus and all the myriad of thingys that we attach to it, plus the advent of SATA hard drives has combined to kind of toss a wrench into Unix/Linux drive ID system, by my observation -- that time-honored /dev/hdx system is kind of on it's .... well, you know. It's a little surprising and disappointing that it's taken Linux so long to get a grip on the new buses and the implications to the drive mounting architecture.

Be that as it may, UUID seems to be the right answer for mounting the USB drives, and ntfs-3g if NTFS format is required.