Can't access files on my external USB HDD!

[TyBO]

Hi there,

I own an external USB HDD that is NTFS formatted. I've been trying to access the files on it using Kubuntu, but haven't had any luck. I've searched the forums threads here about this issue, but nothing I've read seems to work.

The drive is mounted to /media/xhd.

Somehow, an icon appeared on my desktop that has a picture of a USB thumb drive and is captioned "T Drive (xhd)." I can right-click>Mount the drive from here, but when I left click the icon, I get the message:

"Unable to enter file:///media/xhd. You do not have access rights to this location."

Currently, my /etc/fstab file looks like this:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>  <type> <options>    <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=2a7a62e7-2a64-4780-b261-e4868da16a2c / ext3 nouser,defaults,errors=remount-ro,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 1
# /dev/sda1
UUID=265531cd-bd8a-426a-be88-29d08c780ee6 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,atime,noauto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/xhd auto users,noauto,noatime,rw,nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0

Can someone please tell me how to access the contents of my external HDD? I'm pretty new to Linux in general, so please explain in a way that a n00b could understand.

Thanks in advance for the help!

-Tyler

[opie]

Re: Can't access files on my external USB HDD!

If you are only wanting read access to the drive try the following:

paste the results of the following from a terminal window (kmenu -> system -> konsole):

sudo fdisk -l

(that's a lower case letter L, not a number)

This should list the partitions for your system.

Then:

Right click the icon that you say is showind up for your external drive and choose safely remove or unmount.
If this doesn't work try kmenu -> system settings -> advanced tab -> disks and filesystems. Go into administrator mode and disable the external drive if it shows as enabled (just don't fool around with your system drive with root and home directories ).

Now we will try to mount it manually with a umask that allows read/ execute for everyone.

In a terminal window (kmenu -> system -> konsole)
paste the following:

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/xhd -t ntfs -r -o umask=0222

If this spits out errors post those errors.
If it works bring up konqueror for file browsing and see if you can read from directory /media/xhd

[TyBO]

Re: Can't access files on my external USB HDD!

OK, well, here are my results from "sudo fdisk -l"

tyler@tyler-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1      12041    12161   971932+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2      5233    12040  54685260  83 Linux
/dev/sda3  *      1    5232  42026008+  7 HPFS/NTFS

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1        1    38913  312568641  7 HPFS/NTFS

And here's what I get when I try to mount manually with a umask:

tyler@tyler-laptop:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/xhd ntfs -r -o umask 0222
Usage: mount -V         : print version
    mount -h         : print this help
    mount          : list mounted filesystems
    mount -l         : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount [-t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
    mount -a [-t|-O] ...   : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
    mount device       : mount device at the known place
    mount directory     : mount known device here
    mount -t type dev dir  : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
    mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
    mount --move olddir newdir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using -L label or by uuid, using -U uuid .
Other options: [-nfFrsvw] [-o options] [-p passwdfd].
For many more details, say man 8 mount .
tyler@tyler-laptop:~$

I still can't access what's on the drive. Any ideas?

[dibl]

Re: Can't access files on my external USB HDD!

In Adept Manager, install the package ntfs-3g.

With your USB drive connected, use

 fdisk -l

then

 hwinfo | grep 'usb' | grep 'sdb'

(you might need to

sudo apt-get install hwinfo

first)

and finally

blkid

to establish the UUID that corresponds to your /dev/sdb3.

Then edit /etc/fstab to make it "mount by UUID", like so (example from my fstab file):

UUID=A8FC3435FC33FC5E /media/NTFSTICK ntfs-3g user,atime,rw,nodev,nosuid 0 0

Forget about "hotplug" capability -- you'll need to have that drive connected at boot time, but this way it will work reliably for file transfers in both directions. 8)

[opie]

Re: Can't access files on my external USB HDD!

If you get a usage screen like that it just means the syntax is wrong.
You should have a -t and then a space before ntfs.
Also it is umask=0222 not umask 0222

You can copy the commands I typed and then shift-insert to paste into the terminal window


If that still complains with a usage screen then try:

sudo mount -t ntfs -o umask=0222,ro /dev/sdb1 /media/xhd

If that throws up a usage screen try simply:

sudo mount -o umask=0222 /dev/sdb1 /media/xhd

[TyBO]

Re: Can't access files on my external USB HDD!

If you get a usage screen like that it just means the syntax is wrong.
You should have a -t and then a space before ntfs.
Also it is umask=0222 not umask 0222

You can copy the commands I typed and then shift-insert to paste into the terminal window


If that still complains with a usage screen then try:

sudo mount -t ntfs -o umask=0222,ro /dev/sdb1 /media/xhd

If that throws up a usage screen try simply:

sudo mount -o umask=0222 /dev/sdb1 /media/xhd

Aha. You're right, I typed it wrong the first time. Everything works now, thanks.