[puggytree]

I love this lil netbook when it does what I want but currently it wont mount my External Hard Drive
It's an NTFS format (Or at least I think it was)
I've installed NTFS-3g (actually came with the netbook so this had no effect)
and I've read at least three different threads in other forums on the problem and non solve the issue
The error I get is "Failed to Mount Freeagent Drive"

Any chance of a guide in how to fix this? I've had it previously so that it would mount automatically from the moment I plug it in but I had to recover my netbook and can't remember what I had to do or find the threads that told me

Thanks in advance for any help
Puggy

[saikee]

First ask Linux if it sees the hardware. This you can do in a "root" console or terminal with command

fdisk -l

Having identified the disk and its partitions you can manually mount it one by one

Say if it is partition sdb2 needed to ne mount you create a mounting point in the directory and mount it

mkdir /mnt/sdb2
mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/sdb2
ls /mnt/sdb2

If thing works out then you can put the mounting automatically by incorporate it in the file /etc/fstab.

[puggytree]

Right I typed fdisk -1 in and I think the HDD I'm after is sdb1, it says it's system is HPFS/NTFS

I tried to type in mkdir /mnt/sdb1 and I got this message
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/sdb1': File exists

I still get the error message, however I've been saying the error message is about not being able to mount, this is actually the window name, it's an Unknown error.

Any ideas?
Thanks for the help so far
*EDIT*
Also I plan to use this external HDD a lot so if you could give a bit more detail on the /ect/ftab please?

Thanks again

[saikee]

It is your own word that the partition would not mount.

If it is mounted what is your problem?

Once the device is shown in "fdisk -l" it is recognised at the hardware level. If you can't mount it then either the device has corruption or not yet formatted. An OS will not be able to mount the partition if it has error in filing indexing system.

To mount (normally read only and no modification to the data)

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1

This can be done in any current Linux.
If you need to modify its content you use ntfs-3g

ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1

The command I gave in Post #2

ls /mnt/sdb1

will have the same function as the WIndows commands "dir D:" the "ls" is equivalent to "dir" and your "D" (or whatever it is called in Windows) is /mnt/sdb1 in Linux.

You should be able to find /mnt/sdb1 in the desktop. It is not unusal for Linux to mount your external drive as soon as it is hooked, possibly in /media directory. Have you looked into it?

Linux does not use "C", "D" drive letters.

If you want to work across different platforms you have to be prepared to accept the same thing being called different names in different OSes, otherwise why different OSes?.

[puggytree]

Right, what you just told me allowed to mount the hard drive manually, pbut if I un-plug it then plug it back in it doesn't let me mount again?

What I'm trying to get it to do is mount it automatically when I plug it in

Thanks for all the help so far

[saikee]

What you have done could be dangerous.

Linux provides the command "mount" to mount a device and "umount" to unmount the device. If you "umount" a device it will let the kernel time to complete whatever it needs to do on the device and then inform you that it has been dismounted, or telling you something has prevented it from closing down the device.

When you forcibly removed a mounted device you could damage the file structure when some files are in the middle of being processed between the PC and the USB device. All OS do this sort of things in the background. If the filing structure is damaged in a USB device you could suffer permanent loss of data.

In a M$ system you have to click "Safe removal hardware" icon before removing a USB drive. It is similar in Linux except you communicate with the OS rather than have the device mounted automatically. The reason is with a manual mount you can play tunes with it like making it read-only, using a different mounting point etc. Many distros, like Ubuntu, also do automount when ever a USB hard disk is connected, but as a rule the user has a complete flexibility to mount and unmount USB devices in Linux.

The Linux way is a complete knowledge how the hardware should be treated. You have to allow that a Linux user can have over 100 partitions in a disk and not everyone like everything mounted automatically.

For mounting it automatically I have already given you the answer in Post #2. That is what the file /etc/fstab is for.

If you are after a facility that the USB devices are mounted automatically as soon as they are hooked try the Slax family distros. (Like Slax, Wolvix etc)

[puggytree]

I tried typing /ect/fstab at the end of it all and it just says:
no such file directory, is this meant to go on the end of the previous command?

[saikee]

I hightlight the filename and mark it red in my last Post to show it is different to the one you typed.